warty smbfs problems

[Rich Duzenbury]

Hi again ubunters,

I've got a win98 box with an accessible share on it in my network.

Normally, I use the autofs daemon to mount the share when I want to use
it, and then after five minutes of inactivity, the share is
automatically unmounted.

/etc/auto.master:
cdrive
-fstype=smbfs,password=redacted,fmask=0777,dmask=0777   ://roadwarrior/c

I have to periodically use the cisco vpn software on the win98 box to
support customers, which disrupts it's connectivity on the network.

When the cisco VPN client is ended, ubuntu cannot re-establish
communication with the win98 box.  If I try to shut down the autofs
daemon, the process that communicates with the win98 box hangs.  A kill
-9 will kill the process.  umount and restart of the autofs daemon will
not cause a resumption of communication.  I have to reboot ubuntu to
clear the problem.  Ewww.

In contrast, autofs has been working quite well on my RH9 box for some
years, with little difficulty.  As soon as the VPN client is ended on
the win98 box, communication resumes between the RH9 and the win98 box
on it's own.

I decided to try a non-autofs approach on my ubuntu workstation to see
if that would help.  I added the following to /etc/fstab:
//roadwarrior/c /mnt/roadwarrior smbfs
username=redacted,password=redacted,uid=redacted,gid=redacted 0 0

After a clean restart, I can now successfully issue a mount command to
access the share.  

If I then start and stop the VPN software on the win98 box, connectivity
from a console shell (e.g. ls /mnt/roadwarrior) works fine.
Connectivity from evolution (e.g. saving an attachment to the share)
works fine.  

What doesn't work properly is the Computer->Disks menu item.  If I click
on the 'roadwarrior' icon I get a dialog thusly:

-----------------------
Cannot open Roadwarrior

The filename "roadwarrior" indicates that this file is of type "folder".
The contents of the file indicate that the file is of type "unknown". If
you open this file, the file might present a security risk to your
system.

Do not open the file unless you created the file yourself, or received
the file from a trusted source. To open the file, rename the file to the
correct extension for "unknown", then open the file normally.
Alternatively, use the Open With menu to choose a specific application
for the file.
-----------------------

Also Computer->Network goes to an 'hourglass mode' (ok so I don't know
what to call the spinny thing), and nothing gets loaded into the window.

I also tried connecting via the Computer->Network->File->Connect To
Server, via 'windows share' and filling in the proper details.  It just
goes to 'hourglass mode' as well.

Also, clicking on the 'roadwarrior' icon on the desktop goes into
'hourglass mode'.

It seems like the networking applets are really confused.  Hmm, I also
notice that if I log out and then back in (without rebooting), that the
applets work again - I can click the 'roadwarrior' icon on my desktop
and see the files.

Is this a known issue with warty?  Any workarounds?

Thanks, and I have to say, I really really like ubuntu.

--
Regards,
Rich

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