I'm using Ubuntu 12.10 on two machines, one laptop & one desktop. Faced the same problem when I used 12.04.
When I try connecting to the other machine using 'Connect to Server', I give the correct user & workgroup details, but the system displays 'failed to retrieve server list'
I've tried editing /etc/samba/smb.conf file to:
name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast
I also added the other machine to /etc/hosts
But, nothing worked.
The output of smbtree is
naveen@tomkat:~$ smbtree
Enter naveen's password:
naveen@tomkat:~$
Used sources to solve problem myself:
"Failed to retrieve share list from server" error when browsing a share with Nautilus
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1114038
All help will be appreciated. Thanks.
UPDATE:
After 'purging' samba and all its components (incl all config files), and reinstall, sharing workes in one direction (from Laptop to Desktop) but when I attempt to use the Desktop as server, same problem is still faced.
UPDATE 2 dpkg -l|grep samba output:
naveen@tomkat:~$ sudo dpkg -l|grep samba
[sudo] password for naveen:
ii libcrypt-smbhash-perl 0.12-3 all generate LM/NT hash of a password for samba
ii samba 2:3.6.6-3ubuntu5 i386 SMB/CIFS file, print, and login server for Unix
ii samba-common 2:3.6.6-3ubuntu5 all common files used by both the Samba server and client
ii samba-common-bin 2:3.6.6-3ubuntu5 i386 common files used by both the Samba server and client