Windows 7 - BSOD when connected to Linux Samba share

Personally, I would test what happens with a "vanilla" install, probably by installing an unactivated copy of Windows in a virtual machine and using that to test. The point of the exercise would be to rule out as many environmental factors as possible.

Should such a VM exhibit the same crash, I'd be tempted to call up MS and say "hey, I think I've found a way to crash your OS, so you'll probably want to take a look."

It's not a privilege elevation vulnerability, and it presumably doesn't happen when working with "real" Windows SMB servers, so I doubt they'll lose any sleep over it. However, if you manage to get through to the right person, you may just be able to get something accomplished sooner rather than later.

Hint: the "right person" will be the one who asks for a memory dump within the first few questions. All the others beforehand are merely running interference.

Done it. Really vanilla install. During installation I even say "no" to windows update. As I got to the desktop I connect my network share and access it to install the graphics driver. Bum! BSOD.

What it seems, well, interesting is if I just copy files between local disk and share it seems hard to hang the system. But just trying to execute the installer blows it up. Weird.

I will try to reach Microsoft but I doubt about it usefulness. At least here in Spain.

Congratulations! Given the vanilla install, it is very likely that you and the OP have found a legit "bug" in the Windows 7 SMB redirector, especially if your crash happens in the exact same location as the one highlighted by the OP.

My only advice regarding interaction with support is to keep it as simple as possible until you get through to somebody who asks you for a dump in their first few questions.

"It happens on a 'vanilla' install" - as in "I don't have anything non-MS which you could ask me to deactivate".

"It has persisted across multiple OS reinstallations" - as in "don't bother asking me to reinstall bacause I've already done it multiple times."

"I think this will require 'debugging'" - as in "let me speak to an adult please."

It's entirely possible that their reporting telemetry has already flagged the presence of a likely bug, and that they'll have additional problem reports along the same lines. Perhaps there's already a solution in the form of a hotfix, although a cursory search of the MS KB doesn't find any rdbss-containing Windows 7 hotfixes yet.

Out of personal curiosity, could you please upload a minidump? I'd love to take a look.

Well I think I have good news. And is not thanks to Microsoft.

I've been asking in a few forums incluing Microsoft Answers. A reply there directed me to a page (I don't have it right now) with talk about an authentication issue. I checked my samba logs which had quite some entries like this one:

[2009/11/02 20:31:46, 1] smbd/service.c:1047(make_connection_snum)
192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2) connect to service sargue initially as user sargue (uid=1000, gid=1000) (pid 5687)
[2009/11/02 20:31:56, 1] smbd/service.c:676(make_connection_snum)
create_connection_server_info failed: NT_STATUS_WRONG_PASSWORD

The first line is the connection. The second... the BSOD.

So I thought: "hey, perhaps I can try different authentication mechanisms". So I checked my samba config and the man page. I had "security = share" which seems to be a rather old way to work. The preferred one (and the current default in Samba 3) is "security = user". So I changed that.

And it works.

That would explain, more or less, why few people have found it. There should be few samba servers still with "security = share". Anyway, time will tell. I'm writing this from my Windows 7 while transferring 18 GB of files... fingers crossed!

I attach the minidump anyway for possible investigation.

And I hope this helps other people! I will tell any forum I've posted to link here for the solution. Let's spread it. And I hope Microsoft releases a patch anyway.

Thanks!

It's only "good news" for you. Think about the poor Microsoft kernel developer who now has to live with the stigma of having created code which can be crashed with a particular setting in samba.conf

In all seriousness, I'm glad that you appear to have found a workaround which works for you, even though the problem in the Windows 7 net stack remains. I'd still urge you to contact MS with those dumps. They may end up being very grateful, especially if nobody else has highlighted the problem and this workaround.

I tried. I mean, I always send the minidumps. But I tried to contact MS. No luck. Seems we don't have here (Spain) tech phone support. I've been redirected to a website form which I sent several days ago... with no answer.

Why did that not surprise me?

Thanks! I've been having the exact same problems. Tried a clean vanilla install, but still BSOD when executing files directly from a samba share. Changed the samba configuration, and no more BSOD!

So, thanks again. I'm impressed by these online communities, where we can help each other.

-Michael.

Windows 7 64 bit is quite impossible to use if you have a NAS, a media center, a router with samba sharing capabilities and so on.
Many of them use no password and you cannot access their settings.
So BSOD a go go!

Hey guys, just wondering if there's been any movement on this issue. At the company I work for I'm part of a pilot project for a Windows 7 rollout and we make heavy use (heavy meaning tens of TBs of seismic data) of Samba for data sharing between Linux (RHEL4) and Windows. At the moment I'm seeing the BSOD problem on my machine and if it's widespread it could be a big problem. My smb.conf is set to security = ads, since we use active directory for our Linux authentication and it's all hooked up together.

Would appreciate any ideas you might have.

Thanks,

-Nathan

Try looking at this link [Solved] Windows 7 and Samba Issue - windows-7
Setting NTLM options on my machine fixed the BSOD, although Windows 7 should
not die just because of a network security configuration.