Ethernet | Fitzcarraldo's Blog

Using open-plc-utils in Linux with Powerline (HomePlug) adapters

April 23, 2021 6 Comments

According to the open-plc-utils documentation, open-plc-utils supports INT6000, INT6300, INT6400, AR6410, QCA7000, AR7400 and AR7420 and later Powerline products from Qualcomm Atheros. ‘INT’ stands for ‘Intellon’, which was acquired by Atheros in 2009. ‘AR’ stands for ‘Atheros’, which was acquired by Qualcomm in 2011. ‘QCA’ stands for ‘Qualcomm Atheros’.

The open-plc-utils command int6k supports legacy chipsets INT6000, INT6300 and INT6400.

The open-plc-utils command plctool supports QCA6410, QCA7000 and QCA7420 chipsets.

The open-plc-utils command amptool supports AR7400 and QCA7450 chipsets.

I have used open-plc-utils successfully with the following Powerline products:

NETGEAR XAVB1301-100UKS (uses AR6405 chipset).
NETGEAR XAVB5221-100UKS (uses QCA7420 chipset).
TP-Link TL-PA4010 (uses QCA7420 chipset).
TP-Link TL-PA4010P (uses QCA7420 chipset).
TP-Link TL-PA4020P (uses QCA7420 chipset).

For example, I used open-plc-utils to update the chipset firmware in my TP-Link Powerline adapters, as explained in my earlier post ‘Updating the Powerline adapters in my home network‘.

Below I summarise how I install open-plc-utils in Linux and how I use them to interrogate the Powerline adapters in my home network.

1. Download the open-plc-utils source code

user $ cd
user $ wget https://github.com/qca/open-plc-utils/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
user $ unzip master.zip # (This creates ~/open-plc-utils-master directory.)

2. Install plc-utils

user $ cd ~/open-plc-utils-master/
user $ cat README # Tells you how to install/uninstall plc-utils.
user $ sudo make
user $ sudo make install
user $ sudo make manuals

3. Bookmark the documentation index pages in your Web browser

user $ cd ~/open-plc-utils-master/docbook

Bookmark file:///home/<username>/open-plc-utils-master/docbook/index.html

Bookmark file:///home/<username>/open-plc-utils-master/docbook/toolkit.html

4. Use open-plc-utils commands to interrogate the adapters in the network

One example of the many possible commands:

user $ plcstat -t -i eno1 # eno1 is the Ethernet interface on this computer.
 P/L NET TEI ------ MAC ------ ------ BDA ------ TX  RX  CHIPSET FIRMWARE
 LOC STA 038 11:11:11:11:11:11 88:88:88:88:88:88 n/a n/a QCA7420 MAC-QCA7420-1.5.0.26-02-20200114-CS
 REM STA 003 33:33:33:33:33:33 55:55:55:55:55:55 277 268 QCA7420 MAC-QCA7420-1.5.0.26-02-20200114-CS
 REM CCO 004 22:22:22:22:22:22 FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF 009 009 QCA7420 MAC-QCA7420-1.5.0.26-02-20200114-CS

(For security reasons, in the output above I have edited the MAC addresses of the three adapters, and the BDA of the two STAs. The BDA of the CCO adapter, which is automatically selected, really is displayed as FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF though.)

LOC = ‘Local’, i.e. the Powerline adapter connected to this computer.
REM = ‘Remote’, i.e. the other Powerline adapters in the network.
CCO = ‘Central Coordinator’, i.e. the automatically selected Powerline adapter acting as the coordinator of the Powerline adapters in this network.
STA = ‘Station’, i.e. the Powerline adapters being coordinated by the CCO.
MAC = The MAC address of the adapter.
BDA = ‘Bridged Destination Address’ (see the Powerline specifications for the meaning).
TX/RX = the transmission/reception rate in Mbps of the adapter.
CHIPSET = Atheros Qualcomm chipset type.
FIRMWARE = Atheros Qualcomm chipset firmware version.

For other open-plc-utils commands, consult the documentation in a Web browser.

5. Optional: Create a Bash script to interrogate Powerline adapters in your network

user $ cd
user $ nano ~/homeplug.sh
user $ chmod +x ~/homeplug.sh

homeplug.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# This script is to interrogate a network to find the details of the Powerline
# HomePlug wall adapters in the network. It uses open-plc-utils tools:
# https://github.com/qca/open-plc-utils
# See https://github.com/qca/open-plc-utils/blob/master/README for
# instructions on how to install (and uninstall) the tools.
# Therefore this script is limited to the chipsets that open-plc-utils supports:
# https://github.com/qca/open-plc-utils/blob/master/plc/chipset.h
#
# The command int6k supports legacy chipsets INT6000, INT6300 and INT6400.
# The command plctool supports QCA6410, QCA7000 and QCA7420 devices.
# The command amptool supports chipsets AR7400 and QCA7450.
# NETGEAR XAVB1301-100UKS uses AR6405. NETGEAR XAVB5221-100UKS uses QCA7420.
# TP-Link TL-PA4010, TL-PA4010P and TL-PA4020P use QCA7420.
#
echo "================================================================================"
# Specify the interface on this PC connected to a HomePlug device:
export PLC=$( ifconfig | head -1 | cut -d ":" -f1 )
echo
echo -n "The Ethernet interface on this PC is: "
echo $PLC
echo
echo "================================================================================"
echo
#
# Step 1. Send VS_SW_VER to local device to determine its MAC address and device type.
#
MACINT6K=$( int6k -qr | awk -F ' ' '{print $2}' )
MACPLCTOOL=$( plctool -qr | awk -F ' ' '{print $2}' )
if [[ $MACINT6K != $MACPLCTOOL ]]
then
  echo "Unable to determine MAC address of local HomePlug wall adapter."
  exit
else
  MAC=$MACINT6K
fi
echo "Details for the HomePlug wall adapter connected to this computer:"
echo
if [ $( int6k -qI $MAC | wc -l ) -lt 2 ]
then
  plctool -m $MAC
  plctool -qI $MAC
  echo
  CHIPSET=$( plctool -qr $MAC | awk -F ' ' '{print $3}' )
  echo -n "Chipset: "
  echo $CHIPSET
  CHIPSETTYPE=2
else
  int6k -m $MAC
  int6k -qI $MAC
  echo
  CHIPSET=$( int6k -qr $MAC | awk -F ' ' '{print $3}' )
  echo -n "Chipset: "
  echo $CHIPSET
  CHIPSETTYPE=1
fi
echo
echo "================================================================================"
#
# Step 2. Send VS_NW_INFO (int6k -m or plctool -m, depending on device type)
# to local MAC address to find MAC addresses of the other devices.
#
if [[ $CHIPSETTYPE == 2 ]]
then
  plctool -qm $MAC | grep MAC | cut -d " " -f3 > maclist.txt
elif [[ $CHIPSETTYPE == 1 ]]
then
  int6k -qm $MAC | grep MAC | cut -d " " -f3 > maclist.txt
else
  echo "Unable to determine chipset of the local HomePlug wall adapter."
  exit
fi
#
# Step 3. Send VS_SW_VER (int6k -r or plctool -r, depending on device type) to
# each device to find the device type of each.
#
echo -n "" > chipsetlist.txt
while read -r MAC
do
  if [ $( int6k -qI $MAC | wc -l ) -lt 2 ]
  then
    CHIPSET=$( plctool -qr $MAC | awk -F ' ' '{print $3}' )
    echo $CHIPSET >> chipsetlist.txt
  else
    CHIPSET=$( int6k -qr $MAC | awk -F ' ' '{print $3}' )
    echo $CHIPSET >> chipsetlist.txt
  fi
done < maclist.txt
#
# Step 4. Send VS_NW_INFO (int6k -m or plctool -m, depending on device type) to
# each device to determine full PHY Rate.
#
echo
echo "Details for the other HomePlug wall adapters in the network"
echo "(adapters in Power Saving Mode are not shown):"
while read -r MAC && read -r CHIPSET <&3
do
  echo
  if [ $( int6k -qI $MAC | wc -l ) -lt 2 ]
  then
    plctool -m $MAC
    plctool -qI $MAC
  else
    int6k -m $MAC
    int6k -qI $MAC
  fi
  echo
  echo -n "Chipset: "
  echo $CHIPSET
  echo
  echo "--------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
done <maclist.txt 3<chipsetlist.txt
rm maclist.txt chipsetlist.txt
echo
echo "Some of the abbreviations are listed below, but refer to the open-plc-utils"
echo "documentation for more details. (Also see http://www.homeplug.org/ for"
echo "detailed HomePlug specifications)"
echo
echo "BDA   Bridged Destination Address"
echo "CCo   Central Coordinator"
echo "DAK   Device Access Key"
echo "MDU   Multiple Dwelling Unit"
echo "NID   Network Identifier"
echo "NMK   Network Membership Key"
echo "PIB   Parameter Information Block"
echo "SNID  Short Network Identifier"
echo "STA   Station"
echo "TEI   Terminal Equipment Identifier"
echo
exit

Run homeplug.sh to see details of Powerline adapters with Qualcomm Atheros chipsets in the network:

user $ ./homeplug.sh

N.B. Adapters in Power Saving Mode are not detected, so, if you want to see details of all Powerline adapters on the network, make sure none of the adapters are in Power Saving Mode before you run the script.

Below is the script’s output for my home network with the following three TP Link Powerline adapters currently connected to wall power sockets:

TP-Link TL-PA4010P(UK) VER:5.0 (one device)
TP-Link TL-PA4010(UK) VER:3.0 (two devices)

I also own the following Powerline adapters, which are currently not plugged in to wall power sockets, but this script would detect them if they were plugged in (as I have seen previously):

TL-PA4020P(UK) VER:4.0 (one adapter)
NETGEAR XAVB1301-100UKS (three adapters)
NETGEAR XAVB5221-100UKS (two adapters)

user $ ./homeplug.sh 
================================================================================

The Ethernet interface on this PC is: eno1

================================================================================

Details for the HomePlug wall adapter connected to this computer:

eno1 11:11:11:11:11:11 Fetch Network Information
eno1 11:11:11:11:11:11 Found 1 Network(s)

source address = 11:11:11:11:11:11

        network->NID = 99:99:99:99:99:99:99
        network->SNID = 5
        network->TEI = 38
        network->ROLE = 0x00 (STA)
        network->CCO_DA = 22:22:22:22:22:22
        network->CCO_TEI = 4
        network->STATIONS = 2

                station->MAC = 33:33:33:33:33:33
                station->TEI = 3
                station->BDA = 55:55:55:55:55:55
                station->AvgPHYDR_TX = 279 mbps Primary
                station->AvgPHYDR_RX = 276 mbps Primary

                station->MAC = 22:22:22:22:22:22
                station->TEI = 4
                station->BDA = FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
                station->AvgPHYDR_TX = 009 mbps Primary
                station->AvgPHYDR_RX = 009 mbps Primary

        PIB 0-0 8836 bytes
        MAC 11:11:11:11:11:11
        DAK 66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66
        NMK 77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77
        NID 99:99:99:99:99:99:99
        Security level 0
        NET Qualcomm Atheros Enabled Network
        MFG tpver_401115_191120_901
        USR tpver_401115_191120_901
        CCo Auto
        MDU N/A

Chipset: QCA7420

================================================================================

Details for the other HomePlug wall adapters in the network
(adapters in Power Saving Mode are not shown):

eno1 33:33:33:33:33:33 Fetch Network Information
eno1 33:33:33:33:33:33 Found 1 Network(s)

source address = 33:33:33:33:33:33

        network->NID = 99:99:99:99:99:99:99
        network->SNID = 5
        network->TEI = 3
        network->ROLE = 0x00 (STA)
        network->CCO_DA = 22:22:22:22:22:22
        network->CCO_TEI = 4
        network->STATIONS = 2

                station->MAC = 22:22:22:22:22:22
                station->TEI = 4
                station->BDA = FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
                station->AvgPHYDR_TX = 305 mbps Primary
                station->AvgPHYDR_RX = 319 mbps Primary

                station->MAC = 11:11:11:11:11:11
                station->TEI = 38
                station->BDA = 88:88:88:88:88:88
                station->AvgPHYDR_TX = 276 mbps Primary
                station->AvgPHYDR_RX = 279 mbps Primary

        PIB 0-0 8836 bytes
        MAC 33:33:33:33:33:33
        DAK 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 (none/secret)
        NMK 77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77
        NID 99:99:99:99:99:99:99
        Security level 0
        NET Qualcomm Atheros Enabled Network
        MFG tpver_401013_171025_901
        USR tpver_401013_171025_901
        CCo Auto
        MDU N/A

Chipset: QCA7420

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

eno1 22:22:22:22:22:22 Fetch Network Information
eno1 22:22:22:22:22:22 Found 1 Network(s)

source address = 22:22:22:22:22:22

        network->NID = 99:99:99:99:99:99:99
        network->SNID = 5
        network->TEI = 4
        network->ROLE = 0x02 (CCO)
        network->CCO_DA = 22:22:22:22:22:22
        network->CCO_TEI = 4
        network->STATIONS = 2

                station->MAC = 33:33:33:33:33:33
                station->TEI = 3
                station->BDA = 55:55:55:55:55:55
                station->AvgPHYDR_TX = 319 mbps Primary
                station->AvgPHYDR_RX = 305 mbps Primary

                station->MAC = 11:11:11:11:11:11
                station->TEI = 38
                station->BDA = 88:88:88:88:88:88
                station->AvgPHYDR_TX = 009 mbps Primary
                station->AvgPHYDR_RX = 009 mbps Primary

        PIB 0-0 8836 bytes
        MAC 22:22:22:22:22:22
        DAK 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 (none/secret)
        NMK 77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77
        NID 99:99:99:99:99:99:99
        Security level 0
        NET Qualcomm Atheros Enabled Network
        MFG tpver_401013_171025_901
        USR tpver_401013_171025_901
        CCo Auto
        MDU N/A

Chipset: QCA7420

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some of the abbreviations are listed below, but refer to the open-plc-utils
documentation for more details. (Also see http://www.homeplug.org/ for
detailed HomePlug specifications)

BDA   Bridged Destination Address
CCo   Central Coordinator
DAK   Device Access Key
MDU   Multiple Dwelling Unit
NID   Network Identifier
NMK   Network Membership Key
PIB   Parameter Information Block
SNID  Short Network Identifier
STA   Station
TEI   Terminal Equipment Identifier

For security reasons, in the output above I have edited the network membership key, device access key, network identifier and adapter addresses in the above output as follows:

I have changed the three MAC addresses of the three adapters to be 11:11:11:11:11:11, 22:22:22:22:22:22 and 33:33:33:33:33:33.
I have changed the two BDAs of the two adapters that are Stations (STAs) to be 55:55:55:55:55:55 and 88:88:88:88:88:88.
I have changed the DAK of the adapter connected to the computer on which the script was run to be 66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66:66.
I have changed the NMK of the three adapters to be 77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77:77.
I have changed the NID of the three adapters to be 99:99:99:99:99:99:99.

Some of the information that can be gleaned from the above output of the script:

the adapter with MAC address 22:22:22:22:22:22 has been automatically set as the CCO (Central Coordinator) for the Powerline network, and the other two adapters (MAC addresses 11:11:11:11:11:11 and 33:33:33:33:33:33) are STAs (Stations);
the only DAK that can be read is for the adapter connected to the computer;
the BDA of the CCO is reported as FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF;
all three Powerline adapters use the QCA7420 chipset;
the two Powerline stations are different models of TP-Link adapter (TP-Link versions ending in ‘401115_191120_901’ and ‘401013_171025_901’); the central coordinator is the same TP-Link model as one of the stations (TP-Link version ending in ‘401013_171025_901’).

