Using SMB with Linksys NSLU2

[propagandist]

Hello everyone, this is my first posting here although I registered quite a while ago. I've been using SMS on my fat softmodded PS2 (still need to use PS1 CD to start 3rd-party apps) since v1.6 and all I can say - kudos to developers! Many thanks for making such a good application!


Now, to the problem...
I have Linksys NSLU2 Network Attached Storage (NAS) running Unslung 6.8 (this is a variant of Busybox Linux, I suppose). It works great with WinXP machines (via SMB), DLink DSM-320RD network player (via UPnP server) and XBMC on XBox via both UPnP and SMB.
Once I read that SMS 2.0 is supporting SMB, I decided to upgrade to this version and move away from PC environment completely
In short, I want to be able to fetch files off NSLU2 (a.k.a. The Slug) without PC being involved.
I created SMB share on Slug for my media files with the following credentials:

Machine name: THESLUG
Domain: MSHOME
IP address: 192.168.100.77
Username: media
Password: mediashare

Such setup works fine for Xbox and PC.

For PS2 I created SMS.smb file, following excellent guides here and it looks like this:

192.168.100.77
THESLUG
MYPS2
media
mediashare

The SMS.smb was transferred to mc/0/SMS directory and I verified that it was copied OK.
Then I went to SMS settings, switched off network autostart, saved settings and restarted SMS.
Went back to SMS settings, selected SMB/CIFS protocol and started network support.
However, SMS is unable to see SMB at all. There were no error messages or notifications; the SMB icon simply doesn't appear even after I've been waiting for 10 minutes or so.

I thought that the reason for this problem might be password encryption as I had this issue with some other machines in the past. So I selected "Convert failed logins to Guest account" on Slug and also enabled access to media directory for Guests.
It still didn't work.

The next step was to follow description in latest version of SMS and to remove username/password fields. This didn't work either.

The SMS, however, works fine with RadClient (once network protocol was set to ps2client) and can see SMB shares via RadClient, but this is not what I want.

Is there any way I could enable diagnostics on SMS to see what is going on? I can also telnet into the Slug but my knowledge of Linux is fairly limited and I am not sure whether it is possible to see any log from SMB server on SLug.

I know I am probably doing something stupid but I can't figure out what is wrong. Can you please help? If that'll work, I promise I'll write an easy to follow guide on how to use SMS with Slug (a bribing attempt ).

TIA!

[EEUG]

@propagandist: ...if nothing appears then that means that SMS can't even connect to the host of interest (it just silently keeps trying to connect each 5 seconds). Otherwise, you would get some error message...

[propagandist]

Thanks for quick response EEUG!

In your description you said that each line must end with <LF>. However, as I am editing files in Windows editor, each line ends with <LF><CR>. Could this be a showstopper?
Is there any way to ping addresses from within SMS or some other PS2 app? Sorry for asking such a stupid question but I am really a newbie in the world of PS2

I can ping both PS2 and Slug from my WinXP machine, haven't tried to ping PS2 from Slug (maybe I should have done it first).

Also, is filename of SMS.smb is of any importance? I mean, does it matters whether it is SMS.SMB, SMS.smb or sms.smb?

[EEUG]

@propagandist: ...it should be SMS.smb (which is correct in your case, otherwise SMB/CIFS option won't appear in SMS menu). I'm not sure about <LF>. I've also used WIndows to make that file, but I've used ftp to transfer it to memory card, so, I don't know if that ftp did something with <CR><LF>. ...and I don't know any application on PS2 to ping something (though, maybe, such application exists)...

[propagandist]

Right... so it seems that the only way to debug this situation is to use packet sniffer (got any recommendations?) to analyze traffic from PS2 towards Slug (if there is such thing of course ) and take a look at Slug's SMB logs.

I'll let you know if there is any success.

While I am at it, can I ask you for some minor modification to SMS please? There is an option in settings to not display HDD files, can you please add such option for DVD drive as well?

[EEUG]

@propagandist: ...I didn't quite understand you about HDD files. Do you mean HDL files (these from HD loader)? Are there HDL files on DVD drive also? I've used wireshark sniffer, but that's only for PC, I believe. I think in your situation it doesn't even go to SMB, so .log analysis would be useless (unless there's a real bug in SMS). It may end up in your router (or whatever thing you use in your network), so, maybe there's a firewall setting or something...

[propagandist]

Oh, sorry, looks like I created some sort of confusion here.

The HDD thing was simply about SMS menu, which allows to hide partitions on HDD from being seen. It has nothing to do with SMB or networking. There is way to switch off HDD support and I just wanted to be able to switch off the DVD support from there too. Again, this is nothing to do with SMB or networking.

As to my setup, it is fairly easy:

[PS2]<-HP->[Linksys WRT54GS router]<-CB->[Linksys NSLU2]

The 'HP' stands for Homeplug (Ethernet over mains), which is acting as cable extension. The 'CB' is just plain CAT5 cable.

This is very simplified version of it, of course, as I have a gazillion of other networking devices sitting there, such as VoIP ATA, NAS, Xbox, networked DVD player, etc.

There are no filters set for internal network, the firewall is only activated for external access.

[EEUG]

@propagandist: ...you can also try to connect your NAS directly to PS2 using crossover cable (just to make sure that problem is (not) in your network)...

[propagandist]

Yup, can do this. I think I'll use Ethereal to capture network traffic to see if there is some communication goes towards the Slug from PS2.

[propagandist]

Hmm... Interesting. Here is the protocol of Window machine talking to Slug (Windows (W) is 192.168.100.120 and Slug (S) is 192.168.100.77):

W > 192.168.100.255 NBNS - name query THESLUG
S > W NBNS - NB THESLUG 192.168.100.77
W > S TCP 3980>netbios-ssn [SYN]
S > W TCP netbios-ssn [SYN,ACK]
W > S NBSS session-request to THESLUG from WINPC
S > W NBSS Positive

....


However, SMS is not doing name query. Instead, it is broadcasting SYN request (PS2 at 192.168.100.130):

PS2 > 255.255.255.255 TCP 4150 > netbios-ssn [SYN]

There are 5 retries before it increases the port number. After it reached 4160, all attempts to connect to SMB are stopped.


UPD: When SMS is initialising network, there is some kind of message displayed VERY briefly. Unfortunately, it goes too fast and impossible to read.

UPD2: just to verify that connection between Slug and PS2 is working, I ping-ed from Slug to PS2 and it was OK.

UPD3: To clarify chart above - the Netbios naming service is running on Slug itself, hence the address 192.168.100.255 and tracert-ing it leads to 192.168.100.77.
Changing SMS.smb to 192.168.100.255 didn't help (but why it should then...).

Question: why SMS is broadcasting SYN? It knows where SMB server is, it knows how it is called, so why not to send netbios SYN straight to this address?

UPD4: I also noticed that Windows always using ports below 4000 whether PS2 is starting at 4097. I guess it shouldn't really matter?