Latest update (8/17/25) broke SMB (Samba) networking with Windows

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Just installed the latest Zorin OS 17.3 updates this morning. During the update, there was a brief message about Samba updates, with an option to install/not install. I accepted the update and it installed.

Now, I find I have lost all connectivity with the rest of my network, and can no longer exchange files as before. I have searched for additional information regarding this update, or newer Samba (SMB) documentation.

Can you please provide a link to the new docs, or directions for "rolling back" the entire update (with all the kernel changes, etc) out of a system.

This large update totaled more than 300 MB and did NOT include a Chrome browser update.

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Just to clarify this:

Do you mean that you've lost connectivity to the network drives, or you can't connect to the internet at all?

Unfortunately, rolling back updates is not as straight forward as it could be. For that, you'd need to install a dedicated program that can do this for you. After you get this sorted, I suggest looking into Timeshift.

You can "downgrade" a package by running the install command, specifying the exact version that you want to install. To find out which version was installed before, you'll need to check out the logs from the last upgrade that caused this issue.

The log file in question is located at /var/log/apt/history.log. Towards the end of the file you will see the most recent entries. After running the upgrade I have the following:

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It's not pretty, but you can read see which packages were upgraded, and the before/after versions.

libwbclient0:amd64 (2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.6, 2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.7)
libsmbclient:amd64 (2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.6, 2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.7)
samba-libs:amd64 (2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.6, 2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.7)

So, to rollback, you need to run (breaking in down into multiple lines for clarity):

sudo apt install \
  libwbclient0:amd64=2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.6 \
  libsmbclient:amd64=2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.6 \
  samba-libs:amd64=2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.6

Unfortunately, you'll get an error saying this package was not found... well, let's see what's available:

apt show samba-libs -a | grep Version

It turns out that version "0ubuntu1.6" has been removed from the repositories altogether, but we can still try "0ubuntu1.5":

sudo apt install \
  libwbclient0:amd64=2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.5 \
  libsmbclient:amd64=2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.5 \
  samba-libs:amd64=2:4.15.13+dfsg-0ubuntu1.5

It worked:

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You'll have to restart your computer most likely, but try that and see if it makes any difference before discussing anything else.

To prevent further updates on these packages you can mark them like so, with the command:

sudo apt-mark hold libwbclient0 libsmbclient samba-libs

Now, if you run sudo apt upgrade, this packages will show as being "held back". This is convenient but might also cause other issues in the long run, so it's best to rely on this only temporarily until it's clear what they change and how it can be fixed.

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In regards to change logs, you can lookup the package name in the Ubuntu trackpad, which is where Ubuntu keeps tracks of packages, issues, etc.

I haven't read it all just yet, but it looks like the 1.7 affects mostly Samba servers using Active Directory.

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What I don't understand, is why this all happened in the first place. An Samba update, should not cause one to lose connection to their network or internet. What I want to know, is why it being updated, killed his connection.

Reminds me how Nvidia driver updates lead to a black screen, for many people. I think these updates need better testing from developers, before being put out. Isn't this what Windows users are trying to get away from, when they switch to Linux?

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It all depends on the type of update, I suppose. The announcement and the bug tracker mention this might be a possibility:

Current versions of Samba with the affected configuration will no longer function correctly once the Microsoft update has been applied. Users will not be able to connect to the SMB service provided by Samba for any domain configured to use the 'ad' idmapping backend.

— Samba 4.21.7

Important to note, however, that this is due to a change to the Microsoft RPC Netlogon protocol. The samba package in Linux is also maintained by Microsoft. Sorry, I meant to say the SMB protocol, not the Samba package. They just implement whatever SMB does.

5

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I still have internet connectivity, but I had my in-house share folder mapped on my Windows, ChromeOS, Linux (Zorin OS) and Android laptops and desktops. I lost connectivity to that shared drive on the Zorin OS 17.3 machine.

I will be looking at the rollback instructions a bit later, when I am more awake. Networking with Windows machines has become MUCH more complicated with the introduction of Win 11 (24H2). It appears the "gods of Redmond" are trying to move users away from shared local resources to "life in the Cloud."

1 Like
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Indeed, Microsoft is pretty famous for being hostile towards Linux. I'm seeing more and more cases like this, too:

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