package samba 2:3.2.1-1ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

Thanks for the bug report.

Regards
chuck

When you "completely removed" samba, did that include marking the samba-common package for complete removal?

Several key files in /etc/samba are owned by the samba-common binary package, not by the samba binary package; so removing these files without also purging samba-common will not have the desired result.

no, i don't think i did. i remember being surprised that when marking samba
for complete removal, that samba-common stayed. if i tried to mark
samba-common for removal, it wanted to remove ubuntu-desktop as well...
which i definitely didn't want to do.

this bug tracking system is sweet. thanks for the follow up.

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 1:07 AM, Steve Langasek <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> When you "completely removed" samba, did that include marking the samba-
> common package for complete removal?
>
> Several key files in /etc/samba are owned by the samba-common binary
> package, not by the samba binary package; so removing these files
> without also purging samba-common will not have the desired result.
>
> ** Changed in: samba (Ubuntu)
> Status: Triaged => Incomplete
>
> --
> package samba 2:3.2.1-1ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess
> post-installation script returned error exit status 1
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/259609
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in "samba" source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: samba
>
> i completely removed samba with synaptic... moved all files in /etc/samba
> to a different folder... and removed all logs in /var/log/samba... then
> installed samba... trying to start fresh... it failed.
>
> ProblemType: Package
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
> ErrorMessage: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit
> status 1
> NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
> Package: samba 2:3.2.1-1ubuntu1
> SourcePackage: samba
> Title: package samba 2:3.2.1-1ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess
> post-installation script returned error exit status 1
> Uname: Linux 2.6.26-5-generic i686
>

I'm experiencing the exact same problem.

So... Which files in the "/etc/samba" folder are required by "samba-common" ?

Taking a cue from your statement that some files int the "/etc/samba" folder were required by samba-common
I tried to use synaptic to re-install samba-common but I got this error:

E: samba-common: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

Are there other packages that store files in "/etc/samba" ?

It would be really nice if the samba folder was only used by samba.

P.S. It has taken me more time to correctly configure samba than it has taken me to write my own secure file sharing system in PERL (4 days). It works for now but I really need samba!

Same here, using Debian Lenny.
I messed up smb.conf, so I decided reinstall samba thinking it would give me a fresh smb.conf, and it didn't, same messed up file was there.
Then I removed samba again, removed the entire /etc/samba folder, and reinstalled samba giving a post-installation error "nmbd failed to start", and /etc/samba folder wasn't created.

After reading this post, tried removing also samba-common, though samba-common isn't a dependency of samba package. Bad idea, now I can't install samba-common again because /etc/samba/smb.conf doesn't exists and obviously it won't create it.
So which package originally created /etc/samba folder and configuration files?? Or how can I make this folder and conf files get back?

Well, I've managed the samba reinstallation in the next way.

Noticed that samba depends on samba-common, and samba-common needed the smb.conf I deleted, which it should actually provide, I think.
So I decided create a fake smb.conf (touch /etc/samba/smb.conf). Then I could install samba-common and it didn't complain about the empty file. Then I could install samba, also without any complain about an empty smb.conf.
Next I thought was.. "Now I just need to find the original smb.conf on the web and voila..", but before doing that, I realized looking in samba-common package info, that it installed a kind of template for smb.conf in /usr/share/samba, so I copied that file back to /etc/samba, so the server was aparentely working again, at least it didn't complain about anything.
Another thing I realized looking on samba-common package info, was that it should have intalled "/etc/samba/gdbcommands" which I've seen before deleting them, but now is not there.