Non-Pi Debian install: Errors during MiSTer CIFS Setup

[EricWalklet]

Hi, everyone.

I just found an old Mac Mini, wiped it, and installed Debian Bullseye on it so I can pair it with an external drive and use it as my RetroNAS server . My first attempt seemed to work, but I wasn't able to connect to it from any other device on my network, so I started from scratch: wiped the Mac, wiped my external drive, and did the whole installation process of Debian and RetroNAS over again, this time naming the default user and group "pi" like in most of the tutorials, even though I'm not using a Pi device.

Here are the steps I've done so far.

• Installed RetroNAS using apt
• Installed Cockpit (Install Menu 51)
• Used Cockpit to format my external drive and mount it to /storage
• Set /storage to the top level directory (Configuration Menu 05)
• Installed Samba (Install Menu 02)
• Installed (well, attempted to) Samba for MiSTer (Install Menu 33)

Unlike my setup attempt before wiping, the Samba for MiSTer option didn't seem to go well. I captured as much as I could of the logs in a PasteBin but it's cut off at the top because I was using SSH. The installation ended with the following (sorry, all my code blocks are getting combined for some reason):

task path: /opt/retronas/ansible/install_mister_cifs.yml:19
[WARNING]: While constructing a mapping from /opt/retronas/ansible/retronas_vars.yml, line 1, column 1, found a
duplicate dict key (retronas_group). Using last defined value only.
ok: [localhost] => {"ansible_facts": {"retronas_etherdfs_interface": "eth0", "retronas_group": "", "retronas_path": "/storage", "retronas_root": "/opt/retronas", "retronas_user": "pi"}, "ansible_included_var_files": ["/opt/retronas/ansible/retronas_vars.yml"], "changed": false}
 
TASK [MiSTer CIFS - build top level] ***********************************************************************************
task path: /opt/retronas/ansible/install_mister_cifs.yml:22
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "gid": 0, "group": "root", "mode": "0755", "msg": "chgrp failed: failed to look up group ", "owner": "pi", "path": "/storage/mister", "size": 4096, "state": "directory", "uid": 1000}
 
PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
 
Press [Enter] to continue...```

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

I tried checking on the Samba status (Services Menu 02) and didn't see anything that looked off, but I admittedly don't know what to look for (other than angry red text).

```systemctl --no-pager --full status smbd

● smbd.service - Samba SMB Daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/smbd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-07-31 14:56:20 PDT; 41min ago
       Docs: man:smbd(8)
             man:samba(7)
             man:smb.conf(5)
    Process: 996 ExecStartPre=/usr/share/samba/update-apparmor-samba-profile (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 1000 (smbd)
     Status: "smbd: ready to serve connections..."
      Tasks: 4 (limit: 4528)
     Memory: 17.1M
        CPU: 493ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/smbd.service
             ├─1000 /usr/sbin/smbd --foreground --no-process-group
             ├─1002 /usr/sbin/smbd --foreground --no-process-group
             ├─1003 /usr/sbin/smbd --foreground --no-process-group
             └─1005 /usr/sbin/smbd --foreground --no-process-group

Jul 31 14:56:20 retronas systemd[1]: Started Samba SMB Daemon.
Jul 31 14:58:54 retronas smbd[2440]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody
Jul 31 14:58:54 retronas smbd[2441]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody
Jul 31 14:59:04 retronas smbd[2442]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody
Jul 31 15:01:33 retronas smbd[15793]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody
Jul 31 15:03:07 retronas smbd[22491]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody
Jul 31 15:11:45 retronas smbd[24013]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody
Jul 31 15:11:58 retronas smbd[24014]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody
Jul 31 15:13:11 retronas smbd[24022]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody
Jul 31 15:27:13 retronas smbd[24148]: pam_unix(samba:session): session closed for user nobody

Press [Enter] to continue...```

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

```smbstatus -vv

using configfile = /etc/samba/smb.conf
Unknown parameter encountered: "client ntlm auth"
Ignoring unknown parameter "client ntlm auth"
Unknown parameter encountered: "ntlmv2 auth"
Ignoring unknown parameter "ntlmv2 auth"
Unknown parameter encountered: "client ntlm auth"
Ignoring unknown parameter "client ntlm auth"
Unknown parameter encountered: "ntlmv2 auth"
Ignoring unknown parameter "ntlmv2 auth"

Samba version 4.13.13-Debian
PID     Username     Group        Machine                                   Protocol Version  Encryption           Signing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Service      pid     Machine       Connected at                     Encryption   Signing
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No locked files


Press [Enter] to continue...```



cifs_mount.ini fails to complete successfully when I run it from my MiSTer, though it is able to ping the Debian machine (using the IP address, not the retrosmb hostname) successfully.

`Waiting for 192.168.86.111
mount: /tmp/cifs_mount: special device //192.168.86.111/mister does not exist.
//192.168.86.111/mister not mounted
Done!`

Can anyone think of something I might have messed up here, or something specific I need to do to get this running vanilla Debian Bullseye that would normally be setup by a Pi installation?

