How to Fix ‘Failed to Retrieve Share List from Server’ in Ubuntu 12.04 / 11.10 when File Sharing with Windows
Recently, I've had a lot of stumbling blocks with learning linux. One of them is the simple (well it seems simple to me) task of accessing Windows shares from Ubuntu.
Often times, I keep getting this ‘Failed to retrieve share list from server’ error every time when attempting to browse my local network.
I found this brief tutorial on how to fix the issue when you come across it in Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin).
To get started, press Ctrl – Alt – T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the commands below to open the samba configuration file:
sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf
Finally, scroll down a bit in the file and find : WORKGROUP = Workgroup_Name.
Right below that, type the line shown below and save the file.
name resolve order = bcast host
Note: You may or may not have to reboot in order for this to take effect. In my case it worked immediately.