One partition on NAS went haywire for openSUSE

Looks like we can rule this out. I moved over 500GB from Elements to Partition2. Now both partitions misbehave in Leap 15.4, but perform correctly in Windows 10. I’m still trying to figure out what changed recently that would have caused this.

It’s the firewall! I stopped the firewall and the remote drive behaves correctly. Firewall version is 0.9.3-150400.8.6.1, installed Thu 21 Jul 2022, which is when this trouble started.

Allowed services in the zone are dhcpv6-client, mdns, samba, samba-client, and ssh. What needs to be added or removed to get through the firewall?

I seem to have spoken too soon. On another Leap 15.4 machine, I turned off the firewall, but the remote drive does not work correctly. More testing is underway.

Now I’m really baffled. A machine running Leap 15.4 could not correctly access the network external drive. I restored a Leap 15.3 image from 07 July 2022, but still could not correctly access the network external drive. Then I restored a Leap 15.2 image from 19 July 2021, but still no drive access. I know 15.2 worked. Windows 10 has no trouble correctly accessing the network external drive. So it seems something in the drive itself or the router changed to cause trouble with Linux samba but not Windows samba. I guess I’ll try changing the router firmware.

It seems to not be the router firmware. The router (ASUS RT-AX56U) has been running asuswrt-merlin, so I put on a version from about a year ago. No change. I tried the official ASUS version and again no change. I guess I’ll try formatting the partitions, even though fsck and chkdsk reported no errors. Phooey.

Diagnostic time: Refer back to post #5 where I linked to a debugging “how to”. With the appropriate debug level set, you should be able to get enough logging output to better understand what is not working properly.

Here’s what was logged:

howard@HP-oS15KDE:~> export KDE_FORK_SLAVES=1 
howard@HP-oS15KDE:~> export QT_MESSAGE_PATTERN='%{time process}](%{pid})/(%{category}) %{function}: %{message}' 
howard@HP-oS15KDE:~> export QT_LOGGING_RULES='log_kio_smb=true' 
howard@HP-oS15KDE:~> dolphin --new-window smb://192.168.1.1/ 
     0.000](17257)/(kf.kio.slaves.trash) unknown: Directory "/Big_Storage/.Trash-1000" exists but didn't pass the security checks, can't use it 
     0.000](17257)/(kf.kio.slaves.trash) unknown: Directory "/Storage/.Trash-1000" exists but didn't pass the security checks, can't use it 
VLC media player 3.0.17.3 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2) 
**000055a8a895ed30**] main libvlc: **Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.**
**00007f0918001680**] smb stream error: **read failed (Connection timed out)**
**00007f091804f0b0**] mjpeg demux error: **cannot peek**
**00007f08dc0076a0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
libva info: VA-API version 1.13.0 
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri/r600_drv_video.so 
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_13 
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0 
**00007f08dc0076a0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_r600.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 
**00007f08dc0076a0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
[h264 @ 0x7f09195eb100] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f09195eb100] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f09195eb100] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7f09195eb100] no frame!
[h264 @ 0x7f0919607320] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f0919607320] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f0919607320] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7f0919607320] no frame!
     0.000](17291)/(default) unknown: QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread 
     0.000](17347)/(default) unknown: "/tmp/DnpUiK.pdf" 
     0.000](17347)/(default) unknown: "/tmp/DnpUiK.pdf.part" 
     0.167](17347)/(default) unknown: concluding QUrl("file:///tmp/DnpUiK.pdf.part") QUrl("file:///tmp/DnpUiK.pdf.part") QUrl("file:///tmp/DnpUiK.pdf") 
     0.167](17347)/(default) unknown: "/tmp/DnpUiK.pdf.part" 
     0.000](17372)/(default) unknown: "/tmp/ebPslY.pdf" 
     0.000](17372)/(default) unknown: "/tmp/ebPslY.pdf.part" 
     0.115](17372)/(default) unknown: concluding QUrl("file:///tmp/ebPslY.pdf.part") QUrl("file:///tmp/ebPslY.pdf.part") QUrl("file:///tmp/ebPslY.pdf") 
     0.115](17372)/(default) unknown: "/tmp/ebPslY.pdf.part" 
VLC media player 3.0.17.3 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2) 
**00005573a4745d30**] main libvlc: **Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.**
**00007f03140076a0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
libva info: VA-API version 1.13.0 
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri/r600_drv_video.so 
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_13 
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0 
**00007f03140076a0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_r600.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 
**00007f03140076a0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
[h264 @ 0x7f0350148b80] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f0350148b80] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f0350148b80] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7f0350148b80] no frame!
[h264 @ 0x7f035018e800] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f035018e800] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f035018e800] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7f035018e800] no frame!
     0.000](17420)/(default) unknown: QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread 
VLC media player 3.0.17.3 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2) 
**00005566e1533d30**] main libvlc: **Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.**
**00007efdf00076a0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
libva info: VA-API version 1.13.0 
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri/r600_drv_video.so 
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_13 
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0 
**00007efdf00076a0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_r600.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 
**00007efdf077a5e0**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
[h264 @ 0x7efe2812f240] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7efe2812f240] thread_get_buffer() failed                                                                                                                                
[h264 @ 0x7efe2812f240] decode_slice_header error                                                                                                                                 
[h264 @ 0x7efe2812f240] no frame!                                                                                                                                                 
[h264 @ 0x7efe28174f40] get_buffer() failed                                                                                                                                       
[h264 @ 0x7efe28174f40] thread_get_buffer() failed                                                                                                                                
[h264 @ 0x7efe28174f40] decode_slice_header error                                                                                                                                 
[h264 @ 0x7efe28174f40] no frame!                                                                                                                                                 
     0.000](17458)/(default) unknown: QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread
     0.000](17511)/(default) unknown: "/tmp/tEDbCL.txt" 
     0.000](17511)/(default) unknown: "/tmp/tEDbCL.txt.part" 
VLC media player 3.0.17.3 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2) 
**000055ed8f1a0d30**] main libvlc: **Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.**
**00007f5ccc0016c0**] smb stream error: **open failed for '192.168.1.1/Elements/Videos/Dick Rodriguez Exercise.mov' (Invalid argument)**
**00007f5ccc068750**] smb stream error: **open failed for '192.168.1.1/Elements/Videos/Dick Rodriguez Exercise.mov' (Invalid argument)**
**00007f5ccc04f460**] smb stream error: **open failed for '192.168.1.1/Elements/Videos/Dick Rodriguez Exercise.mov' (Invalid argument)**
**00007f5ccc04f460**] smb stream error: **open failed for '192.168.1.1/Elements/Videos/Dick Rodriguez Exercise.mov' (Invalid argument)**
**00007f5ccc04a660**] smb stream error: **open failed for '192.168.1.1/Elements/Videos/Dick Rodriguez Exercise.mov' (Invalid argument)**
**00007f5cd8006ff0**] smb stream error: **open failed for '192.168.1.1/Elements/Videos/Dick Rodriguez Exercise.mov' (Invalid argument)**
     0.000](17533)/(default) unknown: QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread 
howard@HP-oS15KDE:~>  