Indeed, a TP-Link TL-PA4010P(UK) VER:5.0 adapter is connected to this computer, and the two remote adapters are TP-Link TL-PA4010(UK) VER:3.0, one of which is currently acting as the CCO. Last year I updated the Qualcomm Atheros firmware in all of them (see my 2020 post ‘Updating the Powerline adapters in my home network‘).

Filed under Hardware, Linux, Networks, Wired Tagged with Ethernet, HomePlug, Linux, Powerline

Prevent Linux firewalls interfering with Samba commands in a home network that uses broadcast NetBIOS name resolution

August 11, 2017 27 Comments

Or “How come devices in a home network can browse SMB shares but Linux Samba commands and Windows nbtstat commands do not work properly?”

Introduction

In a previous post I explained how it is possible to browse SMB shares when using broadcast NetBIOS name resolution in a home network consisting of machines running Linux, Windows and other operating systems. Browsing SMB/Samba shares will work as expected, but Samba commands such as ‘smbtree‘, ‘smbclient‘ and ‘nmblookup‘ will not work properly if the Linux machines use a firewall that has not been configured for broadcast NetBIOS name resolution. This post is to explain how to do that.

If broadcast NetBIOS name resolution is being used and none of the Linux machines has a firewall enabled, or if their firewalls have been correctly configured, the output of e.g. the ‘smbtree‘ command on one of those machines would look something like the example below.

anne@akhanaten:~$ smbtree
Enter anne's password: 
HOME
        \\AKHANATEN                     Samba 4.3.11-Ubuntu
                \\AKHANATEN\IPC$                IPC Service (Samba 4.3.11-Ubuntu)
                \\AKHANATEN\guest               guest account
                \\AKHANATEN\matthew             matthew share
                \\AKHANATEN\marilla             marilla share
                \\AKHANATEN\anne                anne share
        \\TUTANKHAMUN                   Samba 4.5.10
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Samsung_Xpress_C460FW     Samsung Xpress C460FW
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Canon_MP560_Printer       Canon PIXMA MP560
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Canon_MP510_Printer       Canon PIXMA MP510
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Virtual_PDF_Printer       Virtual PDF Printer
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\IPC$              IPC Service (Samba 4.2.11)
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Public
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\anne-share
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\print$
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\netlogon          Network Logon Service
        \\BTHUB5                        BT Home Hub 5.0A File Server
                \\BTHUB5\IPC$                   IPC Service (BT Home Hub 5.0A File Server)
        \\THUTMOSEIII                   Windows 10 computer

If Linux firewalls have not been correctly configured, the output would be missing some information about other machines in the network. For example, compare the output above with the output below from the same network, this time with the Linux firewalls configured using typical rules for Samba specified in Web articles, blog posts and forums.

anne@akhanaten:~$ smbtree
Enter anne's password: 
HOME
        \\AKHANATEN                     Samba 4.3.11-Ubuntu
                \\AKHANATEN\IPC$                IPC Service (Samba 4.3.11-Ubuntu)
                \\AKHANATEN\guest               guest account
                \\AKHANATEN\matthew             matthew share
                \\AKHANATEN\marilla             marilla share
                \\AKHANATEN\anne                anne share
        \\TUTANKHAMUN                   Samba 4.5.10
        \\BTHUB5                        BT Home Hub 5.0A File Server
        \\THUTMOSEIII                   Windows 10 computer

To avoid this problem you need to add a further Linux firewall rule to the set of rules usually used for Samba. Below I first list the usual firewall rules for Samba, then I give the additional rule necessary if using broadcast NetBIOS name resolution. In each case I give the applicable rules for a pure IPTABLES firewall and for UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall). The rules listed here assume the IP address range of the home network is 192.168.1.0/24, so change the range to suit the specific network.

Firewall rules typically specified for machines using Samba

IPTABLES

The rules listed below assume the machine uses interface eth0, so change the interface to suit the specific machine.

# NetBIOS Name Service (name resolution)
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p udp --dport 137 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j ACCEPT

# NetBIOS Datagram Service (BROWSER service)
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p udp --dport 138 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j ACCEPT

# NetBIOS Session Service (data transfer legacy SMB/NetBIOS/TCP)
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 139 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j ACCEPT

# Microsoft Directory Service (data transfer SMB/TCP)
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 445 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j ACCEPT

UFW

In some Linux distributions the ufw application allows a single command to add Samba support, such as:

user $ sudo ufw allow Samba

user $ sudo ufw allow CIFS

These ‘application profiles’ are specified in files in the directory /etc/ufw/applications.d/, so you could add application profiles or modify existing ones if you wish. In one of my installations the file /etc/ufw/applications.d/ufw-fileserver includes the following application profile for Samba, for example:

[CIFS]
title=SMB/CIFS server
description=SMB/CIFS server
ports=137,138/udp|139,445/tcp

If such an application profile does not exist in your installation, typical Samba rules can be added in UFW using the following two commands:

user $ sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 137,138 proto udp
user $ sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 139,445 proto tcp

The correct addition of the rules can be checked using the following command:

user $ sudo ufw status verbose
Password:
Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed)
New profiles: skip

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
137,138/udp (CIFS)         ALLOW IN    192.168.1.0/24
139,445/tcp (CIFS)         ALLOW IN    192.168.1.0/24

The extra rule required when using broadcast NetBIOS name resolution

The reason why an extra rule is required when using broadcast NetBIOS name resolution is because UFW (which is based on IPTABLES) is ‘stateful’, as is a purely IPTABLES firewall (unless explicitly configured not to be stateful). The firewall does not consider packets it receives in response to its broadcast to be ESTABLISHED or RELATED, and therefore drops those packets. So, despite the IPTABLES and UFW rules listed above including a rule to accept incoming UDP packets on Port 137, any UDP packets received on Port 137 that do not constitute a one-to-one, two-way communication flow are dropped by the firewall. The extra rule below overrules this and makes the firewall accept packets coming from other devices’ Port 137 in response to broadcast NetBIOS Name Service packets. To do this, the extra rule uses a CT (Connection Tracking) helper named ‘netbios-ns‘ (obviously meaning ‘NetBIOS Name Service’). In order to use this rule the kernel must have been configured to use the IPTABLES ‘raw‘ table and to use CT (see the section ‘Kernel configuration’ further on).

IPTABLES

# All NetBIOS clients must have the netbios-ns helper enabled for broadcast name resolution to work
iptables -t raw -A OUTPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 137 -j CT --helper netbios-ns

By the way, in addition to flushing the usual tables, flush the ‘raw‘ table too when you restart the firewall:

iptables -t raw -F OUTPUT

UFW

Add the following lines to the end of the file /etc/ufw/before.rules

# The following is needed to enable Samba commands to
# work properly for broadcast NetBIOS name resolution
#
# raw table rules
*raw
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
-F OUTPUT
-A OUTPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 137 -j CT --helper netbios-ns
COMMIT

Note that the output of the command ‘ufw status verbose‘ will not include the above rule. This is not a bug.

Kernel configuration

If you are using a binary-based distribution such as Ubuntu Linux, the kernel will probably have been configured to include the needed modules (CONFIG_IP_NF_RAW=m, CONFIG_IP6_NF_RAW=m and CONFIG_NETFILTER_XT_TARGET_CT=m), and the installation configured to load the modules automatically. However, if you are using a source-based distribution such as Gentoo Linux make sure the kernel configuration includes these three options before you build the kernel, and also add the module names ‘iptable_raw‘ and ‘xt_CT‘ to the module list in the file /etc/conf.d/modules as shown in the example below, so that the modules are loaded at boot:

modules="r8169 nvidia agpgart fuse bnep rfcomm hidp uvcvideo cifs mmc_block rtsx_pci snd-seq-midi vboxdrv vboxnetadp vboxnetflt iptable_raw xt_CT"

You can use the following two commands to check if the two modules are loaded:

user $ sudo lsmod | grep iptable_raw
user $ sudo lsmod | grep xt_CT

How to check the additional rule is active

You can use the command below whether you are using pure IPTABLES or UFW.

user $ sudo iptables -nvL -t raw
Password: 
Chain PREROUTING (policy ACCEPT 2613 packets, 1115K bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination         

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 2773 packets, 475K bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination         
   16  1248 CT         udp  --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0            udp dpt:137 CT helper netbios-ns

The packet and byte counts will increase whenever you use a Samba command.

Bibliography

Filed under Gentoo Linux, Linux, Networks, Windows, Wired, Wireless Tagged with Ethernet, firewall, Gentoo Linux, laptop, Linux, NetBIOS, networks, Samba, SMB, Windows, wireless

A method of ‘masking’ an OpenRC service (NetworkManager, in this case)

January 5, 2017 2 Comments

A Gentoo Linux user with an installation using OpenRC recently asked in the Gentoo Forums how to either a) disable NetworkManager so that it would not interfere with his netifrc configuration to give his installation a static IP address, or b) configure NetworkManager to use a static IP address (see the thread NetworkManager and static IP [SOLVED! THANKYOU]). In the end he solved the problem by uninstalling NetworkManager, the cleanest solution in his case given that his desktop machine is always in the same location and he does not need the features NetworkManager provides.

Now, although I use NetworkManager instead of netifrc, what intrigued me is that disabling the NetworkManager service using the standard command below does not stop the NetworkManager init script from running at boot-up:

root # rc-update delete NetworkManager default

Despite using the above command, following a reboot the NetworkManager service is still started and becomes active, and the NetworkManager daemon is running. Web browsers and other applications requiring network access still work. In order to stop the service running immediately so that his netifrc static IP address configuration could work, the aforementioned Gentoo user had to stop the NetworkManager service as follows:

root # /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop

(The command ‘rc-service NetworkManager stop‘ does the same thing.)

The behaviour is the same on my laptop running Gentoo with OpenRC 0.22.4 and NetworkManager installed by networkmanager-1.4.0-r1 ebuild (with the upstream patch and necessary edit to the init script mentioned in Gentoo Bug Report No. 595806 – net-misc/networkmanager-1.4.0-r1[consolekit]: doesn’t automatically activate connections marked with "Automatically connect to this network when it’s available").

So two questions arose: What launches the NetworkManager init script when it has not been added to a runlevel? What needs to be done to stop this from happening? My curiosity was piqued.

As it happens, a somewhat similar situation exists when using systemd rather than OpenRC, as explained in Arch Linux Forums thread [SOLVED] NetworkManager auto restart even though I stop it. and Red Hat Bugzilla Report No. 815243 – Even though NetworkManager was manually stopped, it gets restarted automatically via D-Bus, although those were primarily concerned with how to prevent NetworkManager being restarted during the same session, i.e. without having rebooted.

The following systemd commands are needed to stop immediately the NetworkManager service and keep it from being restarted subsequently during the current session and after rebooting:

root # systemctl mask NetworkManager
root # systemctl stop NetworkManager
root # systemctl disable NetworkManager

Unfortunately there is no equivalent mask command for an OpenRC service. The equivalent OpenRC commands for the second and third commands above are:

root # rc-service NetworkManager stop
root # rc-update delete NetworkManager default

However, as I pointed out earlier, for some reason the latter command does not stop OpenRC running the NetworkManager init script at boot.

I wondered how I could ‘mask’ the NetworkManager service in OpenRC. I asked myself what the systemd mask command actually does. Well, it simply creates a symlink from /etc/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service to /dev/null so that there is no longer a real unit file for systemd to use, and therefore systemd can no longer launch the service. So why not do something similar in OpenRC. I hit upon the idea of telling the NetworkManager init script it needs a non-existent service in order to start, thus preventing OpenRC from starting the NetworkManager service:

root # echo 'rc_need="non-existent_service"' >> /etc/conf.d/NetworkManager # (Or just edit the file manually.)

That is all there is to it. When booting, OpenRC now displays the messages shown below:

* ERROR: NetworkManager needs service(s) non-existent_service
* ERROR: cannot start netmount as NetworkManager would not start
* ERROR: cannot start samba as NetworkManager would not start

As shown below, now the service is not started, so the NetworkManager daemon is never launched:

root # rc-status
Runlevel: default
 dbus                                                  [  started  ]
 syslog-ng                                             [  started  ]
 consolekit                                            [  started  ]
 netmount                                              [  stopped  ]
 cupsd                                                 [  started  ]
 samba                                                 [  stopped  ]
 cronie                                                [  started  ]
 clamd                                                 [  started  ]
 bluetooth                                             [  started  ]
 xdm                                                   [  started  ]
 cups-browsed                                          [  started  ]
 sshd                                                  [  started  ]
 local                                                 [  started  ]
Dynamic Runlevel: hotplugged
Dynamic Runlevel: needed/wanted
 modules-load                                          [  started  ]
 xdm-setup                                             [  started  ]
 avahi-daemon                                          [  started  ]
Dynamic Runlevel: manual
root # ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep -i network
root #

As expected, given that the netmount service and samba service depend on the NetworkManager service starting, neither of those services were able to start either.

Furthermore, because I masked the service, if I attempt to start it manually:

root # rc-service NetworkManager restart
 * ERROR: NetworkManager needs service(s) non-existent_service

To unmask the service in OpenRC, all that is needed is:

root # sed -i '/rc_need="non-existent_service"/d' /etc/conf.d/NetworkManager # (Or just edit the file manually.)

Note that, instead of “non-existent_service” I could have written “fubar”, “null” or any other string that is not the name of an actual service. But “non-existent_service” is more meaningful and less likely to confuse me when viewing system messages and contents of the service configuration file.

In summary…

Why does OpenRC run the NetworkManager service init script when it is not in any runlevel?

I have no idea!

I wondered if the D-Bus service does it. The Arch Wiki article on NetworkManager claims this is the case (see the section titled Disable NetworkManager). However, my attempts at preventing D-Bus doing anything to NetworkManager did not stop the NetworkManager init script from being run at boot. I deleted /etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.conf and /etc/dbus-1/system.d/nm-dispatcher.conf but that did not help. Neither did creating an appropriate /etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.conf or /etc/dbus-1/system-local.conf. There is no /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.service file in my Gentoo installation using OpenRC, but creating one did not help either. So, if you know what runs the OpenRC NetworkManager init script when it is not in any runlevel, please post a comment.

Anyway, I now know how to prevent it happening, so I have satisfied my curiosity. Below I list the commands I actually used in a Gentoo Linux installation (amd64, OpenRC) and a Sabayon Linux installation (~amd64, systemd) to check the functionality.

OpenRC

The following two (optionally three) commands are needed to stop immediately the NetworkManager service and prevent it being restarted subsequently during this session and after rebooting:

root # rc-service NetworkManager stop
root # echo 'rc_need="non-existent_service"' >> /etc/conf.d/NetworkManager
root # rc-update del NetworkManager default # (Optional.)

