I am struggling to mount a remote CIFS directory on a Ubuntu system at work. The remote folder appears to be working just fine from my Windows 8.1 session (also at work). I could not get normal mounting to work: $ sudo mount -v -t cifs //1.2.3.4/network ~/z -o username=malat,domain=MY,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g),iocharset=utf8 Password for malat@//1.2.3.4/network: ********* mount.cifs kernel mount options: ip=1.2.3.4,unc=\\1.2.3.4\network,iocharset=utf8,uid=1002,gid=1002,user=mmalaterre,domain=MY,pass=******** mount error(2): No such file or directory Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs) But I eventually stumble upon this ref[1]: $ sudo mount -v -t cifs //1.2.3.4/network ~/z -o username=malat,domain=MY,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g),iocharset=utf8,nodfs Password for malat@//1.2.3.4/network: ********* mount.cifs kernel mount options: ip=1.2.3.4,unc=\\1.2.3.4\network,iocharset=utf8,nodfs,uid=1002,gid=1002,user=malat,domain=MY,pass=******** At least I have something working now, so AFAIK the option 'nodfs' is a required option for me: $ mount | grep network //1.2.3.4/network on /home/malat/z type cifs (rw,relatime,vers=2.1,cache=strict,username=malat,domain=MY,uid=1002,forceuid,gid=1002,forcegid,addr=1.2.3.4,file_mode=0755,dir_mode=0755,soft,nounix,nodfs,mapposix,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,bsize=1048576,echo_interval=60,actimeo=1) However there seems to be something not working (related to 'nodfs' option I guess). Here are the symptoms: $ cd ~/z $ ls folder1 folder2 $ ls folder1 subfolder1 $ ls folder2 ls: cannot access 'folder2': Invalid argument If I add `vers=1.0` to the mount command, the symptoms are slightly different: $ cd ~/z $ cd folder2 $ ls subfolder2 $ cd subfolder2/ bash: cd: subfolder2/: Object is remote I can access the folder `folder2` just fine from my Windows 8.1 session, so this is not a permission issue. For instance I have a work around : use the DFS Referral list. So from my windows box I navigate to the problematic "subfolder2" (symlink icon), right click get the properties (third tab is named 'DFS'), then go back to my Linux session, and mount using instead: $ sudo mount -t cifs //xyzclus01-cifs.mydoma.acme.corp/Disk12 ~/disk12 -v -o username=malat,domain=MY,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g),iocharset=utf8,nodfs,vers=1.0 Password for malat@//xyzclus01-cifs.mydoma.acme.corp/Disk12: ********* mount.cifs kernel mount options: ip=5.6.7.8,unc=\\xyzclus01-cifs.mydoma.acme.corp\Disk12,iocharset=utf8,nodfs,vers=1.0,uid=1002,gid=1002,user=malat,domain=MY,pass=******** $ cd folder2/subfolder2/ I can (finally!) access the content of subfolder2. This is quite cumbersome and counter-intuitive. So this qualify at best as work-around and not as real solution. How can I access `folder2` from my Linux session ? Or at least how can I find the magic value "//xyzclus01-cifs.mydoma.acme.corp/Disk12" directly from my running Linux system ? --- For reference: Here is the tail of `dmesg`: [1927958.534353] CIFS: Attempting to mount //1.2.3.4/network [1927958.534403] No dialect specified on mount. Default has changed to a more secure dialect, SMB2.1 or later (e.g. SMB3), from CIFS (SMB1). To use the less secure SMB1 dialect to access old servers which do not support SMB3 (or SMB2.1) specify vers=1.0 on mount. [1927960.069018] CIFS VFS: DFS capability contradicts DFS flag [1927960.375111] CIFS VFS: Autodisabling the use of server inode numbers on new server. [1927960.375115] CIFS VFS: The server doesn't seem to support them properly or the files might be on different servers (DFS). [1927960.375117] CIFS VFS: Hardlinks will not be recognized on this mount. Consider mounting with the "noserverino" option to silence this message. $ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 19.04 Release: 19.04 Codename: disco kernel version: $ uname -rvo 5.0.0-38-generic #41-Ubuntu SMP Tue Dec 3 00:27:35 UTC 2019 GNU/Linux and $ cat /etc/request-key.d/cifs.spnego.conf create cifs.spnego * * /usr/sbin/cifs.upcall %k [1]: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/164037/mount-cifs-error2-no-such-file-or-directory-when-using-a-prefixpath -- Mathieu