i gave up on smb4k and tried to install another samba browser called 'komba2', and here's what i found:

if i install using synaptic it works without rebooting the phone, but only if i tick 'prefer packages from stable', i was also able to install evolution without any 'nice' hack by doing this. so i'm begining to wonder if this is a problem with synaptic taking higher but unstable versions of packages from the unstable squeeze repository by default when squeeze needs to be enabled. same for flakey sid repository i guess... also unticking 'install recommended packages' cuts down the risk of a reboot. this last one needs to be unticked everytime you start synaptic.