Samba Malformed ACL config?

Support Network
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1

I was trying to setup a Samba Share to send files over from one computer to another when I happened to get this weird and obscure error about Malformed ACL. I was trying to open up a Local Share by sharing the Public folder within my /home/user directory, when it gave me this error;

net usershare add: malformed acl (missing ':')

Screenshot_20210207_060906

I couldn’t find any reference for this online when I searched up this error message. I’ve reinstalled Samba, and made sure my user was added to Samba to allow sharing of folders on the network.

What does this error even mean? there’s no malformed acl, because I’ve not even touched the conf files for Samba.

There’s also this from systemctl when I checked status, no idea why it cant just start from fresh install.

$ sudo systemctl status samba

● samba.service - Samba AD Daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/samba.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2021-02-07 06:32:48 ACDT; 9s ago
       Docs: man:samba(8)
             man:samba(7)
             man:smb.conf(5)
    Process: 9046 ExecStart=/usr/bin/samba --foreground --no-process-group $SAMBAOPTIONS (code=exited, >
   Main PID: 9046 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
     Status: "daemon failed to start: Samba detected misconfigured 'server role' and exited. Check logs>
      Error: 22 (Invalid argument)

Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba samba[9046]:   daemon_status: daemon 'samba' : Starting process...
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba samba[9046]: [2021/02/07 06:32:48.130655,  0] ../../source4/smbd/server.c:874(bi>
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba samba[9046]:   At this time the 'samba' binary should only be used for either:
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba samba[9046]:   'server role = active directory domain controller' or to access t>
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba samba[9046]:   You should start smbd/nmbd/winbindd instead for domain member and>
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba samba[9046]: [2021/02/07 06:32:48.130794,  0] ../../lib/util/become_daemon.c:121>
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba samba[9046]:   exit_daemon: daemon failed to start: Samba detected misconfigured>
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba systemd[1]: samba.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba systemd[1]: samba.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Feb 07 06:32:48 roomba systemd[1]: Failed to start Samba AD Daemon.

files are there in wherever it installed itself to, it exists, but fails to start. Is this a bug is Samba? I never have any luck getting Samba to just work out of the box, there’s always some issue that prevents it running or let me do the things I want to do. Just some old shitty software that isn’t really meant for Linux with no alternatives.

1 Like
2

Hey there,

what does the log say?

4

As the error can be several places - try running the testparm command on your config

# testparm /etc/samba/smb.conf

Test your Samba server for configuration errors using testparm - nixCraft

You don’t need samba to occationly share file - you can do it very simple using a standalone webserver like caddy.

sudo pacman -Syu caddy-bin

Launch the service (superuser is required to create a network binding on low ports so use a non privileged port) - pointing to the folderpath you want to share in this case the Public folder and allow it to be browsed.

caddy file-server --root /home/username/Public --browse --listen :8000

Then on the computer to receive the files - open a browser - pointing to your computer - either by IP or network name

Screeenshot

image

When you are done - terminate the service and done.

pkill caddy
5

According to the arch wiki
The default configuration sets log file to a non-writable location, which will cause errors - apply one of the following workarounds:
Change the log file location to a writable path: log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log

So I presumed you already checked this and edited the smb.conf to a writable location and maybe check what the service might output in the logfile?