The first click on a video, the drive was not spinning, so there was a lag while it started. The next few clicks worked OK, which seems routine, then failures started when opening a text file and a video.

What does all this mean?
Thanks,

And the end of heavy-duty log with DebugLevel 10 is at https://susepaste.org/35706448

I did not correctly redirect output to a file, so the start of the log is lost.

In the part at the link, the file in “Scuba” played correctly. the file in “Holidays” failed.

I’m still trying to determine what this tells me.

To my experience errors occur in general with both operating systems. However Windows tends to skip while Linux complains. It’s your data on the NAS and you are risking to lose them in the longer term.

Speculating here…

00007f56dc001670] smb stream error: open failed for  '192.168.1.1/Partition2/NVC/Holidays/Conflict Hotline - December _2009  Pt. 1 of 6.mp4' (Invalid argument)

I noted that the ‘Holidays’ file contains spaces, whereas the ‘Scuba’ file does not. It might be interesting to rename a ‘problem’ file to a name without spaces and see if that makes any difference.

The spaces were not the problem. I find that if the network drive has not been accessed for a few minutes, the first few (2 to 5, seems to vary) files run correctly, then failures start. I clicked the file ‘192.168.1.1/Partition2/NVC/Holidays/Conflict Hotline - December _2009 Pt. 1 of 6.mp4’ when I first accessed the drive and it played OK. After clicking a few more files, VLC and KWrite both failed to get files. The VLC log is at SUSE Paste. The KWrite screenshot is at SUSE Paste.

The VLC log didn’t reveal much in the way of any issues.

Try downloading files with smbget like this

smbget -U=user%password -O smb://192.168.1.1/Elements/Videos/Dick Rodriguez Exercise.mov' > test.mov

Does that work consistently?

