I'm the maintainer of smbmount in the Samba package. Lately I've noticed a significant increase in reports of a specific, very peculiar, problem with smbfs where timestamps of files are corrupted. These occur on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows 98 shares. The problem occurs whenever the Windows 95 Bug Workaround is enabled in kernel builds and those kernels are then used to mount shares from something other than Windows 95. Inspection of the kernel source packages on the RedHat 6.0 source disk revealed that the stock x86 and sparc kernels are all being built with this option enabled. Since this is the first RedHat build with the 2.2.x kernels and, subsequently, the first build with the Samba version of smbmount, this problem is only just recently becoming chronic. Up until now, people wishing to use the 2.2.x kernels with the newer smbfs module and the newer smbmount would have to build their own. Often, they would not include this option and the problem would not occur. Now, with this option enabled in stock kernels, the complaint level is rising. ] # grep SMB_WIN95 *.config ] kernel-2.2-i386-BOOT.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-i386-smp.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-i386.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-i586-smp.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-i586.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-i686-smp.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-i686.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-sparc-smp.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-sparc.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-sparc64-smp.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y ] kernel-2.2-sparc64.config:CONFIG_SMB_WIN95=y The Windows 95 Bug Workaround forces "ON" some protocol hacks to work around bugs in Windows 95. The code for this hack is in the kernel even if this option is disabled. If the option is disabled, the bug workaround is "OFF" by default but can be enabled with a mount time option. If the Windows 95 Bug Workaround is enabled when the kernel is compiled, this code is forced "ON" with no way to disable it. This code is strictly for Windows 95 shares and causes havoc with Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows 98 shares. Specifically, it causes the bytes in the file timestamps to be reversed. The results in timestamps which appear to be garbage. Attempts to use timestamp dependent utilities (such as Make) result in random acts of terrorism and errors. The Windows 95 Bug Workaround should be enabled in the kernel build IF AND ONLY IF all of the shares which will be mounted by smbfs are only and will only ever be from Windows 95 systems. If there is any chance that a share from a Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows 98 system may be mounted by smbfs, the Windows 95 Bug Workaround option in the kernel build MUST NOT BE ENABLED! Please correct this error in your kernel builds... I plan on posting messages to the Samba mailing list (samba), the Linux Kernel mailing list (linux-kernel.edu) and to the RedHat List (redhat-list) shortly announcing this problem. This message is to give you a chance, in advance to correct the problem and to be prepared with a response to the announcement. I have marked this as a high priority problem due to the fact that it can cause corruption of timestamps in file systems. Copying files which have been corrupted in this way can cause propagation of bad timestamps (and the problems they create) to other file systems.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 3447 ***