SMB and BackupPC on Ubuntu 12.04

Written by

Update 2013-10-02: This issue has been resolved with BackupPC 3.3.0.

A number of people of reported issues backing up Windows hosts with SMB and BackupPC 3.2.1 on Ubuntu 12.04 precise. This is caused by a bug in Samba/smbclient since 3.6.x where excluded directories are still listed (even if they won’t be backed up). It has not yet been fixed, but there is a workaround: downgrade Samba to 3.5.x.

After some discussion in my last BackupPC post, I built Samba 3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 from Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric for precise using pbuilder.

You can now work around this problem by adding my repository to your BackupPC server and running:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install smbclient=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 samba-common=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 samba=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 libwbclient0=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 samba-common-bin=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3
echo "smbclient hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

This will downgrade smbclient and its dependencies, and mark them held so APT won’t attempt to upgrade them.

The following Samba packages have been added to the precise repository, all version 3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3, for amd64 and i386.

libwbclient0
libwbclient-dev
samba
samba-common
samba-common-bin
samba-dbg
samba-doc
samba-doc-pdf
samba-tools
smbclient
swat
winbind

Thanks to Mike Lerley for reporting this issue and helping test the workaround.

Comments

15 responses to “SMB and BackupPC on Ubuntu 12.04”

2012-06-14

Brad Morgan

It may not be a “bug” in the smbclient. I believe the following from http://www.samba.org/samba/history/samba-3.6.0.html may be relevant. Note: I was unable to get my BackupPC working with the suggested option.

Changed security defaults
————————-

Samba 3.6 has adopted a number of improved security defaults that will
impact on existing users of Samba.

client ntlmv2 auth = yes
client use spnego principal = no
send spnego principal = no

The impact of ‘client ntlmv2 auth = yes’ is that by default we will not
use NTLM authentication as a client. This applies to the Samba client
tools such as smbclient and winbind, but does not change the separately
released in-kernel CIFS client. To re-enable the poorer NTLM encryption
set ‘–option=clientusentlmv2auth=no’ on your smbclient command line, or
set ‘client ntlmv2 auth = no’ in your smb.conf

Reply
1. 2012-06-14
  
  Tyler Wagner
  
  Thanks for that. So you tried adding “–option=clientusentlmv2auth=no” to SmbClientFullCmd and SmbClientIncrCmd, and it didn’t work?
  
  Does downgrading via my method above work for you? I’ve only got one data point saying it does, and it isn’t me.
  
  Reply
2012-06-14

Brad Morgan

Yes, adding the option as you described didn’t work for me.

I “downgraded” the hard way by reinstalling the previous working version of Ubuntu server (11.10). My server is running under Hyper-V with a separate virtual disk for /var/lib/backuppc so other than the hassle of a fresh install, I’m back to a working state.

I’ll think about upgrading the OS again and then applying your downgrade, but it won’t happen right away. Your method would have been a lot easier than mine!

Reply
2012-06-14

terii

Any ideas? Thanks.

# apt-get install smbclient=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
smbclient : Depends: samba-common (= 2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3) but 2:3.6.3-2ubuntu2.2 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

# apt-get remove samba-common
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
ttf-dejavu-extra libio-dirent-perl rrdtool linux-headers-3.2.0-24 libtime-modules-perl libarchive-zip-perl libdbi1 librrd4 linux-headers-3.2.0-24-generic
libfile-rsyncp-perl ttf-dejavu
Use ‘apt-get autoremove’ to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
backuppc samba-common samba-common-bin smbclient
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 63.4 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

Reply
1. 2012-06-15
  
  Tyler Wagner
  
  Ok, we need to specify more package=version lines. Try this:
  
  apt-get install smbclient=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 samba-common=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 samba=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 libwbclient0=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3 samba-common-bin=2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3
  
  If it works, please provide your final command and I’ll update the post.
  
  Reply
2012-06-25

Joe

From that command I get:

E: Version ‘2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3’ for ‘smbclient’ was not found
E: Version ‘2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3’ for ‘samba-common’ was not found
E: Version ‘2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3’ for ‘samba’ was not found
E: Version ‘2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3’ for ‘libwbclient0’ was not found
E: Version ‘2:3.5.11~dfsg-1ubuntu2.3’ for ‘samba-common-bin’ was not found

Reply
1. 2012-06-25
  
  Joe
  
  disregard this.
  
  Didn’t see the bit about adding your repo.
  
  Reply
2012-06-26

David

Hi There

The downgrading works well, thanks.
The line to “hold” the updates needs to be changed to:

echo “smbclient hold” | sudo dpkg –set-selections

It as missing an ‘-‘ before the set-selections.

Reply
2012-06-26

David

The ‘–‘ get converted to a single –

Reply
1. 2012-06-26
  
  Tyler Wagner
  
  I cannot tell you how tired I am of that little wordpress “feature”. Hulk smash!
  
  I’ve corrected the post, thanks!
  
  Reply
2012-09-14

How to repair Backuppc on Ubuntu 12.04 | SMR Freelancing

[…] The cure is move down to the previous samba. Sounds simple doesn’t it. But if you’re not a Linux guru that task isn’t the simplest. Have faith, because the great guys at tolaris.com have put up this fix. […]

Reply
2012-11-15

Priit

Thank You

This also solved a problem where backuppc would not work with paths that have spaces in them.

Reply
2013-03-27

Mikko Kortelainen

This is great, thank you so much for providing these packages!

Reply
1. 2013-04-17
  
  Tyler Wagner
  
  I just read your blog and discovered Crayon. Thanks so much, this is awesome!
  
  Reply
2013-05-01

Tom

Thanks a million for providing these packages. I spent many hours trying to work around the problems described above. Applying your fix took all of five mins!

Reply