I have run the repair file system three times, never an error. I ran the install again from CD and installed a fresh copy onto the boot hard drive, which should have totally wiped the boot drive. The boot hard drive is simple PATA hard drive off the motherboard while the RAID is running on four SATA drives. After a full reinstall NOTHING changed, still unable to set anything on that entire "Settings" tab, while everything else seems to run fine. I've got HOURS into diagnosing this thing, and it's a real bummer. Wish I could read the log files, it would be nice to find out why Samba is failing.
Before I did a complete reinstall last weekend, the build running then was three or four builds earlier, a 2011 build. The built-in updater would always fail after the download, and it would not update pointing an .iso file at it. Since it wouldn't upgrade, and this failure goes back 3+ years, I left it running that old version all these years. Now that I'm running the last/current build of V6 it was surprising to find nothing changed, the same errors continue.
Should I wipe the boot drive and try installing DSS v6 again? Last time I didn't wipe, merely booted and installed. I thought the install process would wipe the boot media, but maybe it doesn't?
I bought a "new" 40 gig IDE drive, ran the official Western Digital tester on it and it came back 100% good. I used Darrik's Boot N Nuke to scrub the drive clean and it finished with no errors. I installed that latest version of V6, set to boot in 32 bit mode, activated online, and NOTHING has CHANGED. In fact, that was the first bit of hardware to change in probably five years now. I can change NTP settings, time zone, and I can see automatic updates of the configuration is being saved, even after yet another complete new install. My SW RAID remains in good condition using four SATA drives. Every setting on the "Settings" page always reverts back to nothing/default when I click apply. Configure FTP, click apply, it comes back with all empty fields. The SAMBA settings are locked down to external LDAP, and when I set it to internal and set the DN, etc, click apply, and it comes back with blank fields. In the status page it continues to show SMB "Failed". I can generate a log file but its encrypted or something, can't read it. <losing hair fast on this one!>
Folks, GR-R is the real deal ... he outlined a procedure to make this stubborn installation come back to life. A HUGE public Thank You to Gr-R for his selfless gift of time and knowledge.
Sadly, after all of this work, the machine lived for an hour before another issue arose. I was able to begin retrieving files from the server and an hour into transferring the box locked up hard. I had to hit the reset switch and now DSS boots to a pure white screen immediately after the memory test option screen. I ran the memory test, which ran successfully, but for tonight I'm done, will reload the boot media tomorrow. May be time to also move the raid to another box and try again.
Anyway, I wish there was a proper way to convey my thanks to Gr-R for his help, and I hope you folks realize the asset he is to this community.
Genius
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