The following two (optionally three) commands are needed to unmask the NetworkManager service and start it immediately, and make it start automatically after rebooting:

root # sed -i '/rc_need="non-existent_service"/d' /etc/conf.d/NetworkManager
root # rc-service NetworkManager restart
root # rc-update add NetworkManager default # Only needed if I earlier deleted the service from the default runlevel.

systemd

The following three commands are needed to stop immediately the NetworkManager service and prevent it being restarted subsequently during this session and after rebooting:

root # systemctl mask NetworkManager
root # systemctl stop NetworkManager
root # systemctl disable NetworkManager

The following three systemd commands are needed to unmask the NetworkManager service and start it immediately, and also make it start automatically after rebooting:

root # systemctl unmask NetworkManager
root # systemctl enable NetworkManager
root # systemctl start NetworkManager

Filed under Gentoo Linux, Linux, Networks, Sabayon Linux Tagged with Ethernet, Gentoo Linux, Linux, NetworkManager, networks, OpenRC, Sabayon Linux, systemd, wired, wireless

A correct method of configuring Samba for browsing SMB shares in a home network

October 17, 2016 25 Comments

SMB
SMB (Server Message Block) is the underlying protocol that Microsoft Windows computers use to connect to resources, such as file shares and printers, and to transfer information when the connections are established. Samba is the Linux implementation of SMB that allows file and printer information to be transferred between Windows and Linux computers. An early variant of the SMB protocol is known as ‘CIFS’ (Common Internet File System). CIFS is actually obsolete, so the correct term to use these days is ‘SMB’ (see the blog post Why You Should Never Again Utter The Word, "CIFS"), although ‘CIFS’ is still used sometimes when referring to SMB.

Terminology
You are likely to come across several terms when reading about Samba, such as NetBIOS, Active Directory (AD), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Kerberos, Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) and Winbind, to name but a few. Most are used in larger corporate or enterprise networks but you can ignore most of them – only broadcast NetBIOS name resolution or WINS are necessary to configure Samba in small home networks. For example, my home network uses broadcast NetBIOS name resolution and sometimes has up to 15 devices connected (Linux, Windows 7/10, macOS, Android and iOS), all of which can browse file shares using SMB/Samba.

Note: You should not use Broadcast NetBIOS Name Resolution and WINS at the same time.

To explain the terminology – Active Directory is a central database of user accounts and passwords used primarily in Windows networks to authenticate users, and LDAP is the protocol that clients and servers use to access the Active Directory database. Kerberos is a separate encrypted authentication mechanism used for client-server applications, such as computers that access a specific file or web server, or SQL database. WINS is a mechanism for storing Windows computer name to IP address mappings on a central server – the WINS Server. Computers in a LAN interrogate the WINS server to obtain the IP addresses of other computers. It’s a bit like DNS except that the WINS Server stores Windows computer names rather than URLs or domain names. Winbind is a Unix/Linux mechanism that allows Windows NT accounts to look like a Unix service to Unix/Linux machines.

NetBIOS
How is NetBIOS relevant to Samba? Samba uses NetBIOS in three different ways:

NetBIOS over UDP Port 137 to advertise Windows computer names for name to IP address resolution;
NetBIOS over UDP Port 138 to advertise services that the computer offers and to elect a ‘Master Browser’ (explained below);
SMB over NetBIOS over TCP/IP Port 139 to connect to file shares or printers. Once connected, the computers may negotiate using SMB direct over TCP/IP Port 445 to improve efficiency of the connection.

NetBIOS over UDP (Port 137) is a connectionless broadcast protocol that Windows machines use to advertise over the LAN their names and corresponding IP addresses. Other computers receive the broadcasts and cache the names and IP addresses in a name to IP address mapping table.

NetBIOS over UDP (Port 138) is a connectionless broadcast protocol that Windows machines use to advertise their eligibility to become the Master Browser or Backup Browser for a Windows Workgroup in the LAN. An automatic election process elects only one machine in a Workgroup to become the Master Browser for that workgroup, and elects one or more ‘Backup Browsers’ in the Workgroup. The Master Browser and Backup Browser(s) collate a list of all the computers in the Workgroup and the services that they offer. It is more efficient for a single computer to assume the master role and to collate the information than it is for the information to remain distributed. When you click on ‘Network’† in File Explorer’s ‘Network Neighbourhood’‡ window, your computer interrogates the Master Browser(s) to obtain a list of the Windows Workgroups in the LAN, the members of the Workgroup(s) and the file and printer services that each Workgroup member offers. If the Master Browser fails or is disconnected, a re-election takes place and a new Master Browser is elected from the list of Backup Browsers in that Workgroup. The same process occurs if you are using a Linux file manager (Dolphin in KDE, Nautilus in GNOME, etc.) with Samba. You can configure the ‘priority’ of the Samba server in each machine in the Workgroup so that it is either more likely or less likely to be elected the Master Browser for the Workgroup. You could even configure Samba on a Linux machine so that it will never be a Master Browser. (It is also possible to configure a Windows machine so that it will never be a Master Browser.)

† Renamed ‘Entire Network’ in some versions of Windows.
‡ Renamed ‘My Network Places’ or simply ‘Network’ in some versions of Windows.

SMB over NetBIOS over TCP/IP (Port 139) is a connection orientated protocol that Windows computers use to connect to file shares and printers, to retrieve directory listings and to transfer files. Having obtained a list of computers and file shares from the Master Browser, if you click on a particular file share to connect to it, your computer looks up the name of the target computer in the local name table, obtains the target computer’s IP address and initiates a SMB over NetBIOS over TCP/IP connection to it. The target computer then issues a username and password prompt for you to complete the connection. If authentication is successful, the SMB protocol is used to transfer a directory listing of the contents of the share. If you drag and drop a file from the share to your local machine, or vice-versa, SMB is used to transfer the file. Behind the scenes, during the initial connection set-up, your computer and the target carry out a negotiation. If both machines support SMB direct over TCP/IP, the directory listing and subsequent file transfer are transported using SMB over TCP/IP Port 445. This is much more efficient because it eliminates completely the NetBIOS overhead.

When you install and configure Samba on a Linux computer, the ‘smbd‘ and ‘nmbd‘ daemons enable all of the functionality above. In a small network you do not need to enable or use AD, LDAP, Kerberos, WINS, Winbind or anything else for that matter. Samba and its built-in NetBIOS mechanisms will allow you to participate in a Windows Workgroup environment to share and use folders, files and printers.

Workgroups
The majority of Windows computers running in home networks are configured, by default, in a single Workgroup. A Workgroup is a simple way for computers in small networks to advertise and share resources, such as folders and printers, with other members of the same group. You can configure multiple Workgroups in the same LAN but each computer can belong to only one Workgroup. The theory is that different computers can share different resources within their group.

Please Note: A Windows Workgroup is not the same thing as a Windows HomeGroup. The latter concept was introduced in Windows 7 and is an ‘evolution’ of the Workgroup concept, in which you share folders and files but specify a pre-determined group password. All computers wishing to join the HomeGroup specify the same password to connect to the resources in that group. Samba does not participate in Windows HomeGroups because the latter is a Windows-only feature.

Configuring Samba
Firstly, install Samba on the Linux computer. Use Samba 4 and avoid Samba 3, which is obsolete. I have several laptops and a Network Addressable Storage (NAS) server, all running Linux with various releases of Samba 4. I also have a desktop computer running Windows 10 for family use. In addition, family and friends connect various laptops running Windows 7 and Windows 10 to my home network, as well as tablets and smartphones (see How to Access Shared Windows Folders on Android, iPad, and iPhone). This NAS runs 24/7 so I could have configured Samba to always make it the Master Browser but this is not necessary as the remaining computers in the network will elect a new Master Browser should the NAS fail.

Below is a summary of the steps to configure Samba in a Windows Workgroup:

Configure the same Workgroup name on all of the Windows computers (for example, How to Change Workgroup in Windows 10). The default Windows 10 Workgroup is called ‘WORKGROUP‘. In the example further down I used the Windows GUI to change the Workgroup name to ‘GREENGABLES‘. There is plenty of information on the Internet about how to configure Windows file sharing so I won’t repeat any of it here (for example, How to Enable Network Discovery and Configure Sharing Options in Windows 10 and How to set up file sharing on Windows 10 (Share files using File Explorer)).
Configure Samba on the Linux machines by editing the file ‘/etc/samba/smb.conf‘ on each. The contents of the file ‘smb.conf‘ are shown below for a Linux NAS and two Linux laptops. The NetBIOS name of the NAS is ‘akhanaten‘ and the laptops are ‘tutankhamun‘ and ‘smenkhkare‘. You can use either of the smb.conf files of the two laptops as a template for the smb.conf file of any Linux computer in your own home network. You can ignore the smb.conf file of the NAS if you simply want to be able to browse SMB/Samba shares on other computers in your home network.
Use the command ‘pdbedit‘ on each Linux machine to define and configure the Samba users on that machine. The command ‘smbpasswd‘ is an alternative to ‘pdbedit‘ but I recommend you use the latter, as ‘smbpasswd‘ is deprecated. Each Samba user must exist as a Linux user because it is the Linux users who own the shares and are used for authentication.
The NAS has Linux users ‘anne‘, ‘marilla‘, ‘matthew‘ and ‘guest‘, whereas each of the laptops has a Linux user ‘anne‘. The user name does not have to be the same on different computers.
The purpose of each variable in ‘smb.conf‘ is explained on the applicable Samba manual page (enter the command ‘man smb.conf‘ in a terminal window) and the Samba documentation page for smb.conf on the Web.

Furthermore, make sure the Winbind daemon is not running. If Winbind is installed, make sure the service is not running and is disabled.

smb.conf of NAS running Ubuntu Server Edition:

[global]
# SMB uses ports 139 & 445, as explained in this blog post
smb ports = 139 445
netbios name = akhanaten
workgroup = greengables

# Use either NetBIOS broadcast for name resolution or entries in the /etc/hosts file
name resolve order = bcast host

# Don't care if the workgroup name is upper or lower case
case sensitive = no

# User authentication is used to access the shares
security = user
map to guest = bad user
guest account = guest

# Don't allow the use of root for network shares
invalid users = root

# Domain master only applies to LANs that are inter-connected across a WAN
domain master = no

# This machine is eligible to be a Master Browser and its priority is 4
# (the higher the os level, the more preferred to be Master Browser)
# (the maximum allowable value for os level is 255)
preferred master = yes
os level = 4
dns proxy = no

# Always advertise the shares automatically
auto services = global

# Interfaces on which to listen for NetBIOS broadcasts and to allow SMB connections
# Include "lo" because it is the internal interface
# em1 is the name of the Ethernet interface, found using the ifconfig command
interfaces = lo em1
bind interfaces only = yes
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
syslog = 0

panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
server role = standalone server
passdb backend = tdbsam
obey pam restrictions = yes

# Don't synchronise the Linux and Samba user passwords - they can be different
unix password sync = no
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
pam password change = yes

# This Samba configuration does not advertise any printers
load printers = no

# File to map long usernames to shorter Unix usernames, if necessary
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

# Allow guest user access if specified in the shares
guest ok = yes

# First user share is called "anne" - only user "anne" specified below can connect to the share
[anne]
comment = "anne share"
path = /nas/shares/anne
writeable = yes
valid users = anne

# Second user share is called "marilla" - only user "marilla" specified below can connect to the share
[marilla]
comment = "marilla share"
path = /nas/shares/marilla
writeable = yes
valid users = marilla

# Third user share is called "matthew" - only user "matthew" specified below can connect to the share
[matthew]
comment = "matthew share"
path = /nas/shares/matthew
writeable = yes
valid users = matthew

# Fourth user share is called "guest" - any user can connect to the share
[guest]
comment = "guest account"
path = /nas/shares/guest
writeable = yes
guest ok = yes
valid users = guest anne marilla matthew

smb.conf of laptop #1 running Gentoo Linux:

[global]
;no need to specify 'smb ports' as ports 139 & 445 used by default
workgroup = GREENGABLES
netbios name = tutankhamun
case sensitive = no
browseable = yes

;If this machine becomes a Master Browser, the following parameter allows it to hold the browse list
browse list = yes

printcap name = cups
printing = cups

log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 50

security = user
map to guest = bad user

encrypt passwords = yes
passdb backend = tdbsam

domain master = no
local master = yes
preferred master = yes
; os level = 6 on the other laptop, so I have made it 5 on this laptop.
os level = 5
name resolve order = bcast
wins support = no
dns proxy = no

;Listen for NetBIOS on Ethernet and Wireless interfaces
;Names of the interfaces found using ifconfig command
interfaces = enp4s0f1 wlp3s0

[netlogon]
comment = Network Logon Service
path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
guest ok = yes

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
guest ok = yes
printable = yes
create mask = 0700

[print$]
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
write list = @adm root
guest ok = yes

[anne-share]
path = /home/anne/anne-share/
guest ok = yes
;read only = no
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
valid users = anne

[Public]
path = /home/anne/Public/
guest ok = yes
;read only = no
writeable = yes
browseable = yes

smb.conf of laptop #2 running Gentoo Linux:

[global]
;no need to specify 'smb ports' as ports 139 & 445 used by default
workgroup = GREENGABLES
netbios name = smenkhkare
case sensitive = no
browseable = yes

;If this machine becomes a Master Browser, the following parameter allows it to hold the browse list
browse list = yes

printcap name = cups
printing = cups

log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 50

security = user
map to guest = bad user

encrypt passwords = yes
passdb backend = tdbsam

domain master = no
local master = yes
preferred master = yes
; os level = 5 on the other laptop so I have made it 6 on this laptop
os level = 6
name resolve order = bcast
wins support = no
dns proxy = no

;Listen for NetBIOS on Ethernet and Wireless interfaces
;Names of the interfaces found using ifconfig command
interfaces = eth0 wlan0

[netlogon]
comment = Network Logon Service
path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
guest ok = yes

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
guest ok = yes
printable = yes
create mask = 0700

[print$]
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
write list = @adm root
guest ok = yes

[anne-share]
path = /home/anne/share-share/
guest ok = yes
;read only = no
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
valid users = anne

[Public]
path = /home/anne/Public/
guest ok = yes
;read only = no
writeable = yes
browseable = yes

Samba Commands
The following are Samba commands you can use on any of the Linux computers to find information on the Samba shares.

The ‘smbtree‘ command lists the computers currently using SMB in the local network:

user $ smbtree
GREENGABLES
        \\AKHANATEN                     Samba 4.3.11-Ubuntu
                \\AKHANATEN\IPC$                IPC Service (Samba 4.3.11-Ubuntu)
                \\AKHANATEN\guest               guest account
                \\AKHANATEN\matthew             matthew share
                \\AKHANATEN\marilla             marilla share
                \\AKHANATEN\anne                anne share
        \\SMENKHKARE                    Samba 4.2.14
                \\SMENKHKARE\Samsung_CLX-8385ND Samsung CLX-8385ND
                \\SMENKHKARE\Canon_MP510_Printer        Canon MP510 Printer
                \\SMENKHKARE\Virtual_PDF_Printer        Virtual PDF Printer
                \\SMENKHKARE\Canon_MP560_WiFi   Canon MP560 WiFi
                \\SMENKHKARE\IPC$               IPC Service (Samba 4.2.14)
                \\SMENKHKARE\Public         
                \\SMENKHKARE\anne-share     
                \\SMENKHKARE\print$         
                \\SMENKHKARE\netlogon           Network Logon Service
        \\TUTANKHAMUN                   Samba 4.2.11
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Samsung_Xpress_C460FW     Samsung Xpress C460FW
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Canon_MP560_Printer       Canon PIXMA MP560
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Canon_MP510_Printer       Canon PIXMA MP510
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Virtual_PDF_Printer       Virtual PDF Printer
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\IPC$              IPC Service (Samba 4.2.11)
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Public
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\anne-share
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\print$
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\netlogon          Network Logon Service
HOME
        \\BTHUB5                        BT Home Hub 5.0A File Server
                \\BTHUB5\IPC$                   IPC Service (BT Home Hub 5.0A File Server)

‘BTHUB5‘ is a BT Home Hub 5 (a network router and broadband modem). Notice that it is configured by default to be in a Windows Workgroup named ‘HOME‘. The BT Home Hub 5 has a USB port to which an external USB HDD could be attached, so I assume computers in the home network could have been configured to use the HOME Workgroup instead of GREENGABLES and hence access that USB HDD, i.e. use it as a NAS. However, no HDD is attached to the BT Home Hub 5, so just ignore the BTHUB5 device and the HOME Workgroup.

