OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Networking

Arcamapper (SAMBA) loses connection

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Lutz Wagner:
Hi,

I wonder if anybody here ist using Arcamapper to connect to a Qnap-NAS (or other brand of NAS).

I have a Qnap TS-251D connected to my ArcaOS 5.0.4-system, with arcamapper.exe serving as a SAMBA-client to that NAS.
Arcamaper version of May 30, 2020.

Basically it works fine. I map the NAS to a local drive letter Z: on my AOS-machine (Z: having lots of subdirectories with hundreds of thousands of files). But in some circumstances I find the connection lost.

E.g. I cannot use PMView at all to view my image files on that Z:drive.  One single image can be opened, but when I start to browse through the files in that directory the Z: goes away. Same with PMFax.

Same happenes if I try to open the Z:-icon in the drives-folder

The only secure way to operate on Z:-objects seems to be from the commandline (dir, copy, delete).

I reported the problem some weeks ago to ArcaNoae, but up to now I got no satisfactory reply.

What I would like to know: Is there anybody with a similar configuration (AOS 5.0.x and a NAS attached by Arcamapper) who does *not* have the problems as descried above?

Thanks,
Lutz W.


Dave Yeo:
Hi Lutz,
One problem that you are likely encountering is that your NAS uses EXT4 for a file system. The problem with EXT4 is weak EA (extended attributes, xattrs in Linux speak) support, maximum size of 4kbs (OS/2 usually supports 64 kb) and need to be turned on, forget exactly but IIRC, both in the kernel and in the EXT4 build as well as in /etc/fstab.
The OS/2  WPS desktop and many programs use EAs quite a bit, if you look at your desktop files, most files are 0 bytes as all the info is in EAs and programs like PMView also use them, in the case of PMView, those thumbprint icons are in EAs and likely bigger then 4kb.
So while your NAS will work fine for straight files, things like the desktop and various programs need EAs and may (will in some cases) fail.
For backup purposes, zipping things up is one way to preserve the EAs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_file_attributes

Edit, the programs built with libc also use them for things like file permissions and symlinks.

Lutz Wagner:
Hi Dave,


--- Quote from: Dave Yeo on May 27, 2021, 04:40:30 pm ---One problem that you are likely encountering is that your NAS uses EXT4 for a file system.
--- End quote ---
Oops ... you're awfully right :-)


--- Quote from: Dave Yeo ---The problem with EXT4 is weak EA (extended attributes, xattrs in Linux speak) support, maximum size of 4kbs (OS/2 usually supports 64 kb) and need to be turned on, forget exactly but IIRC, both in the kernel and in the EXT4 build as well as in /etc/fstab.
--- End quote ---
That indeed seems very much likely to me.
Though I myself don't use the EAs it is probably inevitable to get involved into the EA-matter by some programs or the OS/2-system by itself.


--- Quote from: Dave Yeo ---So while your NAS will work fine for straight files, things like the desktop and various programs need EAs and may (will in some cases) fail.
--- End quote ---
Exactly!


--- Quote from: Dave Yeo ---For backup purposes, zipping things up is one way to preserve the EAs.
--- End quote ---
This not a solution in my case not at all. I have moved some applications (their data) from my ArcaOS-home to the NAS, i.e. these data are being worked upon permanently.

The manufacturer of my NAS (QNap) offers as an option the filesystem exFAT (will cost some money). Can you tell me if there are the same constraints regarding the xattrs as in EXT4? (I didn't find any info in the Wikis :-(( )

Thanks a lot,
Lutz W.



Paul Smedley:
Hi Lutz,


--- Quote from: Lutz Wagner on May 27, 2021, 07:59:41 pm ---
--- Quote from: Dave Yeo on May 27, 2021, 04:40:30 pm ---One problem that you are likely encountering is that your NAS uses EXT4 for a file system.
--- End quote ---
Oops ... you're awfully right :-)


--- Quote from: Dave Yeo ---The problem with EXT4 is weak EA (extended attributes, xattrs in Linux speak) support, maximum size of 4kbs (OS/2 usually supports 64 kb) and need to be turned on, forget exactly but IIRC, both in the kernel and in the EXT4 build as well as in /etc/fstab.
--- End quote ---
That indeed seems very much likely to me.
Though I myself don't use the EAs it is probably inevitable to get involved into the EA-matter by some programs or the OS/2-system by itself.


--- Quote from: Dave Yeo ---So while your NAS will work fine for straight files, things like the desktop and various programs need EAs and may (will in some cases) fail.
--- End quote ---
Exactly!


--- Quote from: Dave Yeo ---For backup purposes, zipping things up is one way to preserve the EAs.
--- End quote ---
This not a solution in my case not at all. I have moved some applications (their data) from my ArcaOS-home to the NAS, i.e. these data are being worked upon permanently.

The manufacturer of my NAS (QNap) offers as an option the filesystem exFAT (will cost some money). Can you tell me if there are the same constraints regarding the xattrs as in EXT4? (I didn't find any info in the Wikis :-(( )

Thanks a lot,

--- End quote ---

It should be possible to enable EA's on the Qnap - however IIRC EXT4 has a 4k limit on the size of EA's - other filesystems allows 64k (hence I run XFS on my NAS).

In regard to the share disconnecting - we're going to need logs to help understand why that's happening. Do you have a ticket number on the AN Mantis? I'll see if I can find it.

Cheers,

Paul

Alex Taylor:
I use a Synology NAS from ArcaOS with the latest ArcaMapper. (Actually, my current installed NDPSMB and Samba libraries are probably newer than what's in 5.0.6 as I have some components installed from the arcanoae-exp repo.)

I have no problems from my ArcaOS laptop browsing images on the NAS with PMView. I recently moved a lot of my DSLR photos onto the NAS and haven't had any issues.

One thing that may be worth mentioning - I have EA Support turned off for all my shares on the NAS, precisely because ext* doesn't support them to the extent OS/2 assumes. If the EAs are indeed a problem, you might be better off turning them off when mounting the share, because most programs are capable of recognizing when EAs are unavailable and acting accordingly. OTOH, if they think EAs are supported and they aren't (adequately), then I could see some things running into problems.


(Disclaimer: I work for Arca Noae, so you might not take my assurances as perfectly objective, although I assure you they are perfectly sincere.)

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