Thanks a lot.

[sairuk]

you didn't configure the retronas group on the system so the mister installer never finished

chgrp failed: failed to look up group

[EricWalklet]

Yeah, that did it. I added a "retronas" group, added the "pi" user to it, and then the installation completed successfully.

When I run cifs_mount.sh from the MiSTer now, I see the following:

/media/fat/Scripts# ./cifs_mount.sh
Waiting for 192.168.86.111
mount: /tmp/cifs_mount: cannot mount //192.168.86.111/mister read-only.
//192.168.86.111/mister not mounted
Done!

So, this means the MiSTer can't write to the RetroNAS mister share? Is there something else I need to do to my RetroNAS settings or to my user settings to change this?

[sairuk]

the group doesn't need to be called retronas it just needs to be a group you are willing to run retronas under, it is used for permissions, the default on a pi is pi/pi. My test VM is a user retronas group retronas but that is just incidental

grab the output of the following and let see where you are at (ideally none of this should be required normally)

on retronas
cat /opt/retronas/ansible/retronas_vars.yml

cat /etc/samba/retronas_mister.conf

on the mister after the cifs script is run
mount

[EricWalklet]

First Command:

retronas_user: "pi"
retronas_root: "/opt/retronas"
retronas_etherdfs_interface: "eth0"
retronas_path: "/storage"
retronas_group: "retronas"

Second Command:

## RetroNAS config.
## This is autogenerated. Changes will be lost.
comment = mister
path = /storage/mister
guest ok = no
browseable = yes
write list = pi
writeable = yes
valid users = pi
create mask = 0775
directory mask = 0775
follow symlinks = yes
wide links = yes
strict sync = no

MiSTer:

/dev/loop8 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /media/fat type exfat (rw,noatime,nodiratime,sync,dirsync,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,iocharset=utf8,namecase=0,errors=remount-ro)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=252176k,nr_inodes=63044,mode=755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=666)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,relatime,mode=777)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,mode=755)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /var/lib/samba type tmpfs (rw,relatime)
/media/fat/linux/bluetooth on /var/lib/bluetooth type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime,sync,dirsync)
//192.168.86.110/MiSTer on /media/fat/Scripts type cifs (rw,relatime,vers=3.1.1,cache=strict,username=renaissance2k,uid=0,noforceuid,gid=0,noforcegid,addr=192.168.86.110,file_mode=0755,dir_mode=0755,soft,nounix,serverino,mapposix,rsize=4194304,wsize=4194304,bsize=1048576,echo_interval=60,actimeo=1)

[sairuk]

uh ok I have no idea why the cifs_mount.sh is outputting confusing errors (that needs to be taken up with that project) but we can see by the rw in the mount output that you have indeed mounted your RetroNAS to your MiSTer successfully for read/write

//192.168.86.110/MiSTer on /media/fat/Scripts type cifs (rw,relatime,vers=3.1.1,cache=strict,username=renaissance2k,uid=0,noforceuid,gid=0,noforcegid,addr=192.168.86.110,file_mode=0755,dir_mode=0755,soft,nounix,serverino,mapposix,rsize=4194304,wsize=4194304,bsize=1048576,echo_interval=60,actimeo=1)

[EricWalklet]

Sorry, .86.110 is my old NAS which is where my old MiSTer share was living. Not sure why that's lingering after editing cifs_mount.sh and cifs_mount.ini, and rebooting the MiSTer.

.86.111 is the RetroNAS. When I disconnect the old NAS and try to connect to RetroNAS, these are the logs:

/media/fat/Scripts# cifs_mount.sh
Waiting for 192.168.86.111
mount: /tmp/cifs_mount: cannot mount //192.168.86.111/mister read-only.
//192.168.86.111/mister not mounted
Done!
/media/fat/Scripts# mount
/dev/loop8 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /media/fat type exfat (rw,noatime,nodiratime,sync,dirsync,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,iocharset=utf8,namecase=0,errors=remount-ro)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=252176k,nr_inodes=63044,mode=755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=666)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,relatime,mode=777)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,mode=755)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /var/lib/samba type tmpfs (rw,relatime)
/media/fat/linux/bluetooth on /var/lib/bluetooth type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime,sync,dirsync)

From Windows, I'm able to access \retrosmb from Explorer, and I see "retronas" and "mister" subfolders in the share that opens. When I try to drill into either of them, though, using either the "pi" account/password or "root" (with the appropriate password for either), I get an "Access is denied" error. That might be a hint as to what's going on, or something unrelated.

By the way, sorry for all the back and forth! I appreciate the help.

[sairuk]

OK, go into the General Config and set the username/password for the pi user, you need to do this after installing the MiSTer samba tool to set the appropriate samba user credentials.

[EricWalklet]

Yes, that worked, and I'm able to access the share from Windows now. Thanks.

The MiSTer mount script is now hanging when I try to run it, rather than immediately throwing an error message. Since I can successfully connect to the share from Windows now, though, I think everything is as it should be on the RetroNAS side, and I just need to play with the MiSTer side of things.

Thanks again for your help.