The ‘nmblookup‘ command is used to see which services each computer offers. The strings ‘..__MSBROWSE__.‘ and ‘<1d>‘ in the output indicate that the computer is currently the Master Browser (see the Microsoft TechNet article NetBIOS Over TCP/IP for details):

user $ nmblookup akhanaten
192.168.1.70 akhanaten<00>

user $ nmblookup -A 192.168.1.70
Looking up status of 192.168.1.70
        AKHANATEN       <00> -         B <ACTIVE>
        AKHANATEN       <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
        AKHANATEN       <20> -         B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>

        MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

user $ nmblookup tutankhamun
192.168.1.79 tutankhamun<00>

user $ nmblookup -A 192.168.1.79
Looking up status of 192.168.1.79
        TUTANKHAMUN     <00> -         B <ACTIVE>
        TUTANKHAMUN     <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
        TUTANKHAMUN     <20> -         B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>

        MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

user $ nmblookup smenkhkare
192.168.1.90 smenkhkare<00>

user $ nmblookup -A 192.168.1.90
Looking up status of 192.168.1.90
        SMENKHKARE      <00> -         B <ACTIVE>
        SMENKHKARE      <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
        SMENKHKARE      <20> -         B <ACTIVE>
        ..__MSBROWSE__. <01> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE> 
        GREENGABLES     <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <1d> -         B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>

        MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

‘..__MSBROWSE__.‘ and ‘<1d>‘ in the above output indicates that the laptop named smenkhkare is currently the Master Browser of the Workgroup named GREENGABLES. See the Microsoft TechNet article NetBIOS Over TCP/IP to interpret the output.

Now let’s look at what happens when thutmoseiii, the Windows 10 desktop connected to this home network, is powered up:

user $ smbtree
GREENGABLES
        \\AKHANATEN                     Samba 4.3.11-Ubuntu
                \\AKHANATEN\IPC$                IPC Service (Samba 4.3.11-Ubuntu)
                \\AKHANATEN\guest               guest account
                \\AKHANATEN\matthew             matthew share
                \\AKHANATEN\marilla             marilla share
                \\AKHANATEN\anne                anne share
        \\SMENKHKARE                    Samba 4.2.14
                \\SMENKHKARE\Samsung_CLX-8385ND Samsung CLX-8385ND
                \\SMENKHKARE\Canon_MP510_Printer        Canon MP510 Printer
                \\SMENKHKARE\Virtual_PDF_Printer        Virtual PDF Printer
                \\SMENKHKARE\Canon_MP560_WiFi   Canon MP560 WiFi
                \\SMENKHKARE\IPC$               IPC Service (Samba 4.2.14)
                \\SMENKHKARE\Public
                \\SMENKHKARE\anne-share
                \\SMENKHKARE\print$
                \\SMENKHKARE\netlogon           Network Logon Service
        \\TUTANKHAMUN                   Samba 4.2.11
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Samsung_Xpress_C460FW     Samsung Xpress C460FW
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Canon_MP560_Printer       Canon PIXMA MP560
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Canon_MP510_Printer       Canon PIXMA MP510
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Virtual_PDF_Printer       Virtual PDF Printer
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\IPC$              IPC Service (Samba 4.2.11)
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\Public
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\anne-share
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\print$
                \\TUTANKHAMUN\netlogon          Network Logon Service
        \\THUTMOSEIII                   Lounge Computer
HOME
        \\BTHUB5                        BT Home Hub 5.0A File Server
                \\BTHUB5\IPC$                   IPC Service (BT Home Hub 5.0A File Server)

user $ nmblookup thutmoseiii
192.168.1.74 thutmoseiii<00>
192.168.56.1 thutmoseiii<00>

user $ nmblookup -A 192.168.1.74
Looking up status of 192.168.1.74
        THUTMOSEIII     <20> -         B <ACTIVE> 
        THUTMOSEIII     <00> -         B <ACTIVE> 
        GREENGABLES     <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE> 
        GREENGABLES     <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE> 

        MAC Address = AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF (anonymised by me)

So Linux computer smenkhkare remained the Master Browser. This is because the Windows 10 computer has its Registry subkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\MaintainServerList set to ‘Auto‘, and also there is no subkey \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\IsDomainMaster so implicitly its value is False (i.e. the computer is not a Preferred Master Browser). See Microsoft TechNet article Specifying Browser Computers for details.

By the way, notice that two IP addresses are listed for thutmoseiii. This is because thutmoseiii is connected to two network adapters: 192.168.1.74 is the IP address of thutmoseiii in the home network, and 192.168.56.1 is the IP address of the virtual network interface for the virtual computers in VirtualBox installed on thutmoseiii.

If the Samba service on smenkhkare is now stopped from the command line, Windows 10 computer thutmoseiii is elected Master Browser after more than a minute has elapsed:

user $ nmblookup -A 192.168.1.74
Looking up status of 192.168.1.74
        THUTMOSEIII     <20> -         B <ACTIVE> 
        THUTMOSEIII     <00> -         B <ACTIVE> 
        GREENGABLES     <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE> 
        GREENGABLES     <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE> 
        GREENGABLES     <1d> -         B <ACTIVE> 
        ..__MSBROWSE__. <01> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>

        MAC Address = AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF (anonymised by me)

If the Samba service on smenkhkare is then restarted from the command line and the Windows 10 computer is allowed to go to sleep, the laptop named smenkhkare becomes the Master Brower again as expected.

NetBIOS Commands in Windows
Now let’s look at some NetBIOS equivalent commands on the Windows 10 computer (Windows computer name: thutmoseiii).

First let’s see which remote computers thutmoseiii detects:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -c

VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.56.1] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

Ethernet:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.74] Scope Id: []

                  NetBIOS Remote Cache Name Table

        Name              Type       Host Address    Life [sec]
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    AKHANATEN      <20>  UNIQUE          192.168.1.70        381
    TUTANKHAMUN    <20>  UNIQUE          192.168.1.79        407
    SMENKHKARE     <20>  UNIQUE          192.168.1.90        416

WiFi:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

Local Area Connection* 11:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

Four adapters are listed in the above output: ‘VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2‘, ‘Ethernet‘, ‘WiFi‘ and ‘Local Area Connection* 11‘. Let’s look at why they are listed:

The first adapter listed exists because VirtualBox is installed on thutmoseiii and has a virtual network adapter to enable virtual computers to be networked together (see What Is A Oracle VM VirtualBox Host-Only Network Adapter? if you don’t know what is a VirtualBox Host-Only Network Adapter).
The second adapter listed is the computer’s Ethernet adapter. thutmoseiii is connected to the home network via this interface, and the above output shows that thutmoseiii has correctly detected the three other computers connected to the home network.
The third adapter listed is the computer’s wireless adapter. thutmoseiii also has a Wi-Fi interface, currently disabled in Windows, hence no active wireless connection is listed.
The fourth adapter is a ‘Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter’ according to the output of the ipconfig/all command. As the Wi-Fi interface is currently disabled in Windows, no active connection is listed here either.

Now let’s see what thutmoseiii reports about itself:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -n

VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.56.1] Scope Id: []

                NetBIOS Local Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    THUTMOSEIII    <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    THUTMOSEIII    <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    GREENGABLES    <00>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1E>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1D>  UNIQUE      Registered
    ☺☻__MSBROWSE__☻<01>  GROUP       Registered

Ethernet:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.74] Scope Id: []

                NetBIOS Local Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    THUTMOSEIII    <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    THUTMOSEIII    <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    GREENGABLES    <00>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1E>  GROUP       Registered

WiFi:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

Local Area Connection* 11:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

The above is correct: thutmoseiii is the Master Browser in the Windows Workgroup of VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2, but not a Master Browser in the GREENGABLES Workgroup to which thutmoseiii is connected by Ethernet cable. As the Wi-Fi interface in thutmoseiii is currently disabled, no active wireless connection is listed.

Now let’s take a look at what thutmoseiii reports about akhanaten:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -a akhanaten

VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.56.1] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

Ethernet:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.74] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    AKHANATEN      <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    AKHANATEN      <03>  UNIQUE      Registered
    AKHANATEN      <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    GREENGABLES    <00>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1E>  GROUP       Registered

    MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00


WiFi:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

Local Area Connection* 11:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

The above is also correct, as akhanaten is indeed not a Master Browser.

Now let’s have a look at what thutmoseiii reports about tutankhamun:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -a tutankhamun

VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.56.1] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

Ethernet:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.74] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    TUTANKHAMUN    <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    TUTANKHAMUN    <03>  UNIQUE      Registered
    TUTANKHAMUN    <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    GREENGABLES    <00>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1E>  GROUP       Registered

    MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00


WiFi:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

Local Area Connection* 11:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

The above is also correct, as tutankhamun is indeed not a Master Browser.

Now let’s have a look at what thutmoseiii reports about smenkhkare:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -a smenkhkare

VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.56.1] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

Ethernet:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.74] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    SMENKHKARE     <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    SMENKHKARE     <03>  UNIQUE      Registered
    SMENKHKARE     <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    ☺☻__MSBROWSE__☻<01>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <00>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1D>  UNIQUE      Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1E>  GROUP       Registered

    MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00


WiFi:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

Local Area Connection* 11:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

The above is also correct, as smenkhkare is indeed the Master Browser (notice the ‘☺☻__MSBROWSE__☻‘ and ‘<1D>‘).

Q.E.D.
So there you have it; Browser Elections take place and the Master Browser is any one of the Linux or Windows computers in the home network, thus enabling SMB browsing to take place. No WINS, no LDAP, no AD, no Kerberos. All SMB communication is carried out using NetBIOS over TCP/IP and Broadcast NetBIOS Name Resolution, as shown by the output of the command ‘nbtstat -r‘ on thutmoseiii:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -r

    NetBIOS Names Resolution and Registration Statistics
    ----------------------------------------------------

    Resolved By Broadcast     = 65
    Resolved By Name Server   = 0

    Registered By Broadcast   = 233
    Registered By Name Server = 0

    NetBIOS Names Resolved By Broadcast
---------------------------------------------
           BTHUB5         <00>
           呂啈㕂†††††䱃噅坏㌲匰⁓†
           TUTANKHAMUN    <00>
           AKHANATEN      <00>
           SMENKHKARE     <00>

I assume the line of Chinese and other characters is because of some deficiency in NBTSTAT.EXE, CMD.EXE or Windows 10 generally — despite having entered ‘CHCP 65001‘ and chosen a Unicode TrueType font in CMD.EXE — but the important point is that the statistics listed by the ‘nbtstat -r‘ command clearly show that only broadcasts are used for NetBIOS Name resolution, as promised. NetBIOS name resolution works fine in the home network and all the sharing-enabled computers in the home network can browse SMB shares on other sharing-enabled computers, whether they are running Windows, Linux, macOS, Android or iOS. I reiterate that this is for a typical home network.

Command to find Master Browsers
In Linux you can use the ‘nmblookup‘ command as follows to find out which machine in the home network is currently the Master Browser in each Workgroup:

user $ nmblookup -M -- -
192.168.1.254 __MSBROWSE__
192.168.1.90 __MSBROWSE__
192.168.56.1 __MSBROWSE__

You can see above that there are currently three Master Browsers in this home network. Let’s check the details for these three Master Browsers:

user $ nmblookup -A 192.168.1.254
Looking up status of 192.168.1.254
        BTHUB5          <00> -         B <ACTIVE>
        BTHUB5          <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
        BTHUB5          <20> -         B <ACTIVE>
        ..__MSBROWSE__. <01> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        HOME            <1d> -         B <ACTIVE>
        HOME            <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        HOME            <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>

        MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

You can see above that the machine BTHUB5 (which is actually the home network’s router) is the Master Browser in the Workgroup named HOME (see earlier).

user $ nmblookup -A 192.168.1.90
Looking up status of 192.168.1.90
        SMENKHKARE      <00> -         B <ACTIVE>
        SMENKHKARE      <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
        SMENKHKARE      <20> -         B <ACTIVE>
        ..__MSBROWSE__. <01> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <1d> -         B <ACTIVE>
        GREENGABLES     <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>

        MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

You can see above that computer SMENKHKARE is currently the Master Browser in the Workgroup named GREENGABLES.

user $ nmblookup -A 192.168.56.1
Looking up status of 192.168.56.1
No reply from 192.168.56.1

You can see above that the network node 192.168.56.1 is inactive, which is not surprising considering that it is a node on a VirtualBox virtual subnet on the Windows 10 computer thutmoseiii (see earlier) and VirtualBox is not running at the moment on that computer.

On a Windows machine it is not quite so easy to find out which machines are currently Master Browsers. However, on the face of it the third-party utility lanscan.exe can do it (see How to Determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup):

C:\WINDOWS\system32>lanscan

LANscanner v1.67 - ScottiesTech.Info

Scanning LAN...

Scanning workgroup: HOME...

Scanning workgroup: GREENGABLES...

BTHUB5            192.168.1.254    11-11-11-11-11-11  HOME         MASTER
THUTMOSEIII       192.168.56.1     22-22-22-22-22-22  GREENGABLES  MASTER
SMENKHKARE        192.168.1.90     aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff  GREENGABLES  MASTER
TUTANKHAMUN       192.168.1.79     33-33-33-33-33-33  GREENGABLES
AKHANATEN         192.168.1.70     55-55-55-55-55-55  GREENGABLES

Press any key to exit...

(MAC addresses anonymised by me.)

Notice above that lanscan.exe listed the VirtualBox virtual subnet node 192.168.56.1 in Windows 10 computer thutmoseiii (see earlier) but omitted to list the node 192.168.1.74 (also thutmoseiii) in the real network. Now, in this particular case thutmoseiii on 192.168.1.74 is not a Master Browser. Nevertheless, as lanscan.exe is supposed to list all nodes, its failure to list the node 192.168.1.74 is a shortcoming.

And what happens if thutmoseiii on node 192.168.1.74 becomes a Master Browser? In that case lanscan.exe still omits the node from the list and, in addition, wrongly shows tutankhamun as a Master Browser:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -n

VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.56.1] Scope Id: []

                NetBIOS Local Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    THUTMOSEIII    <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    THUTMOSEIII    <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    GREENGABLES    <00>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1E>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1D>  UNIQUE      Registered
    ☺☻__MSBROWSE__☻<01>  GROUP       Registered

Ethernet:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.74] Scope Id: []

                NetBIOS Local Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    THUTMOSEIII    <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    THUTMOSEIII    <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    GREENGABLES    <00>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1E>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1D>  UNIQUE      Registered
    ☺☻__MSBROWSE__☻<01>  GROUP       Registered

WiFi:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

Local Area Connection* 11:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -A 192.168.1.79

VirtualBox Host-Only Network 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.56.1] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

Ethernet:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.74] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    TUTANKHAMUN    <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    TUTANKHAMUN    <03>  UNIQUE      Registered
    TUTANKHAMUN    <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    GREENGABLES    <00>  GROUP       Registered
    GREENGABLES    <1E>  GROUP       Registered

    MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00


WiFi:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

Local Area Connection* 11:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>lanscan

LANscanner v1.67 - ScottiesTech.Info

Scanning LAN...

