smbfs problem

[Michael Blaustein]

I mount a remote samba share using autofs.  I can read and write to
that share (including subdirectories) using various linux programs
(vi, gedit, etc.), but not emacs (21.3.50.1 with bidi 0.9.1).
Sometimes emacs' dired will show the share's directory listing, more
often not.  But no subdirectory of the share can be listed nor any
file opened with find-file.  Suppose the share is known as
"//an.ip.address/share" and the subdirectory is called "subd".  The
kernel (2.6.10) reports in the logfile:
    "kernel: smb_lookup: find //subd failed, error=-512"
and I have to kill emacs.

Presumably this is a problem for emacs, since other programs deal
with this share as expected.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.