The second suggestion that I have is to mount the samba shares (on demand) instead, and access the files via a locally mounted filesystem.

Returning to your opening post…

I have a 10TB external hard drive connected to a router

…consumer routers with a USB connected storage are not really designed for operation as a NAS, especially in a media server environment. You may well find that the performance just does not cut it for your needs.

Actually, this router and USB storage has performed fine for the two years since I bought it, until about two weeks ago. Before that, a smaller USB drive had worked fine for three years. We mainly want to stream videos to a laptop. VLC does that without transferring the file to the client.

I use the older drive to back up the videos, so I switched to it on the router, and it has exactly the same problem.

There have been quite a few bug reports for Linux samba recently about “Invalid argument” trouble, and stating “Got the same error on smbclient 4.16.0-1, downgrading to 4.15.6-1 fixes the issue.” I thought one of the older images I loaded would have pre-dated this issue, but it did not work.

Ok, but I know some routers do struggle WRT CPU and RAM resources (obviously workload dependent).

We mainly want to stream videos to a laptop. VLC does that without transferring the file to the client.

Yep, I get that.

There have been quite a few bug reports for Linux samba recently about “Invalid argument” trouble, and stating “Got the same error on smbclient 4.16.0-1, downgrading to 4.15.6-1 fixes the issue.” I thought one of the older images I loaded would have pre-dated this issue, but it did not work.

Yes, I’ve seen such reports in the course of searching, and I agree that it may be what is impacting you here, albeit not consistently?

FWIW, some users find using smbget and piping to the chosen app works for them eg

smbget -U=user%password -O smb://hostname/path/to/file.mpeg | vlc -
smbget -U=user%password -O smb://hostname/path/to/file.mpeg | mpv --stream-buffer-size=30MiB -

I added a bug report at https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15133

FWIW, a similar report…
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=421626
…but there it was mentioned that ‘totem’ video player worked as expected. Makes me wonder if the issue is with VLC itself. In any case, did you try the smbget approach?

I did

howard@HP-oS15KDE:~> smbget -U=myrealusername%myrealpassword -O smb://192.168.1.1/'Seagate_External_Drive_(H_)'/Videos/'Dick Rodriguez Exercise.mov' | vlc -

and nothing happened for a while, so I stopped it. It looked like it had transferred the 3.3GB file to the local system.
Once file access fails, it is for multiple applications, not just VLC. KWrite says the file does not exist, as shown at SUSE Paste. Okular has a similar response to clicking a pdf file.
If I do not access the network drive for like 30 minutes, the first few Dolphin file clicks work fine, then the failures start.

Tried to open a movie:

karl@Leap-15-4:~> LANG=C dolphin smb://ftpuser@fritz.box/FRITZ.NAS/Intenso-Business-01/FRITZ/mediabox/tele_gym_43.mp4 
kf.kio.core: "Could not enter folder smb://ftpuser@fritz.box/FRITZ.NAS/Intenso-Business-01/FRITZ/mediabox/tele_gym_43.mp4."

**But dolphin readily accesses the share and plays the video:
**

karl@Leap-15-4:~> LANG=C dolphin smb://ftpuser@fritz.box/FRITZ.NAS 
kf.kio.core: "Could not enter folder smb://ftpuser@fritz.box/FRITZ.NAS/Intenso-Business-01/FRITZ/mediabox/tele_gym_43.mp4." 
VLC media player 3.0.17.3 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2) 
**000056489ddc0c60**] main libvlc: **Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.**
**00007fc6c4007680**] gl gl: **Initialized libplacebo v4.192.1 (API v192)**
libva info: VA-API version 1.13.0 
libva info: User environment variable requested driver 'iHD' 
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri/iHD_drv_video.so 
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_13 
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0 
**00007fc6ef3f95b0**] avcodec decoder: **Using Intel iHD driver for Intel(R) Gen Graphics - 21.3.4 () for hardware decoding**
karl@Leap-15-4:~> 

I doubt whether this is a samba issue.

That works for me (in the case of a Windows share I have). My Linux samba shares just work, so I’m not entirely sure how to replicate the issue you’re experiencing.

Once file access fails, it is for multiple applications, not just VLC. KWrite says the file does not exist, as shown at SUSE Paste. Okular has a similar response to clicking a pdf file.
If I do not access the network drive for like 30 minutes, the first few Dolphin file clicks work fine, then the failures start.

That is a strange situation for sure.