Scanning workgroup: HOME...

Scanning workgroup: GREENGABLES...

BTHUB5            192.168.1.254    11-11-11-11-11-11  HOME         MASTER
THUTMOSEIII       192.168.56.1     22-22-22-22-22-22  GREENGABLES  MASTER
TUTANKHAMUN       192.168.1.79     33-33-33-33-33-33  GREENGABLES  MASTER
SMENKHKARE        192.168.1.90     aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff  GREENGABLES
AKHANATEN         192.168.1.70     55-55-55-55-55-55  GREENGABLES

Press any key to exit...

(MAC addresses anonymised by me.)

Linux appears to have the edge on Windows in this respect, as the Samba command ‘nmblookup -M -- -‘ detects all the Master Browsers correctly in the above situation:

user $ nmblookup -M -- -
192.168.1.254 __MSBROWSE__
192.168.1.74 __MSBROWSE__
192.168.56.1 __MSBROWSE__

So it appears that, from a Windows computer, the only sure way to find all Master Browsers is to use the command ‘nbtstat -a <computer name>‘ to check each remote machine in the home network, plus the command ‘nbtstat -n‘ to check the Windows computer you are using.

Footnote
The ebuild of the current Gentoo Stable Branch package net-fs/samba-4.2.11 (and probably the ebuild of the Testing Branch package net-fs/samba-4.2.14 as well) is not entirely correct, as it pulls in unnecessary dependencies (see Gentoo Bug Report No. 579088 – net-fs/samba-4.x has many hard dependencies, make some optional). For example, Kerberos is not required at all if you are not using LDAP, AD, etc. and are just using NETBIOS Name Resolution by Broadcast in a Windows Workgroup (like most home users). However, the Gentoo samba ebuild forces the user to install Kerberos (either the MIT implementation app-crypt/mit-krb5 or the Heimdal implementation app-crypt/heimdal) even if you specify that Samba should be built without support for LDAP, AD, etc. This does not cause any harm, but it is unnecessary.

user $ eix -I samba
[I] net-fs/samba
     Available versions:  3.6.25^t 4.2.11 ~4.2.14 [M]~4.3.11 [M]~4.4.5 [M]~4.4.6 [M]~4.5.0 {acl addc addns ads (+)aio avahi caps (+)client cluster cups debug dmapi doc examples fam gnutls iprint ldap ldb +netapi pam quota +readline selinux +server +smbclient smbsharemodes swat syslog +system-mitkrb5 systemd test (+)winbind zeroconf ABI_MIPS="n32 n64 o32" ABI_PPC="32 64" ABI_S390="32 64" ABI_X86="32 64 x32" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7"}
     Installed versions:  4.2.11(19:40:03 16/09/16)(avahi client cups fam gnutls pam -acl -addc -addns -ads -aio -cluster -dmapi -iprint -ldap -quota -selinux -syslog -system-mitkrb5 -systemd -test -winbind ABI_MIPS="-n32 -n64 -o32" ABI_PPC="-32 -64" ABI_S390="-32 -64" ABI_X86="64 -32 -x32" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7")
     Homepage:            http://www.samba.org/
     Description:         Samba Suite Version 4

If you are a Gentoo Linux user, you can merge the package net-fs/samba with the same USE flags shown above (obviously change “-systemd” to “systemd” if you use systemd instead of OpenRC), and use the laptops’ smb.conf files shown in this post as templates, and you will be able to share files and printers using Samba and NetBIOS name resolution. Don’t forget to use pdbedit to define the Samba users, and don’t forget to stop and disable winbindd if it is already installed.

Further reading

How NetBIOS name resolution really works
Name Resolution and Browsing (See the section Browser Elections)
How Computer Browser Service Works
NetBIOS Over TCP/IP
Nbtstat
Windows Networking

ADDENDUM (October 30, 2016): You probably already use the Public folder in Windows. If not, you can find a brief explanation in the article Simple Questions: What is the Public Folder & How to Use it?. There are a number of default sub-folders in C:\Users\Public\ on a Windows machine. There are some differences depending on the version of Windows, but in Windows 10 (Anniversary Update) these sub-folders are named:

C:\Public\Libraries C:\Public\Public Account Pictures C:\Public\Public Desktop C:\Public\Public Documents C:\Public\Public Downloads C:\Public\Public Music C:\Public\Public Pictures C:\Public\Public Videos

These predefined sub-folders are not ordinary folders, and I have noticed a surmountable minor limitation when accessing them from a Linux machine using Samba, as explained below.

If I enable Public Folder Sharing on a Windows machine (‘Turn on sharing so that anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folders’) and configure the security permissions of the Public folder for Everyone, from another Windows machine in the Workgroup I can copy files to the first machine’s Public folder and default sub-folders. From a Linux machine in the Workgroup I can copy files to the Public folder on Windows machines in the Workgroup but I cannot copy files to the default sub-folders (the Dolphin file manager displays the error message ‘Access denied. Could not write to .‘). However, this is not a big deal because I can copy files into the Public folder itself and into manually created sub-folders in the Public folder.

ADDENDUM (February 13, 2018): Windows 10 Version 1709 and later have the SMBv1/CIFS protocol disabled by default, so the Lanscan utility will no longer work in Windows 10 Version 1709. That is not a big deal if you also have Linux machines on your home network; just use the Samba commands from one of those Linux machines instead. If you have devices on your home network that only support SMBv1/CIFS protocol and they cannot be configured to use the SMBv3 protocol, your only option is to configure Windows 10 Version 1709 to use the SMBv1 protocol, which is less secure than the later SMB protocols. See e.g. the article Cannot browse network neighborhood under Windows 10 Fall Creators update 1709 and newer for how to configure Windows 10 Version 1709 to use the SMBv1 protocol. In my case, all my Linux machines using Samba can be configured via the smb.conf file to use a newer version of the SMB protocol (see ‘server min protocol’ and ‘server max protocol’ in the Samba documentation for smb.conf).

Filed under Android, Desktops & Window Managers, Gentoo Linux, Linux, Networks, Windows, Wired, Wireless Tagged with Android, Ethernet, Gentoo Linux, laptop, Linux, NetBIOS, networks, Samba, SMB, Windows, wireless

NetworkManager: Failed to activate – The name org.freedesktop.NetworkManager was not provided by any .service files

November 5, 2015 1 Comment

Because I need to connect quickly and easily to numerous wired and wireless networks (DHCP or static IP addressing), I use NetworkManager in my Gentoo Linux amd64 installation running OpenRC and KDE 4. My Clevo W230SS laptop has an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Plus Bluetooth adapter card, and my installation uses the iwlwifi module:

# lspci -knn | grep Net -A2 03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 [8086:08b1] (rev bb) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 [8086:4070] Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi # lsmod | grep iwl iwlmvm 143919 0 iwlwifi 75747 1 iwlmvm

As I am using NetworkManager instead of netifrc, in accordance with the instructions in the Gentoo Wiki article on NetworkManager I do not have any net.* services enabled (not even net.lo):

I have left the netmount service enabled in case I want to use network-attached file shares at home or in one of the various office locations where I work.

Networking works fine on my laptop with the many wired and wireless networks I have used except for one particular public wireless network (it is in an airport, has multiple Access Points, and its Access Points only support 802.11a/b/g, which may or may not be relevant) for which the following message would usually appear in a pop-up window when I tried to connect to the network from the KDE network management GUI after start-up:

Failed to activate
The name org.freedesktop.NetworkManager was not provided by any .service files

Error message displayed by KDE when trying to connect to one specific network

This occurred with both networkmanager-1.0.2-r1 and networkmanager-1.0.6, the two Stable Branch releases of NetworkManager currently available in Gentoo Linux.

The wireless network is not the only network at that particular location, and the ‘Failed to activate’ message occurred whichever network (wireless or wired) I tried to access at that location. When this problem occurred, it transpired that the NetworkManager service was not running (it had crashed):

$ nmcli d Error: NetworkManager is not running. $ rc-status Runlevel: default dbus [ started ] NetworkManager [ crashed ] netmount [ started ] syslog-ng [ started ] cupsd [ started ] samba [ crashed ] consolekit [ started ] cronie [ started ] bluetooth [ started ] xdm [ started ] cups-browsed [ started ] sshd [ started ] local [ started ] Dynamic Runlevel: hotplugged Dynamic Runlevel: needed xdm-setup [ started ] avahi-daemon [ started ] Dynamic Runlevel: manual

(I am not bothered that Samba crashes in that particular location. It crashes even if a connection is established, because the public wireless network does not provide network file systems. Samba works fine when I connect the laptop to an office network or to my home network.)

Even if the ‘Failed to activate’ message occurred, sometimes (but not always) the laptop could still connect to networks after I restarted the NetworkManager service (albeit sometimes it was necessary to restart it more than once):

# /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart

When it is possible to connect to networks, the NetworkManager service is of course running:

$ nmcli d DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION sit0 sit connected sit0 wlp3s0 wifi connected Free_Airport_Internet enp4s0f1 ethernet unavailable -- lo loopback unmanaged -- $ rc-status Runlevel: default dbus [ started ] NetworkManager [ started ] netmount [ started ] syslog-ng [ started ] cupsd [ started ] samba [ crashed ] consolekit [ started ] cronie [ started ] bluetooth [ started ] xdm [ started ] cups-browsed [ started ] sshd [ started ] local [ started ] Dynamic Runlevel: hotplugged Dynamic Runlevel: needed xdm-setup [ started ] avahi-daemon [ started ] Dynamic Runlevel: manual

I searched the Web for the error message and, based on a recommendation on the Web page ‘nm-applet gives errors‘ claiming the problem is due to the iwlwifi driver when used with an Intel 7260 controller, I created a file /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf containing the following line, and rebooted:

options iwlwifi power_save=0

However, the error message still occurred. So I changed the iwlwifi module options line to the following, as also recommended on that page, and rebooted:

options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1 power_save=0

However, the error message still occurred.

The default value for OpenRC’s rc_depend_strict variable is YES if rc_depend_strict is not declared in the file /etc/rc.conf, but I do not think that is the cause of the problem:

# Do we allow any started service in the runlevel to satisfy the dependency
# or do we want all of them regardless of state? For example, if net.eth0
# and net.eth1 are in the default runlevel then with rc_depend_strict="NO"
# both will be started, but services that depend on 'net' will work if either
# one comes up. With rc_depend_strict="YES" we would require them both to
# come up.
#rc_depend_strict="YES"

As already mentioned, sometimes just restarting the NetworkManager service once or more did enable the laptop to connect to the network. This made me wonder whether the problem had something to do either with the timing of the launch of the NetworkManager service or with the timing of the service establishing a connection. As netmount is the only other network-related service enabled at start-up, I checked the netmount service’s configuration file /etc/conf.d/netmount to see what it contained (it’s the same in both the latest stable openrc-0.17 and the latest testing openrc-0.18.2):

# You will need to set the dependencies in the netmount script to match
# the network configuration tools you are using. This should be done in
# this file by following the examples below, and not by changing the
# service script itself.
#
# Each of these examples is meant to be used separately. So, for
# example, do not set rc_need to something like "net.eth0 dhcpcd".
#
# If you are using newnet and configuring your interfaces with static
# addresses with the network script, you  should use this setting.
#
#rc_need="network"
#
# If you are using oldnet, you must list the specific net.* services you
# need.
#
# This example assumes all of your netmounts can be reached on
# eth0.
#
#rc_need="net.eth0"
#
# This example assumes some of your netmounts are on eth1 and some
# are on eth2.
#
#rc_need="net.eth1 net.eth2"
#
# If you are using a dynamic network management tool like
# networkmanager, dhcpcd in standalone mode, wicd, badvpn-ncd, etc, to
# manage the network interfaces with the routes to your netmounts, you
# should list that tool.
#
#rc_need="networkmanager"
#rc_need="dhcpcd"
#rc_need="wicd"
#
# The default setting is designed to be backward compatible with our
# current setup, but you are highly discouraged from using this. In
# other words, please change it to be more suited to your system.
#
rc_need="net"

As I am using NetworkManager rather than netifrc, I followed the instructions in the file’s comments and changed the file’s contents from:

rc_need="net"

to:

rc_need="networkmanager"

After making the above change, the console messages at boot-up included a new message:

* ERROR: netmount needs service(s) networkmanager

That message made sense: rc_need had been set to "networkmanager" and, obviously, netmount can only do its job if NetworkManager is running (AND a network connection has been established). However, notice that the name of the NetworkManager service initscript is /etc/init.d/NetworkManager, not /etc/init.d/networkmanager. In other words, the instructions in /etc/conf.d/netmount are wrong: the name of the service is actually ‘NetworkManager‘, not ‘networkmanager‘. So I changed /etc/conf.d/netmount to contain rc_need="NetworkManager" instead of rc_need="networkmanager" and, unsurprisingly, the above-mentioned error message no longer occurs. I have filed Gentoo Bugzilla Bug Report No. 564846 requesting that the comment in the configuration file be changed.

Nevertheless, the ‘Failed to activate’ message still occurred when I tried to connect to any network at that location by using the DE’s network management GUI, and therefore I still needed to restart the NetworkManager service manually in order to be able to connect to any network there. Although I am not yet sure of the root cause and solution, I have found a work-around which avoids me having to manually restart the NetworkManager service, as explained below.

Although OpenRC correctly launches the NetworkManager service, that service remains inactive until it actually establishes a network connection. This is not a bug, it is the way OpenRC and NetworkManager work (see the explanation in the Gentoo Forums thread NetworkManager has started, but is inactive). This is why the following console message appears during boot-up:

* WARNING: NetworkManager has already started, but is inactive

If you did not configure NetworkManager to connect automatically to a network, after logging-in to the DE you will need to use the DE’s network management GUI (plasma-nm in the case if KDE, nm-applet in the case of e.g. Xfce) to tell NetworkManager to connect to the desired network. However, I found that waiting that long before trying to connect is too late to avoid the ‘Failed to activate’ problem, i.e. NetworkManager crashes after a while. I do not know why this happens, but it usually happens only when I am at the location covered by one specific wireless network (which is why I wonder if the problem is a result of that network only supporting 802.11a/b/g). By configuring NetworkManager to connect automatically to the wireless network which seemed to trigger the problem, the NetworkManager service tries to connect earlier. It is possible to configure NetworkManager to do this either by using the DE network GUI and ticking ‘Automatically connect to this network when it is available’ for the relevant network connection, or by directly editing the relevant connection’s file in the directory /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/.

Of the various wired and wireless connections I had configured on the laptop, I had named the problematic wireless network’s connection ‘Free_Airport_Internet’. So I edited the file /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Free_Airport_Internet and deleted the line ‘autoconnect=false‘ in the [connections] section of the file (the default value of the autoconnect variable is TRUE – see man nm-settings). I could instead have done this by using the DE’s network manager GUI and ticking ‘Automatically connect to this network when it is available’ for that network connection. Now, when the laptop boots, NetworkManager tries to connect to that network and the ‘Failed to activate’ problem is avoided. This works with or without the iwlwifi driver options I mentioned above, so, despite the claim on the Web page I referenced above, the root cause of the problem does not appear to be the iwlwifi driver. What I don’t understand is why the problem only seems to occur with one particular network (a public wireless network which happens to only support 802.11a/b/g), i.e. even if none of the NetworkManager connection files in my installation have been configured to try to establish a connection automatically, with all the other wireless networks I have used in other locations (I believe those all support at least 802.11a/b/g/n) I have been able to establish a connection manually by using the DE’s network management GUI.

