Notices

Because when I try I get an error that the needed
package, samba-common is not installed.

BUT, although samba-common is listed at gronmayer,
it does NOT appear in my list of installable apps (even
after several refreshes, even after delete and reinstall
the repositories).

Anyone know what's going on with this? TIA,

Same here.

Likewise here.

maybe red pill mode is needed...

even in red pill mode samba-common is nowhere to be
found (a good idea though for which my thanks)

Make sure you don't already have samba-common installed, and the problem is that the package you're trying to install needs a different version. I have samba-common 3.0.23c-1osso6 installed. I notice some applications depend on a single, specific version of a library ( = version), instead of saying "this version or better", (=> version). I tried to install the latest "rtcom-beta-os2008" and it did this trick, refusing to accept my installed libglade2-0 package (among others) because it was newer than the required version. It claimed the package was "missing" when it was installed. (I was able to install all of the packages individually, however.)

I just realized that you're trying to install packages that haven't been compiled (as far as I know) for OS2008. Are you installing them on OS2007? If you are installing them on OS2008, then your problem is that OS2008 already comes with samba-common so they can do (half-assed) samba share support (without passwords) in the file manager.

I guess that's the answer alright. Thanks for that, but is there
any way to browse a password protected samba share on
the n810?

This thread has lots of good advice. I have a mini-howto in that thread for installing mount.cifs from Debian for people who just cannot get their Samba shares to mount on their OS2008 N8x0. If you're lucky, you won't need it, just follow the advice in the other posts.