Do I need to edit Samba Config file? (Resolved)

Saturn94 · 2026-02-11 01:23:26

I have a music streamer, a Salkstream III purchased in 2016, that uses Arch Linux as the OS (currently v6.18.7). The only thing running on it is Roon Server. It contains a single internal HDD and has two external USB HDDs connected via USB.

Also, I a complete newbie and don't know much about Linux.

While researching about another issue I had several days ago, I learned how to pull up the logs since the last reboot. I don't really understand much of what was in the logs, but I noticed the following error message in red text. I assume since it was red text, it must be important.

[2026/02/07 15:45:50, 0] ../../lib/param/loadparm.c:750(lpcfg_map_parameter)
Unknown parameter encountered: "write cache size"
[2026/02/07 15:45:50, 0] ../../lib/param/loadparm.c:2004(lpcfg_do_global_parameter)
Ignoring unknown parameter "write cache size"

After a bunch of researching (thanks Google!), I think I've determined that it is referring to a line in my Samba Config file called "write cache size" that it does not recognize. If I understand correctly, at some point in the past, Samba eliminated this requirement, so it seems it is no longer required.

According to Google, the fix is to simply delete the "write cache size" line from the samba config file. I noticed the message says, "ignoring unknown parameter", so I'm wondering if it is really necessary to edit the samba config file. I'm a bit reluctant to edit files/change things that I don't understand and risk messing something up.

Btw, the streamer seems to be working fine.

Thanks.

Last edited by Saturn94 (2026-02-11 16:44:04)

seth · 2026-02-11 09:48:53

https://linux.die.net/man/5/smb.conf

write cache size (S)
If this integer parameter is set to non-zero value, Samba will create an in-memory cache for each oplocked file (it does not do this for non-oplocked files). All writes that the client does not request to be flushed directly to disk will be stored in this cache if possible. The cache is flushed onto disk when a write comes in whose offset would not fit into the cache or when the file is closed by the client. Reads for the file are also served from this cache if the data is stored within it.
This cache allows Samba to batch client writes into a more efficient write size for RAID disks (i.e. writes may be tuned to be the RAID stripe size) and can improve performance on systems where the disk subsystem is a bottleneck but there is free memory for userspace programs.
The integer parameter specifies the size of this cache (per oplocked file) in bytes.
Default: write cache size = 0
Example: write cache size = 262144 # for a 256k cache size per file

But you're correct that this is gone - you do't have to remove the line unless you want to make that warning to disappear.

I'm a bit reluctant to edit files/change things that I don't understand and risk messing something up.

You could keep track of such changes using git.

Saturn94 · 2026-02-11 16:25:06

seth wrote:

https://linux.die.net/man/5/smb.conf
write cache size (S)
If this integer parameter is set to non-zero value, Samba will create an in-memory cache for each oplocked file (it does not do this for non-oplocked files). All writes that the client does not request to be flushed directly to disk will be stored in this cache if possible. The cache is flushed onto disk when a write comes in whose offset would not fit into the cache or when the file is closed by the client. Reads for the file are also served from this cache if the data is stored within it.
This cache allows Samba to batch client writes into a more efficient write size for RAID disks (i.e. writes may be tuned to be the RAID stripe size) and can improve performance on systems where the disk subsystem is a bottleneck but there is free memory for userspace programs.
The integer parameter specifies the size of this cache (per oplocked file) in bytes.
Default: write cache size = 0
Example: write cache size = 262144 # for a 256k cache size per file
But you're correct that this is gone - you do't have to remove the line unless you want to make that warning to disappear.
I'm a bit reluctant to edit files/change things that I don't understand and risk messing something up.
You could keep track of such changes using git.

Thanks for the information. Since the streamer is working fine now, I think I’ll just leave it as is.

As for, “…keep track of changes using git.”, I don’t know what that means. Should it ever become necessary, I’ll look into that.

seth · 2026-02-11 16:39:44

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

Saturn94 · 2026-02-11 16:44:27

seth wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles
Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

Thank you.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-02-11 01:23:26

Do I need to edit Samba Config file? (Resolved)

#2 2026-02-11 09:48:53

Re: Do I need to edit Samba Config file? (Resolved)

#3 2026-02-11 16:25:06

Re: Do I need to edit Samba Config file? (Resolved)

#4 2026-02-11 16:39:44

Re: Do I need to edit Samba Config file? (Resolved)

#5 2026-02-11 16:44:27

Re: Do I need to edit Samba Config file? (Resolved)

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