The bottom line

If your installation uses NetworkManager and you experience the ‘Failed to activate’ message when trying to connect to networks from the DE’s network management GUI, check if the NetworkManager service is running. You can check by using the command ‘nmcli d‘ in a console. If it is not running, try to restart the NetworkManager service from the command line. If the connection is not already configured to start automatically, configure it to start automatically in order to try to make NetworkManager become active at an early stage.

POSTSCRIPT (November 6, 2015)

The two links below are to old bug reports regarding earlier versions of NetworkManager having trouble using wireless networks with multiple Access Points. I wonder if the problem I saw with NetworkManager crashing when not configured to connect automatically to the specific network I mentioned above is somehow related to those problems:

background scanning causes drivers to disassociate – WiFi roaming causes NetworkManager to lose routing

network-manager roams to (none) ((none)) – background scanning

Roaming to BSSID “(none)” certainly happens with this particular network too, as shown by the messages in the laptop’s system log from yesterday when I was using the laptop with that network (the laptop was stationary the whole time):

# cat /var/log/messages | grep "Nov 5 11" | grep NetworkManager | grep $none$ Nov 5 11:01:22 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID 04:C5:A4:C3:F9:EE (Free_Airport_Internet) to (none) ((none)) Nov 5 11:01:22 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID (none) ((none)) to B8:BE:BF:69:89:6E (Free_Airport_Internet) Nov 5 11:13:23 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID B8:BE:BF:69:89:6E (Free_Airport_Internet) to (none) ((none)) Nov 5 11:13:23 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID (none) ((none)) to 04:C5:A4:C3:F9:EE (Free_Airport_Internet) Nov 5 11:15:23 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID 04:C5:A4:C3:F9:EE (Free_Airport_Internet) to (none) ((none)) Nov 5 11:15:23 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID (none) ((none)) to B8:BE:BF:69:89:6E (Free_Airport_Internet) Nov 5 11:19:22 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID B8:BE:BF:69:89:6E (Free_Airport_Internet) to (none) ((none)) Nov 5 11:19:23 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID (none) ((none)) to B8:BE:BF:69:89:6E (Free_Airport_Internet) Nov 5 11:49:50 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID B8:BE:BF:69:89:6E (Free_Airport_Internet) to (none) ((none)) Nov 5 11:49:50 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID (none) ((none)) to 68:BC:0C:A1:3C:DE (Free_Airport_Internet) Nov 5 11:51:51 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID 68:BC:0C:A1:3C:DE (Free_Airport_Internet) to (none) ((none)) Nov 5 11:51:51 clevow230ss NetworkManager[2459]: (wlp3s0): roamed from BSSID (none) ((none)) to B8:BE:BF:69:89:6E (Free_Airport_Internet)

Today I’m using a hotel network in my hotel room, and that does not roam to BSSID “(none)”, but I don’t know if my room is within range of more than one Access Point:

# cat /var/log/messages | grep "Nov 6" | grep NetworkManager | grep $none$ #

Anyway, with the work-around described in this post I have not had any further trouble accessing the particular network, but it would be interesting to know the root cause.

Filed under Desktops & Window Managers, Gentoo Linux, Linux, Networks, Wired, Wireless Tagged with desktop environments, Ethernet, Gentoo Linux, GUI, Internet, KDE, laptop, Linux, NetworkManager, networks, OpenRC, wired, wireless

‘Waiting for 192.168.1.254…’ (Why I could not access a home hub’s management page)

August 23, 2015 2 Comments

I had not been able to access the Manager of the BT Home Hub 3 on my home network to view and configure the hub’s settings. All the network’s users could access the Internet, and I could ping the hub, but trying to access the BT Home Hub Manager from a Web browser resulted in the message ‘Waiting for 192.168.1.254…’. The same thing happened whatever the PC, OS, browser and method of connection (wired or wireless). Sometimes, after about ten minutes or so, an incomplete Manager page would appear, but usually the browser would just display ‘Waiting for 192.168.1.254…’ forever.

I should point out that my Ethernet wired connections use Powerline adapters (HomePlug) connected to the mains wiring of my semi-detached house.

Actually, I did find a temporary work-around to enable me to access the Home Hub Manager. If I switched off then on the power supply to the Home Hub I could access the Manager for a short period (the time varied, but typically was less than half an hour). Then I would be back in the same position of seeing ‘Waiting for 192.168.1.254…’ in a browser window if I tried later to access the Manager. Although I do not need to access the Home Hub Manager often, it was still a nuisance to have to cycle the power to the hub every time I needed to access the Manager.

Searching the Web, it seems this is quite a common problem and can occur irrespective of the manufacturer of the hub (or router) and its IP address. In some cases users have fixed the problem by upgrading the hub’s firmware or by performing a ‘factory reset’ of the hub, but some users never found a solution.

In my case, the BT Home Hub 3 has the latest available version of firmware installed. Not only did I check that via the Web, I also checked the firmware version of another BT Home Hub 3 in the house of someone I know who lives in another town. The curious thing was that he has no trouble accessing the BT Home Hub Manager (also IP address 192.168.1.254).

So I decided to perform a ‘factory reset’ of the Home Hub, but that made no difference.

Then, after many hours searching the Web, I found a thread about a similar problem with a different model of hub: Can’t access BT HomeHub 4? But I’m online ok?. A post by user troublegum in that thread made me sit up:

I still reckon it’s the homeplugs. Regardless of whether your PC is connected to it or not, If one of them is connected to your neighbour’s as well as your router, then it’s going to put 2 DHCP servers on your network.

Disconnect the homeplug from the router, renew your DHCP lease if necessary and try again.

Even before finding that thread I had wondered if the problem was somehow linked to my use of Powerline (HomePlug) adapters.

It seems that, if one PC on a home network is connected to the Home Hub via a Powerline adapter AND a neighbour also happens to be using Powerline adapters AND his single-phase mains house wiring is somehow linked to yours (which is unusual, as adjacent houses are normally connected to a different mains phase), there is the possibility that none of your PCs will be able to access the Home Hub Manager (even if they are connected directly to the Home Hub by Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi rather than via a Powerline adapter).

I have been using Powerline (HomePlug) adapters successfully for about nine years. In late December 2012 I changed from HomePlug 1.0 adapters (14 Mbps) to HomePlug AV adapters (200 Mbps). HomePlug 1.0 adapters and HomePlug AV adapters can operate concurrently over the same mains wiring but can only communicate with adapters of the same standard. The problem of not being able to access the Home Hub Manager started two or three years ago, so I assume that either my neighbour began using Powerline adapters at that time or, coincidentally, I changed to the same standard and manufacturer of Powerline adapter he uses.

Powerline adapters each have a non-volatile encryption key, intended to enable separate Powerline networks to co-exist on the same mains wiring by using a different encryption key for each network.

Since the end of December 2012 I have been using NETGEAR XAVB1301 200 Mbps Powerline adapters but had not bothered to change the encryption key in them (they all come configured with the factory default encryption key ‘HomePlugAV’). If my neighbour happens to be using Powerline adapters with the same default encryption key, and a hub with the same IP address as mine, we would both have two DHCP servers on the same network.

So I changed the encryption key on each of the four Powerline adapters I use:

Ethernet connection from the BT Home Hub to a mains socket in the Lounge.
Ethernet connection from a PC to a mains socket in the Lounge.
Ethernet connection from a laptop to a mains socket in my upstairs office.
Ethernet connection from a laptop to a mains socket in a bedroom.

It is supposed to be easy to set the encryption key in the model of Powerline adapter I use. You have to press a button on one adapter for 2 seconds, then a button on the next adapter for 2 seconds, and so on. You have to do them all within 2 minutes. The adapters only generate an encryption key once, so if you want to repeat the process you first have to press a recessed Factory Reset button on all the adapters.

However, despite following to the letter the instructions in the NETGEAR manual, I could not get all four adapters to connect to the network. So I downloaded the NETGEAR Powerline Universal Utility, installed it on the PC running Windows 10 in my lounge, connected the Ethernet port of that PC to one of the Powerline adapters and plugged it into a mains wall socket, plugged the other three Powerline adapters into a multi-socket mains adapter and plugged that into a mains wall socket in the lounge, launched the Powerline Universal Utility and I allocated all four adapters the same encryption key. Each adapter has its own MAC address, serial number and ‘Device Password’ (PWD) printed on it, and the NETGEAR utility program required me to enter the relevant PWD for each MAC address. Then I entered an encryption key (any string of characters of my choice) and clicked a button to set the adapters to use that encryption key. As that encryption key is different to the default key used by my neighbour, the two networks can now coexist without interfering with each other.

NETGEAR Powerline Utility showing my four Powerline adapters.

The use of the NETGEAR Powerline utility program is explained in NETGEAR’s ‘How To’ How to set the Encryption Key for the Powerline adapter network using the Powerline utility.

Problem finally solved! I can now access the Home Hub Manager without any trouble. And, as a bonus, Internet access seems a little quicker.

Filed under Hardware, Internet, Networks, Wired, Wireless Tagged with BT Home Hub, Ethernet, HomePlug, Internet, networks, Powerline, router, wired, wireless

NetworkManager creating a new connection ‘eth0’ that does not work, Part 4

March 22, 2015 4 Comments

Further to my previous post, this is to report the result of another experiment. By doing all the following I can stop NetworkManager creating an invalid second eth0 connection:

Enable IPv6 system-wide in /etc/modprobe.d/aliases.conf by commenting-out ‘alias net-pf-10 off‘.
Disable use of IPv6 by the Avahi daemon in /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf (see the four additional lines given in my previous post).
Use plasma-nm to edit the connection profile for ‘eth0’ that I had already created. Click on the IPv6 tab and ensure ‘Method: Ignored‘ is selected. Click on the IPv4 tab and ensure ‘Method: Automatic‘ is selected and ‘IPv4 is required for this connection‘ is ticked. Ticking ‘IPv4 is required for this connection‘ adds the line ‘may-fail=false‘ in the [ipv4] section in the file /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/eth0 (the default value for may-fail is ‘true‘ if the box has not been ticked and may-fail has not been assigned in the file).

The various experiments I have conducted are summarised in the following table:

Laptop WiFi switch	off	off	off	off	off	on
IPv6 enabled in aliases.conf	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
IPv6 enabled in avahi-daemon.conf	yes	yes	no	no	yes	yes
[ipv6] method=	ignore	ignore	ignore	ignore	ignore	ignore
[ipv4] method=	auto	auto	auto	auto	auto	auto
[ipv4] may-fail=	true	true	true	false	false	false
Invalid second eth0 created	usually	no	usually	no	yes	yes

As disabling IPv6 system-wide makes it impossible for NetworkManager to use IPv6, the above table can actually be written as follows:

Laptop WiFi switch	off	off	off	off	off	on
IPv6 enabled in aliases.conf	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
IPv6 enabled in avahi-daemon.conf	yes	yes\|\|no	no	no	yes	yes
[ipv6] method=	ignore	ignore	ignore	ignore	ignore	ignore
[ipv4] method=	auto	auto	auto	auto	auto	auto
[ipv4] may-fail=	true	true\|\|false	true	false	false	false
Invalid second eth0 created	usually	no	usually	no	yes	yes

I still think there is a bug in NetworkManager. I would not have expected NetworkManager to create a second eth0 connection and make it an IPv6 Link-Local connection when all the following are true:

/etc/NetworkManager.conf has ‘no-auto-default=eth0‘ in the [main] section.
‘IPv4 is required for this connection‘ is not ticked in plasma-nm (i.e. the [ipv4] section in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/eth0 contains either the line ‘may-fail=true‘ or the line ‘may-fail=‘).
‘Method: Automatic‘ is selected for IPv4 (‘method=auto‘ under [ipv4] in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/eth0).
‘Method: Ignored‘ is selected for IPv6 (‘method=ignore‘ under [ipv6] in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/eth0) and the other fields on the IPv6 tab have been rendered unselectable as a result.

Anyway, I will keep IPv6 disabled in /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf and IPv6 enabled system-wide. This seems to be the first thing to try if you’re experiencing the creation of an invalid additional eth0 connection with an IPv6 Link-Local address and you’re sure that none of the net.* services are running.

Filed under Desktops & Window Managers, Gentoo Linux, Hardware, Internet, Linux, Networks, Wired Tagged with Ethernet, Gentoo Linux, Internet, KDE, laptop, NetworkManager, networks, OpenRC, router, Sabayon Linux, wired

NetworkManager creating a new connection ‘eth0′ that does not work, Part 3

March 19, 2015 1 Comment

I’m even more convinced the problem discussed in my previous post is due to a bug in NetworkManager. I believe the issue with the Avahi daemon generating an IPv6 Link-Local address is a consequence of NetworkManager not always activating an interface and therefore not obtaining an IPv4 address, i.e. the IPv6 Link-Local address produced by the Avahi daemon is a side effect, not the root cause.

After my previous post I discovered that adding ‘use-ipv6=no‘ in /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf (my Experiment 2) had not prevented avahi-daemon using IPv6. However, adding the following lines in /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf defintely does prevent avahi-daemon from using IPv6 in my installation:

use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=no
publish-a-on-ipv6=no
publish-aaaa-on-ipv4=no

You can see in the message log below that the Avahi daemon is no longer generating an IPv6 Link-Local address. However, even with IPv6 disabled in avahi-daemon, an invalid second eth0 connection with an IPv6 Link-Local address still occurs in my installation. This indicates the problem is not caused by the Avahi daemon.

