Will 2.x run on installed wheezy, upgraded to jessie, maybe to stretch?
Nope
is this a 'common' 3.x problem?
Not on any of my systems and I can't reproduce it.
just told me months ago that there would be something easily available
To get good samba logs, you have to enable logging on the samba settings tab and enable it on individual shares.
I think the main problem is samba4 vs samba3 but I haven't found anything to change. I just know my servers work well. Just tested it while my kids were watching movies on the same server (different drive).