CIFS shares not mounting after modifying /etc/fstab

I had the same error message, also after upgrading from 12.04 to 12.10.

mount.cifs(8) says:

Options to mount.cifs are specified as a comma-separated list of key=value pairs. It is possible to send options other than those listed here, assuming that the cifs filesystem kernel module (cifs.ko) supports them. Unrecognized cifs mount options passed to the cifs vfs kernel code will be logged to the kernel log.

I checked /var/log/kern.log and found, in my case:

CIFS: Unknown mount option "noatime"

So the fix for me was simply to remove this option from my /etc/fstab entry.

Trying your options, this message is written to kern.log:

CIFS: Unknown mount option "codepage=unicode"

It seems the behaviour of cifs.ko has changed from ignoring unrecognised options to failing when it sees one.

mount.cifs -V says it's version 5.5.

Installing cifs-utils with the command

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

did the trick for me. There was a dependency for the file "keyutils" that got installed automatically at the same time. I did not install additionall smbnetfs as suggested by another user so this file may not be necessary.

I had the same problem after upgrade from 12.04 to 12.10.

In 12.04 I used smbfs and my fstab read:

//192.168.0.42/Media    /mnt/htpc/media smbfs rw,username=root,password=openelec,uid=1000    0    0

This worked until upgrade. To get working again I installed cifs-utils & smbnetfs:

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils smbnetfs

and changed smbfs to cifs in my /etc/fstab:

//192.168.0.42/Media    /mnt/htpc/media cifs rw,username=root,password=openelec,uid=1000    0    0

Not sure if this is the correct way to mount but it certainly works for me, seeing as I was having the exact same issue going from ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10.

So try:

//servername/sharename /media/windowsshare cifs guest,users   

I also use the noauto option since I'm not always on the same network I want to mount my shares manually. My exact fstab entry for my system is as follows...

//servername/sharename /home/USER/shares/I cifs guest,users,noauto

This entry was the only which would allow me to use a Torrent client to download straight to my external HDD's over my home network.

Also, maybe you should try mounting the shares in your home directory instead of /media which is a root folder.

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

fixed my trouble under a fresh 64-bit install of 12.10. (Also had installed smbnetfs before looking here. I believe both are needed, but am not positive.