.: Advanced Linux Networking :.

The NetBEUI stack includes a README file with complete installation and use instructions. This file outlines two methods of installation. One requires you to edit the Makefile to point to your Linux kernel and Samba source code trees and set a few other system-specific options. You can then recompile both Linux and Samba with a single command, install your new kernel, and reboot the system. The second procedure also requires you to edit the Makefile, but proceeds to give instructions on performing individual steps in a piecemeal fashion. This second approach is likely to be superior if you run into any difficulties, because you'll be better able to isolate and correct the problem.

Whichever way you do it, you'll need the source code to both the Linux kernel and Samba. You can obtain these from http://www.kernel.org and http://www.samba.org, respectively, or from many common Linux download sites, like ftp://sunsite.unc.edu. Both packages can take several minutes to compile and install, so even if you don't run into problems, installing NetBEUI support is likely to take several minutes.

Once you've installed NetBEUI support, you can use several commands to enable or manipulate this support. These commands, included with the NetBEUI stack, are as follows:

• netb— Type this command followed by start to start NetBEUI on Linux. To stop NetBEUI, type netb stop. You must use this utility before you can use NetBEUI on Linux.
• nbview— Use this command if you want to check on the status of the local NetBEUI stack. This command reads the /proc/sys/netbeui file, which contains this information, and formats and parses the information for easier human consumption.
• nbstatus— This command displays information on the specified machine or workgroup; for instance, nbstatus SERVER displays information on the computer called SERVER.
• nbadmin— This command allows you to bind NetBEUI to a specific network interface, unbind NetBEUI from a specific interface, or drop a specific NetBEUI session. It does this using the bind, unbind, and drop commands, respectively, as in nbadmin bind eth0 or nbadmin drop 102. (You can obtain NetBEUI session numbers from nbview.)

For the most part, you'll only need to issue a netb start command, then start Samba. The NetBEUI stack adds a parameter to nmbd (the NetBIOS name daemon), smbd (the SMB daemon), and smbclient (the text-mode Samba client) to specify whether to use TCP/IP or NetBEUI. This parameter is -Z . For instance, to launch smbd to use NetBEUI, you'd type smbd -Z NETBEUI. You can also use the new -S NAME parameter to smbd to set the system's NetBEUI name to NAME.

To sum up, you can turn Linux into a NetBEUI SMB/CIFS server called NAME by recompiling the kernel and Samba with the Procom NetBEUI stack, rebooting, shutting down Samba (if necessary), and typing the following commands

# netb start

# nmbd -Z NETBEUI

# smbd -Z NETBEUI -S NAME

You can place these commands in a startup script, or modify your regular Samba startup script to incorporate these changes. Other Samba features, such as the definitions of shares, all function as described in Chapter 7. The advantage of this procedure boils down to two factors. First, it can be used with some older clients that support NetBEUI but not TCP/IP, and it reduces the chance of malicious outside access to the computer via Samba, because NetBEUI isn't normally routed over the Internet. On the downside, NetBEUI support is duplicated in NetBIOS over TCP/IP, which works with all recent Linux kernels and versions of Samba, and doesn't require patching or recompiling the kernel or Samba.