Help/advice needed for accessing GT-AX11000 SMB shares from WSL

[jtbx]

Hi,

I'd appreciate some advice regarding accessing SMB shares in my router from a WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) environment.

For starters, this is my router's info:

ASUS GT-AX11000
HW: aarch64 Kernel: 4.1.51
FW: 3004.388.8
smbd: 3.6.25

So I've been using SMB to share some folders in my router's SSD, which has been working fine so far.

Recently I upgraded WSL in my Windows PC, which came with a kernel upgrade from a v.5 to a v.6 kernel (it's currently a pre-release version), and apparently SMB v.2.0 isn't supported in WSL any more, trying to mount the shares says:

vers=2.0 mount not permitted when legacy dialects disabled
CIFS: VFS: vers=2.0 mount not permitted when legacy dialects disabled

This happens only with WSL's latest pre-release version. The mounts work fine when I mount them from my Ubuntu server 24.04, and also when I mount them as network drives from Windows 11.

From what I understand the router's smbd doesn't support any SMB version higher than 2.0, so I wanted to ask the following:

1. Just to make sure, isn't there any way for the router's current smbd to support anything higher than 2.0 ? I've tried changing smb.conf's max protocol to versions 2.1 (2_10) and 3, but it just complained those are invalid options.
2. Should I try upgrading the router's smbd to a higher version? As in, install a higher version smbd and run it instead (via bind mounting or just as an extra service somehow)?
3. Another alternative would be activating and using NFS, is the router's built in NFS' version high enough? I haven't used NFS before, so my knowledge is lacking, but I'll read on it if it's recommended.
4. Claude Dev suggested I could also setup a "samba proxy", i.e. use the Ubuntu server to access the router's shares and re-share them as a higher version.
5. Otherwise, what could i try if I want to access the shares via WSL's latest version?
6. Finally, just out of curiosity, why is the router's smbd so old it doesn't even support v.2.1? I mean is there some specific reason for it?

Thanks in advance for any tips, they'd be greatly appreciated since I've been trying to figure this out for the last 2-3 days without success.

PS. If I posted this to the wrong forum let me know and I'll repost it somewhere more appropriate.
PS2. I know my router's firmware isn't the absolutely latest, but I'm accessing it remotely at the moment and I'd rather not upgrade its firmware until I'm physically present There doesn't seem to be any smbd upgrades in the latest firmware anyway.

 

[jtbx]

Bumping this since there weren't any replies at all.

Apparently WSL pre-release has reverted its kernel to a v.5 one again "while issues are being debugged", so my issue kinda resolved itself (temporarily at least).

But I'd like to know what technology people use to share any disks connected to their router. SMB? NFS? Other?

SMB has definitely been the easiest, most universal and most compatible, but the fact it's still at v. 2.0 is just a ticking time bomb until it stops working altogether, so it would be nice to know what other alternatives people are using.

 

[DJones]

I don’t use WSL or SMB server on router, but here is my global for smb server from my server. This uses smb 3 and should work with WSL.

[global]
    writeable = yes
    passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
    read raw = no
    max log size = 1000
    default = global
    load printers = no
    logging = file
    inherit acls = yes
    panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
    delete readonly = yes
    pam password change = no
    server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
    aio write size = 1
    deadtime = 30
    min protocol = smb2
    getwd cache = yes
    large readwrite = yes
    netbios name =
    write raw = no
    bind interfaces only =
    aio read size = 1
    log level = 1
    enhanced browsing = Yes
    server role = standalone server
    valid users =
    locking = no
    user =
    log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
    workgroup = WORKGROUP
    map to guest = bad user
    kernel oplocks = yes
    interfaces =
    local master = yes
    revalidate = yes
    encrypt passwords = true
    server signing = mandatory
    passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
    use sendfile = true
    os level = 20
    server multi channel support = yes
    inherit owner = yes
    inherit permissions = yes
    unix password sync = yes
    smb encrypt = mandatory
    obey pam restrictions = yes
    usershare allow guests = yes
    socket options = SO_BROADCAST TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY
    oplocks = no
    client signing = mandatory

*removed sensitive info.

 

[jtbx]

Thanks for replying. I assume your SMB server lies on another machine? As in, it's not the router's built-in SMB server?

In this case yes, most SMB servers have moved on to 3.0 at this point. My "issue" is I'd like to share the USB disk I have plugged in to my router, so I kinda need to use the router's SMB server, which is still at v. 2.0, and that's where WSL is having issues at.

Every other SMB server I have in my LAN is already using v. 3.0 like yours, and works fine with WSL, but I haven't found a way to run a 3.0 (or even 2.1) SMB server on my router yet, that's why I was wondering how people share their router's disks (if they do).

 

[DJones]

The samba version running off the router is likely 3.6.25 so unfortunately that’s the reason no smb3 which was introduced in samba4.

One of the reasons I don’t use it off router, unless you want to downgrade to using smb2 on WSL.

Under smb (same as server) on WSL in the smb.conf you should be able to add “client min protocol =“ then add the smb2 dialect.

Then proceed to use cifs to mount. As long as the min protocol = smb2 on the routers smb.conf then it should work with WSL’s client min protocol = smb2

But I’m guessing I don’t really know WSL well.

 

[jtbx]

Yeah, unfortunately it hasn't really caught up yet, which is why I was curious as to what other people do if they want to share a router disk.

Regarding the smb.conf tip, that file is only used server-side. Client-side it's the mount command that needs to be compatible with 2.0, and WSL's pre-release kernel is supposedly compiled with a flag that disables connectivity to SMB versions less than 2.1 (from what I understand).
Btw, I experimented with the router's smb.conf, adding/removing/changing 'client min protocol' and 'client max protocol', but as you said samba's version is too old to recognize other alternatives than 2.0.

So there isn't some text setting somewhere that I can change, unless I re-compile the kernel I guess, but it's out of my league. But as I wrote WSL's kernel has now been reverted back to a v. 5 one, so shares are working again, for now. Hopefully they reconsider supporting legacy SMB 2.0 again, who knows.

 

[DJones]

Yeah, unfortunately it hasn't really caught up yet, which is why I was curious as to what other people do if they want to share a router disk.

Regarding the smb.conf tip, that file is only used server-side. Client-side it's the mount command that needs to be compatible with 2.0, and WSL's pre-release kernel is supposedly compiled with a flag that disables connectivity to SMB versions less than 2.1 (from what I understand).
Btw, I experimented with the router's smb.conf, adding/removing/changing 'client min protocol' and 'client max protocol', but as you said samba's version is too old to recognize other alternatives than 2.0.

So there isn't some text setting somewhere that I can change, unless I re-compile the kernel I guess, but it's out of my league. But as I wrote WSL's kernel has now been reverted back to a v. 5 one, so shares are working again, for now. Hopefully they reconsider supporting legacy SMB 2.0 again, who knows.

Alternatively you could use samba4 the entware version, but since I haven’t looked into it I’m unsure if the UI from the router is compatible it would likely depend on manually changing the smb.conf yourself.

opkg install samba4-server

Use the forum search for more information regarding the entware.