Mar 18 22:17:31 localhost syslog-ng[8316]: syslog-ng starting up; version='3.6.2'
Mar 18 22:17:32 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  NetworkManager (version 1.0.0) is starting...
Mar 18 22:17:32 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  Read config: /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
Mar 18 22:17:32 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  WEXT support is enabled
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: fglrx_pci 0000:01:00.0: irq 34 for MSI/MSI-X
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: <6>[fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 8351
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: <6>[fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 8352
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: <6>[fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 8353
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: <6>[fglrx] IRQ 34 Enabled
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: <6>[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000 
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: <6>[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:f7e2000, size:4000 
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: <6>[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:f7e6000, size:51a000 
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost kernel: <6>[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:3fff3000, size:d000 
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  Loaded plugin keyfile: (c) 2007 - 2013 Red Hat, Inc.  To report bugs please use the NetworkManager mailing list.
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  new connection /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Cisco00497
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  new connection /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/eth0
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  new connection /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/DIRECT-HeC460 Series
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  monitoring kernel firmware directory '/lib/firmware'.
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  rfkill0: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill0) (driver iwlwifi)
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  WiFi hardware radio set enabled
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  WWAN hardware radio set enabled
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost /etc/init.d/NetworkManager[8326]: WARNING: NetworkManager has started, but is inactive
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  Loaded device plugin: /usr/lib64/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-bluetooth.so
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  Loaded device plugin: /usr/lib64/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-adsl.so
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  Loaded device plugin: /usr/lib64/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-wwan.so
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  Loaded device plugin: /usr/lib64/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-wifi.so
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  WiFi disabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  WWAN enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  WiMAX enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  Networking is enabled by state file
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (lo): link connected
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (lo): carrier is ON
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (lo): new Generic device (driver: 'unknown' ifindex: 1)
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (lo): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): link connected
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): carrier is ON
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): new Ethernet device (driver: 'atl1c' ifindex: 2)
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): device state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'connection-assumed') [10 20 41]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): device state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'connection-assumed') [20 30 41]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  startup complete
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: starting connection 'eth0'
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (wlan0): using nl80211 for WiFi device control
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (wlan0): new 802.11 WiFi device (driver: 'iwlwifi' ifindex: 3)
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (wlan0): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/2
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (wlan0): device state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'managed') [10 20 2]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (wlan0): preparing device
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): device state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none') [30 40 0]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): device state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none') [40 50 0]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful.
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) scheduled.
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) started...
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): device state change: config -> ip-config (reason 'none') [50 70 0]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.ModemManager1' (using servicehelper)
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 5 of 5 (IPv6 Commit) scheduled...
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) complete.
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 5 of 5 (IPv6 Commit) started...
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): device state change: ip-config -> ip-check (reason 'none') [70 80 0]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: Stage 5 of 5 (IPv6 Commit) complete.
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): device state change: ip-check -> secondaries (reason 'none') [80 90 0]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): device state change: secondaries -> activated (reason 'none') [90 100 0]
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  NetworkManager state is now CONNECTED_LOCAL
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost acpid[8386]: starting up with netlink and the input layer
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost acpid[8386]: 6 rules loaded
Mar 18 22:17:33 localhost acpid[8386]: waiting for events: event logging is off
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost ModemManager[8385]: <info>  ModemManager (version 1.4.2) starting in system bus...
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  (eth0): Activation: successful, device activated.
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' (using servicehelper)
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost nm-dispatcher[8435]: Dispatching action 'up' for eth0
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost rpc.statd[8451]: Version 1.3.2 starting
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost rpc.statd[8451]: Flags: TI-RPC 
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost /etc/init.d/NetworkManager[8457]: status: inactive
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost rpc.statd[8451]: Running as root.  chown /var/lib/nfs to choose different user
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost /etc/init.d/NetworkManager[8469]: status: inactive
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.ModemManager1'
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  ModemManager disappeared from bus
Mar 18 22:17:34 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  ModemManager available in the bus
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost sm-notify[8556]: Version 1.3.2 starting
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Found user 'avahi' (UID 108) and group 'avahi' (GID 444).
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Successfully dropped root privileges.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: avahi-daemon 0.6.31 starting up.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Successfully called chroot().
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Successfully dropped remaining capabilities.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Loading service file /services/sftp-ssh.service.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Loading service file /services/ssh.service.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Network interface enumeration completed.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Registering HINFO record with values 'X86_64'/'LINUX'.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Server startup complete. Host name is meshedgedx.local. Local service cookie is 3778762828.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Service "meshedgedx" (/services/ssh.service) successfully established.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost avahi-daemon[8585]: Service "meshedgedx" (/services/sftp-ssh.service) successfully established.
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: ntpd 4.2.8@1.3265-o Wed  4 Mar 02:23:30 UTC 2015 (1): Starting
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: Command line: ntpd -g -q
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: proto: precision = 0.061 usec (-24)
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: Listen and drop on 0 v6wildcard [::]:123
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: Listen and drop on 1 v4wildcard 0.0.0.0:123
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: Listen normally on 2 lo 127.0.0.1:123
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: Listen normally on 3 lo [::1]:123
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: Listen normally on 4 eth0 [fe80::725a:b6ff:fe3e:c18a%2]:123
Mar 18 22:17:35 localhost ntpd[8645]: Listening on routing socket on fd #21 for interface updates
Mar 18 22:17:36 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: console 1 using theme 'Emergance'
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: switched decor state to 'on' on console 1
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: console 2 using theme 'Emergance'
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: switched decor state to 'on' on console 2
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: console 3 using theme 'Emergance'
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: switched decor state to 'on' on console 3
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: console 4 using theme 'Emergance'
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: switched decor state to 'on' on console 4
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: console 5 using theme 'Emergance'
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: fbcondecor: switched decor state to 'on' on console 5
Mar 18 22:17:36 localhost bluetoothd[8787]: Bluetooth daemon 5.28
Mar 18 22:17:36 localhost bluetoothd[8787]: Starting SDP server
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: Bluetooth: Core ver 2.19
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 31
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost kernel: Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
Mar 18 22:17:38 localhost kernel: Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
Mar 18 22:17:38 localhost kernel: Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
Mar 18 22:17:38 localhost kernel: Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
Mar 18 22:17:36 localhost bluetoothd[8787]: Bluetooth management interface 1.7 initialized
Mar 18 22:17:36 localhost NetworkManager[8346]: <info>  use BlueZ version 5
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost ModemManager[8385]: <warn>  Couldn't find support for device at '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0': not supported by any plugin
Mar 18 22:17:37 localhost ModemManager[8385]: <warn>  Couldn't find support for device at '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:04:00.0': not supported by any plugin
Mar 18 22:17:39 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.ColorManager' (using servicehelper)
Mar 18 22:17:39 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.ColorManager'
Mar 18 22:17:41 localhost kernel: nf_conntrack: automatic helper assignment is deprecated and it will be removed soon. Use the iptables CT target to attach helpers instead.
Mar 18 22:17:43 localhost kernel: [UFW BLOCK] IN=eth0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:725a:b6ff:fe3e:c18a DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=0 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8612 LEN=24 
Mar 18 22:17:43 localhost kernel: [UFW BLOCK] IN=eth0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:725a:b6ff:fe3e:c18a DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=0 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8612 LEN=24 
Mar 18 22:17:43 localhost laptop-mode[8947]: Laptop mode 
Mar 18 22:17:43 localhost laptop-mode[8948]: enabled, not active
Mar 18 22:17:58 localhost kernel: Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
Mar 18 22:17:58 localhost rpc.mountd[9741]: Version 1.3.2 starting
Mar 18 22:17:59 localhost kernel: NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
Mar 18 22:17:59 localhost kernel: NFSD: starting 90-second grace period (net ffffffff81c3d580)
Mar 18 22:17:58 localhost sm-notify[9760]: Version 1.3.2 starting
Mar 18 22:17:58 localhost sm-notify[9760]: Already notifying clients; Exiting!
Mar 18 22:18:00 localhost sshd[9816]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
Mar 18 22:18:00 localhost sshd[9816]: Server listening on :: port 22.
Mar 18 22:18:00 localhost cron[9870]: (CRON) STARTUP (V5.0)
Mar 18 22:18:00 localhost su[9899]: Successful su for fitzcarraldo by root
Mar 18 22:18:00 localhost su[9899]: + /dev/console root:fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:18:00 localhost su[9899]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user fitzcarraldo by (uid=0)
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.RealtimeKit1' (using servicehelper)
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.RealtimeKit1'
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Successfully called chroot.
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Successfully dropped privileges.
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Successfully limited resources.
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Running.
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Watchdog thread running.
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Canary thread running.
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost kdm[8833]: :0[8833]: pam_unix(kde:session): session opened for user fitzcarraldo by (uid=0)
Mar 18 22:18:01 localhost kdm[8833]: :0[8833]: pam_ck_connector(kde:session): nox11 mode, ignoring PAM_TTY :0
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [pulseaudio] sink.c: Default and alternate sample rates are the same.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [pulseaudio] source.c: Default and alternate sample rates are the same.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 0 threads of 0 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [pulseaudio] module-jackdbus-detect.c: Unable to contact D-Bus session bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NotSupported: Unable to autolaunch a dbus-daemon without a $DISPLAY for X11
Mar 18 22:18:03 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to load module "module-jackdbus-detect" (argument: "channels=2"): initialization failed.
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Module load failed.
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [pulseaudio] server-lookup.c: Unable to contact D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NotSupported: Unable to autolaunch a dbus-daemon without a $DISPLAY for X11
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Unable to contact D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NotSupported: Unable to autolaunch a dbus-daemon without a $DISPLAY for X11
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9899]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9964]: Successful su for fitzcarraldo by root
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9964]: + /dev/console root:fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9964]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user fitzcarraldo by (uid=0)
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9964]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9966]: Successful su for fitzcarraldo by root
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9966]: + /dev/console root:fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9966]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user fitzcarraldo by (uid=0)
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9966]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9968]: Successful su for fitzcarraldo by root
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9968]: + /dev/console root:fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9968]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user fitzcarraldo by (uid=0)
Mar 18 22:18:04 localhost su[9968]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:18:15 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' (using servicehelper)
Mar 18 22:18:15 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.UPower'
Mar 18 22:18:17 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.UDisks2' (using servicehelper)
Mar 18 22:18:17 localhost udisksd[10120]: udisks daemon version 2.1.4 starting
Mar 18 22:18:17 localhost dbus[7763]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.UDisks2'
Mar 18 22:18:17 localhost udisksd[10120]: Acquired the name org.freedesktop.UDisks2 on the system message bus
Mar 18 22:18:19 localhost kernel: [UFW BLOCK] IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=01:00:5e:00:00:01:00:16:fa:25:28:01:08:00 SRC=0.0.0.0 DST=224.0.0.1 LEN=36 TOS=0x00 PREC=0xC0 TTL=1 ID=0 PROTO=2 
Mar 18 22:18:54 localhost hp-systray[10453]: hp-systray[10453]: error: option -s not recognized
Mar 18 22:18:55 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Successfully made thread 10469 of process 10469 (/usr/bin/pulseaudio) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Mar 18 22:18:55 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 1 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:55 localhost pulseaudio[10469]: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
Mar 18 22:18:56 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Successfully made thread 10485 of process 10485 (/usr/bin/pulseaudio) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Mar 18 22:18:56 localhost rtkit-daemon[9906]: Supervising 1 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 22:18:56 localhost pulseaudio[10485]: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
Mar 18 22:19:04 localhost polkitd[7911]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-session:/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session1 (system bus name :1.52 [/usr/lib64/kde4/libexec/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1], object path /org/kde/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_GB.UTF-8)
Mar 18 22:19:10 localhost su[10569]: Successful su for root by fitzcarraldo
Mar 18 22:19:10 localhost su[10569]: + /dev/pts/0 fitzcarraldo:root
Mar 18 22:19:10 localhost su[10569]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user root by fitzcarraldo(uid=1000)
Mar 18 22:19:26 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [alsa-sink-ALC272 Analog] alsa-sink.c: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write!
Mar 18 22:19:26 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [alsa-sink-ALC272 Analog] alsa-sink.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Mar 18 22:19:26 localhost pulseaudio[9904]: [alsa-sink-ALC272 Analog] alsa-sink.c: We were woken up with POLLOUT set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.
Mar 18 22:20:01 localhost cron[10670]: (root) CMD (test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons)

In the cases when NetworkManager activates a connection correctly and there is no invalid second eth0 connection, the log contains a message like the following:

Mar 16 22:23:47 localhost NetworkManager[6688]: <info>  Auto-activating connection 'eth0'.

Notice there is no such message in the message log above.

The only way I can be sure of preventing NetworkManager creating an invalid second eth0 connection is to disable IPv6 system-wide by uncommenting the line ‘alias net-pf-10 off‘ in the file /etc/modprobe.d/aliases.conf.

So, to me, this looks like a bug in NetworkManager 1.0.0 (I have been experiencing it since Version 0.9.10.0).

Filed under Desktops & Window Managers, Gentoo Linux, Hardware, Internet, Networks, Wired Tagged with Ethernet, Gentoo Linux, Internet, KDE, laptop, NetworkManager, networks, OpenRC, router, Sabayon Linux, wired

More on NetworkManager creating a new connection ‘eth0′ that does not work

March 17, 2015 7 Comments

In a previous post I described a problem I have been experiencing with NetworkManager since Version 0.9.10.0 (I am now using Version 1.0.0): sometimes, but not always, there is an invalid second eth0 connection when my laptop boots. This invalid second eth0 connection has only IPv6 Link-Local enabled (i.e. IPv4 and IPv6 are disabled) and is Active. As a result the existing eth0 connection for IPv4 I previously created is Available but unable to connect.

While on a work trip and using my laptop on an office network and an hotel network I made some changes to my installation (see the above-mentioned previous post) that seemed to fix this problem on those networks. However, on returning home and connecting my laptop to my home network, I found the problem still exists. This makes me wonder if a race condition is occurring, as network latency can differ between networks. Could it be that my home network takes longer to assign an IPv4 address than the office and hotel networks I used, which results in NetworkManager creating a second eth0 connection with IPv4 and IPv6 disabled? Or perhaps there is a race condition between services but network latency has nothing to do with it. In retrospect, I should have checked the contents of the log file /var/log/messages while on my work trip to see if those networks were providing my laptop with an IPv6 address in addition to an IPv4 address, i.e. check if the IPv6 address was not just a Link-Local address.

But why is NetworkManager creating any additional connection at all when NetworkManager.conf in my installation currently contains ‘no-auto-default=eth0‘? Surely this must be a bug in NetworkManager?

I have found virtually no mention of this behaviour on the Web. Debian bug report no. 755202 appears to describe the same problem. I started experiencing the problem in Gentoo Linux (~amd64 installation using OpenRC) after I upgraded NetworkManager to Version 0.9.10.0 too, and it has continued occurring up to the current version of NetworkManager (1.0.0). Fellow Gentoo Linux user Keivan Moradi’s fix (Message #79 in the aforementioned Debian bug report) did not cure the problem for me, and, anyway, my wired NIC uses a different driver (atl1c module) which appears to be stable in my installation.

CentOS bug report no. 0007435 also appears to report the same behaviour, but I’m not sure.

NetworkManager usually (but not always) creates an invalid second eth0 connection when my laptop boots and an Ethernet cable is connected to my home network. The second eth0 connection is shown as Active in plasma-nm (the KDE front-end for NetworkManager) but only has an IPv6 Link-Local connection configured (i.e. IPv4 is shown as Disabled). If I click on Disconnect in plasma-nm then this ‘rogue’ eth0 connection disappears from plasma-nm. Once the invalid IPv6 Link-Local connection has been disconnected, the valid IPv4 eth0 available connection can connect to the network and access the Internet.

I examined /var/log/messages when the invalid second eth0 connection occurs and when it doesn’t, and the invalid eth0 connection only seems to occur when NetworkManager appears to have first started earlier than syslog-ng began logging. When NetworkManager first starts after syslog-ng began logging, I can see it launches dhcpcd and acquires an IPv4 address. avahi-daemon does not seem to be the cause of the problem if I understand the log file correctly. Anyway, my experiments described below seem to exonerate the Avahi daemon. I could be misinterpreting what is going on, but that’s how it looks to my inexpert eyes. In Debian bug report no. 755202 some commenters refer to extra interfaces with names such as ‘eth0:avahi’ being listed by the ifconfig command when the problem occurs, but I wonder if that is just a side effect. Anyway, the ifconfig command does not list such interfaces in my case.

I tried the following experiments:

1. I commented out the entire contents of the file /etc/conf.d/net (the configuration file for initscripts /etc/init.d/net.*) — which I think is analogous to Debian’s /etc/network/interfaces file — but it did not stop the invalid second eth0 connection occurring.

2. I added ‘use-ipv6=no‘ and, later, ‘use-ipv4=no‘ in the file /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf but they did not stop the invalid second eth0 connection occurring.

