Can't Browse Network

**HDTimeshifter** · October 16th, 2011

I upgraded to 11.10 64-bit on my desktop, but now I can no longer browse my network.

I installed 11.10 32-bit on my server and shared some folders and can browse the network from it as well as copy files from my Windows 7 laptop to it. I was also able to browse and see the server from my laptop and copy files from it. When I Browse Network from my desktop, I can see the WORKGROUP folder, but can't open it. I get the error, "Unable to mount location Failed to retrieve share list from server". I've rebooted my desktop and tried again without success. I checked the Network, Network Connections, and Network Tools and everything looks ok. I can ping the server as well as the laptop.

**capscrew** · October 16th, 2011

Originally Posted by HDTimeshifter

I upgraded to 11.10 64-bit on my desktop, but now I can no longer browse my network.

When I Browse Network from my desktop, I can see the WORKGROUP folder, but can't open it. I get the error, "Unable to mount location Failed to retrieve share list from server".

I installed 11.10 32-bit on my server and shared some folders and can browse the network from it as well as copy files from my Windows 7 laptop to it.

I was also able to browse and see the server from my laptop and copy files from it.

...

I rearranged your thoughts for clarity. It looks like you just need to modify the /etc/samba/smb.conf as shown below. The one caveat is: When you substitute your machine's hostname for the NETBIOS name it should be less than 15 characters long.

Add this to the [global] section of the /etc/samba/smb.conf

Code:

netbios name = <hostname>
name resolve order = bcast host

Then either restart the smbd and nmbd services or reboot the system.

You should now be able to browse the network shares.

**Kevin Kent** · October 16th, 2011

Thank you this has helped solve same issue I was having.

**HDTimeshifter** · October 16th, 2011

Originally Posted by capscrew

I rearranged your thoughts for clarity. It looks like you just need to modify the /etc/samba/smb.conf as shown below. The one caveat is: When you substitute your machine's hostname for the NETBIOS name it should be less than 15 characters long.

Add this to the [global] section of the /etc/samba/smb.conf

Code:

netbios name = <hostname>
name resolve order = bcast host

Then either restart the smbd and nmbd services or reboot the system.

You should now be able to browse the network shares.

When I searched through smb.conf, I noticed the following:

Code:

# This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.
   dns proxy = no

Did the above cause the problem?

Your solution worked, however. Thanks.

**capscrew** · October 17th, 2011

Originally Posted by HDTimeshifter

When I searched through smb.conf, I noticed the following:

Code:

# This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.
   dns proxy = no

Did the above cause the problem?

Your solution worked, however. Thanks.

That parameter only is in effect when the nmbd daemon is also functioning as a WINS server. By default this is not the case, so the setting is irrelevant.

The following can be found here in the official Samba documentation.

Code:

dns proxy (G) 

Specifies that nmbd(8) when acting as a WINS server and finding that a NetBIOS name has 
not been registered, should treat the NetBIOS name word-for-word as a DNS name and do 
a lookup with the DNS server for that name on behalf of the name-querying client.

Note that the maximum length for a NetBIOS name is 15 characters, so the 
DNS name (or DNS alias) can likewise only be 15 characters, maximum.

**JerryReed** · October 20th, 2011

I have the same issue but adding the two lines including netbios=host name (replacing the host name with that of the 64 bit machine) did not solve the issue. The host name is exactly as that of the machine and is less than 15 characters. After restarting samba I select Browse Network, then Windows Network. I get an empty screen. Yet when I go to the 32 bit machines on the network, I do the same and can see and browse all of them. One has Ubuntu Studio 11.04 and the other Ubuntu 11.10 I compared smb.conf files and they are the same except for the host name and share name. I am obsessed, but can't seem to solve this issue. Could it be a bug in the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 11.10?

**capscrew** · October 20th, 2011

Originally Posted by JerryReed

I have the same issue but adding the two lines including netbios=host name (replacing the host name with that of the 64 bit machine) did not solve the issue.

The host name is exactly as that of the machine and is less than 15 characters. After restarting samba I select Browse Network, then Windows Network. I get an empty screen. Yet when I go to the 32 bit machines on the network, I do the same and can see and browse all of them. One has Ubuntu Studio 11.04 and the other Ubuntu 11.10

I compared smb.conf files and they are the same except for the host name and share name. I am obsessed, but can't seem to solve this issue. Could it be a bug in the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 11.10?

In a word...no! The problem is somewhere else and we need to find it.

From the 64 bit host post the output of this

Code:

smbtree

From that same machine also post the output of this

Code:

testparm -s

**tschiel** · April 3rd, 2013

Originally Posted by capscrew

I rearranged your thoughts for clarity. It looks like you just need to modify the /etc/samba/smb.conf as shown below. The one caveat is: When you substitute your machine's hostname for the NETBIOS name it should be less than 15 characters long.

Add this to the [global] section of the /etc/samba/smb.conf

Code:

netbios name = <hostname>
name resolve order = bcast host

Then either restart the smbd and nmbd services or reboot the system.

You should now be able to browse the network shares.

Yes, I know it's traditionally bad form to post on a thread this old.

I received the same error after an update on 12.04 this past week. Prior to the update, I had no problem navigating to my NAS or other Windows 7 machines on my local network. After the update, clicking on Browse Network or using the Connect to Server form resulted in the following error:

Code:

Could Not Display network:/// 

Error: DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. 
Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken. 
Please select another viewer and try again.

Thank you for your instructions.

**capscrew** · April 3rd, 2013

Originally Posted by tschiel

Yes, I know it's traditionally bad form to post on a thread this old....

So why did you do it?

Start a new thread and post you problem there.

**lisati** · April 3rd, 2013

From the forum rules:

If a post is older than a year or so and hasn't had a new reply in that time, instead of replying to it, create a new thread. In the software world, a lot can change in a very short time, and doing things this way makes it more likely that you will find the best information. You may link to the original discussion in the new thread if you think it may be helpful.