3. I added ‘deny-interfaces=eth0‘ in the file /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf but it did not stop the invalid second eth0 connection occurring.

4. In my installation, the ‘local‘ service (launched by initscript /etc/init.d/local) has always been allocated to two runlevels: ‘default‘ and ‘nonetwork‘. I de-allocated the ‘local‘ service from the ‘nonetwork‘ runlevel but this did not stop the invalid second eth0 connection occurring.

5. In my installation, the ‘net.lo‘ service (launched by initscript /etc/init.d/net.lo) has always been allocated to the ‘boot‘ runlevel (the other net.* services, such as ‘net.eth0‘ and ‘net.wlan0‘, have never been allocated to a runlevel in my installation). I de-allocated ‘net.lo‘ from the ‘boot‘ runlevel but it did not stop the invalid eth0 connection occurring.

As experiments 4 and 5 did not stop the laptop accessing the Internet once I had deleted the invalid second eth0 connection, I have left the ‘local‘ service in the ‘default‘ runlevel only, and I have left the ‘net.lo‘ service unallocated to a runlevel.

6. Since the invalid eth0 connection is allocated an IPv6 Link-Local address rather than an IPv4 address on my home network, I tried a work-around: I disabled IPv6 system-wide by un-commenting the line ‘alias net-pf-10 off‘ in the file /etc/modprobe.d/aliases.conf. Now a second eth0 connection is no longer created, and the valid eth0 IPv4 connection I created previously connects automatically. I have not rebooted many times yet, so I don’t know if this work-around has eliminated the problem for good, but it looks promising.

Nevertheless I would like to find the root cause of the problem, rather than settling for a work-around of disabling IPv6 system-wide. Given that, when IPv6 is enabled, a second eth0 connection is sometimes not created and the ‘good’ IPv4 eth0 connection I created previously can connect, hopefully it should be possible somehow to have both IPv6 and IPv4 enabled system-wide without an invalid eth0 connection ever being created. Could NetworkManager be modified so that it does not create a connection if the DHCP client launched by NetworkManager does not obtain an IP address, for example?

This is not the end of the story, I’m sure.

For information, the services currently used are shown below:

meshedgedx fitzcarraldo # rc-status --all Runlevel: nonetwork Runlevel: shutdown killprocs [ stopped ] savecache [ stopped ] mount-ro [ stopped ] Runlevel: sysinit devfs [ started ] tmpfiles.dev [ started ] sysfs [ started ] dmesg [ started ] udev [ started ] Runlevel: boot hwclock [ started ] modules [ started ] device-mapper [ started ] fsck [ started ] root [ started ] mtab [ started ] localmount [ started ] sysctl [ started ] bootmisc [ started ] termencoding [ started ] keymaps [ started ] swapfiles [ started ] ufw [ started ] procfs [ started ] dbus [ started ] tmpfiles.setup [ started ] serial [ started ] hostname [ started ] consolekit [ started ] consolefont [ started ] xdm [ started ] loopback [ started ] Runlevel: single Runlevel: default swap [ started ] bluetooth [ started ] syslog-ng [ started ] sshd [ started ] fbcondecor [ started ] atd [ started ] NetworkManager [ started ] avahi-daemon [ started ] cupsd [ started ] mdadm [ started ] acpid [ started ] nfsclient [ started ] netmount [ started ] alsasound [ started ] laptop_mode [ started ] cups-browsed [ started ] hddtemp [ started ] mysql [ started ] nfs [ started ] samba [ started ] urandom [ started ] vixie-cron [ started ] local [ started ] Dynamic Runlevel: hotplugged Dynamic Runlevel: needed rpcbind [ started ] rpc.statd [ started ] rpc.pipefs [ started ] rpc.idmapd [ started ] xdm-setup [ started ] Dynamic Runlevel: manual meshedgedx fitzcarraldo #

The allocations of services to runlevels are shown below:

My installation has the following six runlevels:

meshedgedx fitzcarraldo # ls /etc/runlevels boot default nonetwork shutdown single sysinit

Filed under Desktops & Window Managers, Gentoo Linux, Hardware, Internet, Linux, Networks, Wired Tagged with Ethernet, Gentoo Linux, Internet, KDE, laptop, Linux, NetworkManager, networks, OpenRC, router, wired

Using a Samsung Xpress C460FW with Gentoo Linux and Android KitKat for printing and scanning

February 24, 2015 3 Comments

INTRODUCTION

A work colleague has just received a Samsung Xpress C460FW MFP (laser printer, scanner, copier and fax machine) for small print jobs. It is possible to connect to it via USB, Direct USB, wired network, wireless network, Wi-Fi Direct and NFC; that’s impressive for a MFP that can be purchased for GBP 270 in the UK.

I wanted to use the C460FW to print and scan from my laptop running Gentoo Linux, and also to print and scan from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 running Android KiKat. It turned out that I was able to do all of those, and it was not difficult to set up.

A technician from the IT Support department had already entered a static IP address, subnet mask and default gateway IP address via the C460FW’s control panel to connect it to the office’s wired network. So my options to connect to this particular C460FW are: the wired network for Linux; Wi-Fi Direct for Linux and Android; NFC for Android.

I had never used Wi-Fi Direct before, but it turned out to be easy in Gentoo Linux on my laptop, and also easy in Android KitKat on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I had never used NFC before either, and that also turned out to be easy on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

Samsung has a series of videos on YouTube explaining how to use Wi-Fi Direct and NFC for printing, scanning and faxing with the C460FW from a Samsung smartphone; here are links to a few of them:

Samsung Smart Printing – 01 NFC Connect

Samsung Smart Printing – 02 Wi Fi Direct

Samsung Smart Printing – 03 Wi Fi

Samsung Smart Printing – 04 NFC Print

Samsung Smart Printing – 05 NFC Scan

Samsung Smart Printing – 06 NFC Fax

Samsung Smart Printing – 11 Samsung Mobile Print App(Printer Status)

PRINTING

Linux

Wired connection

I had installed the package net-print/samsung-unified-linux-driver Version 1.02 from a Portage local overlay back in March 2013 when I needed to print to a different model of Samsung MFP, so I thought I would see if that driver would work with the C460FW. I opened the CUPS Printer Manager in a browser window (http://localhost:631/) to configure my Gentoo installation to print to the device via the wired network. ‘Samsung C460 Series‘ was in the list of discovered network printers in the CUPS Printer Manager, and the driver ‘Samsung C460 Series PS‘ was displayed at the top of the list of models, so it was a piece of cake to set up the printer via CUPS, and I was able to print a test page in no time at all. My colleague uses a laptop running Windows 7, and he had to install the Windows driver from a Samsung CD that came with the C460FW.

Wireless connection

As the IT Support technician had configured the C460FW to print via the office wired network rather than the office wireless network, I decided to configure my laptop to print via Wi-Fi Direct, just to learn about Wi-Fi Direct, really. On the C460FW’s control panel I selected Network > Wireless > Wi-Fi Direct and enabled Wi-Fi Direct. Scrolling through the Wi-Fi Direct entries in the LCD I saw the following information:

Device Name: C460 Series
Network Key: <an 8-digit code>
IP address: 192.168.003.001

Two new networks were listed under ‘Available connections’ in plasma-nm (the KDE GUI front-end to NetworkManager) on my laptop: ‘DIRECT-HeC460 Series‘ and ‘DIRECT-SqC460 Series‘, both using WPA2-PSK encryption. I used the control panel of the C460FW to print a network configuration report in order to check which of the two SSIDs I should select, and it is ‘DIRECT-HeC460 Series‘ (I found out later that an adjacent room also has a C460FW and its Wi-Fi Direct SSID is ‘DIRECT-SqC460 Series‘). So I selected ‘DIRECT-HeC460 Series‘ and plasma-nm prompted me to enter a network password. I entered the 8-digit key I had found from the C460FW’s LCD panel (it’s also listed in the printed network configuration report), and NetworkManager connected to the printer.

In exactly the same way as I do when setting up any printer in Linux, I launched Firefox, opened the CUPS Printer Manager page, clicked on ‘Administration’ > ‘Add Printer’ and entered the user name ‘root’ and the password in the pop-up window. Again the ‘Add Printer’ page had ‘Samsung C460 Series‘ in the list of discovered network printers, so I just selected it and clicked on ‘Continue’. As I had already set up the printer in CUPS for the wired network connection and given it the name ‘Samsung_C460FW_office‘, I entered the name ‘Samsung_C460FW_office_WiFi_Direct‘ to distinguish it from the wired network entry, entered a Description and Location, and clicked on ‘Continue’. The next page had ‘Samsung C460 Series PS‘ first in the driver list so I selected that, clicked on ‘Add Printer’ and that was it. I was able to print a test page from the CUPS Printer Manager, and the printer is now included the list of printers in Linux applications’ print dialogues.

When I want to print using Wi-Fi Direct the only thing I need to remember to do first is select ‘DIRECT-HeC460 Series‘ in the network GUI on the KDE Panel, so that the connection is active when I click ‘Print’ in whichever application I want to print from.

Given the ease of printing via the wired network and Wi-Fi Direct, I have no doubts that printing would also work had the C460FW been configured for the office wireless network instead of the wired network.

Duplex printing

The only downside to the Samsung Xpress C460FW is that it only supports manual duplex printing. If you specify duplex printing when printing from Windows, Samsung’s Windows driver prints all the odd-numbered pages in reverse order and displays a message in Windows telling you what to do next (turn over the pile of paper and put it back in the paper tray!), but in Linux it’s not difficult to work out what you have to do: you simply have to print all the odd-numbered sides first, turn over the paper, then print all the even-numbered sides. The print dialogue in Linux applications gives you the option to print only odd-numbered pages or only even-numbered pages, so there is no problem. The print dialogue in some Linux applications allows you to print pages in reverse order as well but, if not, you have to reverse the order yourself before printing the even-numbered pages (i.e. put Page 1 face down at the top of the pile then Page 3 face down under it, and so on). It’s not a big deal unless the document has a large number of pages.

Android

As you would expect with devices from the same manufacturer, setting up my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to print with the Samsung Xpress C460FW via WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) was easy. When I selected ‘Print’ on the Galaxy Note 4, it gave me the option to print via wireless network or Wi-Fi Direct. I chose the latter and, as I had already enabled Wi-Fi Direct on the C460FW’s control panel, the printer name was displayed in the list of available devices. I selected it, a blue LED began flashing on the C460FW’s control panel and the LCD prompted me to press the WPS button (on the left of the control panel). As soon as I pressed that, the C460FW printed the document sent by my Galaxy Note 4. From then onwards, I just needed to select ‘Print’ on the Galaxy Note 4, select the printer from the list of available devices, and the document is printed. When I want to print using Wi-Fi Direct the only thing I need to remember to do first on the Galaxy Note 4 is select ‘DIRECT-HeC460 Series‘ as the Wi-Fi network.

NFC

I then decided to try to print using NFC. I placed the Galaxy Note 4, without Wi-Fi enabled and with the Home Screen displayed (not the Lock Screen), on the NFC label on top of the C460FW; Android launched Play Store and prompted me to install Samsung Mobile Print, which I did. Now when I place the Galaxy Note 4 on the NFC label, the Galaxy Note 4 automatically enables Wi-Fi, connects to the C460FW directly and displays the Mobile Print app showing the options Print, Scan and Fax, and a page of icons labelled: Gallery, Camera, Google Drive, E-mail, Web page, Document, Facebook, DropBox, Evernote, OneDrive and Box, as well as a Settings icon to configure the printer (paper size etc.). I am able to select a document, photograph, Web page, etc. on the Galaxy Note 4 and print it. It is also possible to launch the Mobile Print app first and then place the Galaxy Note 4 on the C460FW.

NFC is not entirely trouble-free, though. Sometimes the Galaxy Note 4 displays a ‘Device not found‘ message but I can still print. Sometimes the Galaxy Note 4 displays the message ‘Connecting printer. There was some error while connecting to this device. Check your printer and try again. If NFC Pin was changed then please enter new NFC Pin.‘ and the two devices will not connect. Powering off then on the C460FW solves that. Sometimes the Galaxy Note 4 connects to another wireless network instead of to the C460FW via Wi-Fi Direct and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 then has to disconnect automatically from the other network. Sometimes the C460FW prompts me to press its WPS button and the Galaxy Note 4 then connects via Wi-Fi Direct but the Mobile Print app then displays the error message ‘Device not found. To troubleshoot please check – C460 Series is powered on. – Wi-Fi direct is enabled on C460 Series. – C460 Series and Mobile are connected to the same network.‘. Again, powering off then on the C460FW solves that. Despite these hiccups, printing via NFC is still handy.

SCANNING

Linux

I found out how to get the C460FW scanner working by consulting the third-party Web site The Samsung Unified Linux Driver Repository which someone created to provide .deb packages for the Samsung driver as well as tips on how to get Samsung printers and scanners working in Linux. It turned out to be relatively straightforward to scan, both via the office wired network and via Wi-Fi Direct. I edited the file /etc/sane.d/xerox_mfp.conf and replaced the following:

#Samsung C460 Series
usb 0x04e8 0x3468

with the following in order to use the C460FW to scan via the office wired network:

#Samsung C460 Series
#usb 0x04e8 0x3468
#Wired network static address of this C460FW:
tcp 10.90.21.125

or with the following in order to use the C460FW to scan via Wi-Fi Direct:

#Samsung C460 Series
#usb 0x04e8 0x3468
#Wi-Fi Direct address of this C460FW:
tcp 192.168.3.1

I found the IP addresses from the network configuration report I printed earlier.

I was able to use the two Linux scanning applications I normally use, XSane and gscan2pdf, to scan via the wired network and via Wi-Fi Direct. The resulting scans were very good. Given the ease of scanning via the wired network and Wi-Fi Direct, I have no doubts that scanning would work via a wireless network had the C460FW been configured for the office wireless network instead of the wired network.

Android

To use NFC to scan a document I place the Galaxy Note 4, without Wi-Fi enabled and with the Home Screen displayed (not the Lock Screen), on the NFC label on top of the C460FW. The Galaxy Note 4 enables Wi-Fi, connects automatically to the C460FW directly and launches the Mobile Print app showing the options Print, Scan and Fax. It is also possible to launch the Mobile Print app first and then place the Galaxy Note 4 on the C460FW. In other words, the procedure is exactly the same as when wanting to print via NFC. If I select Scan, the Galaxy Note 4 displays buttons for previewing and scanning. Amongst other things, the app’s Settings menu allows you to select whether you want to save the scanned image as a JPEG, PNG or PDF file. The hiccups mentioned above when printing via NFC also apply to scanning. Nevertheless, scanning from the C460FW to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 via NFC is still handy.

CONCLUSION

As I am mainly interested in printing text documents I have only tried to print a few colour photographs on plain copier paper, and they look good. Text in documents looks crisp. Despite the lack of automatic duplex printing the C460FW is an excellent peripheral, especially for the price, although I don’t pay for the consumables so I have no idea of the operating costs. The ease with which I got it printing and scanning in Gentoo Linux (laptop) and Android KitKat (Samsung Galaxy Note 4) means that I would definitely consider purchasing this model for home use.

Filed under Android, Gentoo Linux, Hardware, Linux, Networks, Wired, Wireless Tagged with Android, Ethernet, Firefox, Galaxy Note 4, Gentoo Linux, GUI, KDE, laptop, Linux, networks, printer, Samsung, scanner, wired, wireless, Xpress C460FW

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