[Samba] Re: Roaming profile, esp. laptops

[Joe Kraft]

Paul Gienger wrote:
> 
> James Fellows wrote:
> 
>> Hi Paul,
>>
>> I get your problem.
>> My question is:  How do they access their profile NOT on the network?
>> They shouldn't be able to. (They probably get an error but don't tell
>> you)
>>  
>>
> You can sure log in if you lose network connectivity, try to disconnect 
> your cable sometime.  I'm pretty sure you get an error about using your 
> locally cached profile however but I don't think it says anything about 
> 'whatever you do will be lost when you log out' but I could be wrong.

Their profile is cached on machines they have logged into for an amount 
of time.  Disconnected machines use this cached profile/password (you 
can turn this off) to log them in without the domain controller.  You do 
actually get a 'whatever you do will be lost' if you log in using the 
locally cached profile on a disconnected machine.

If you subsequently reconnect the machine to the network before logging 
off, the changes are usually written to the profile even if you get the 
warning.  If you log out without reconnecting first the changes are 
retained until the first time you log in while connected.

So the bottom line is log in to the laptop, reconnect to the network, 
and log out to save you settings back to the domain profile.  Then 
everything will work normally from there while connected to the network.

Works for me, YMMV.  Joe.

> 
>> In my samba domain here, I disabled caching of profiles,
>> so there's never any conflicts or 'old' profiles left on any machine.  
>> Fresh upload every time.  If settings are lost, it's because they were 
>> not saved.
>>  
>>
> That won't really work since the laptop has to be usable away from the 
> network.
> 
>> My solution would be to create a local user on the laptop and let them 
>> use
>> that while NOT on the network.
>>  
>>
> That would really screw with the technically semi-illiterate that can't 
> seem to find anything in the first place when they log in twice.  Hell, 
> these people wouldn't realize when they need to log in to which 'domain' 
> entry and then would complain about not seeing their network drives when 
> they are in.   Don't say 'they should be smarter' because I know every 
> admin has at least 20% users that can't tell you where My Documents is 
> really located and wouldn't understand half of the reason for the local 
> user proposition.
> 
>> OR, disable roaming profiles and only have local ones.
>>  
>>
> I've taken to doing this in a few locations, but then these people get 
> no backup of data.
> 
> What I would think would / should happen is that a date check is done 
> against the server files and only updates newer files from the server... 
> or key off the NTUSER.DAT file or something and determine which profile 
> is newer.  I realize this could very well be a client limitation. Maybe 
> that's just too much to ask for.
> 
> (sorry James, you probably got a dupe of this)
> 
>> On Tue, 10 Aug 2004, Paul Gienger wrote:
>>
>>  
>>
>>> You misunderstand my point, which may be my fault ;)  Said user goes 
>>> home and does his work, sets up things the way they should be.  He 
>>> comes in the next day, starts up his laptop and gets his desktop and 
>>> settings from the last time he logged off 'in the office' ( I didn't 
>>> make that part clear).  When you deal with salespeople and other 
>>> types that may not be in the office for a week or two at a time they 
>>> get a little testy when they all of the sudden start to lose things 
>>> because the server overwrote their settings.
>>>
>>> I WANT them to be flexible, so mandatory profiles are not the solution.
>>>
>>> Joseph E. Werle wrote:
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>>> You could use mandatory profiles.  If your using XP on the laptop it 
>>>> will use the cached version of the profile when the user logs onto 
>>>> the domain and then will send the changes back to the server when he 
>>>> logs off again.
>>>>
>>>> Paul Gienger wrote:
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>>
>>>>> Here's an issue I don't think I've seen come up since I've been 
>>>>> trolling that is going to be a headache for me:
>>>>>
>>>>> Say I have a user on a laptop, when he is constantly on the 
>>>>> network, everything is happy.  Say the user goes home, does some 
>>>>> work, monkeys around with his settings, and comes back.  As soon as 
>>>>> said user logs on he gets the copy of his profile from the last 
>>>>> time he logged off.  Does anyone else see the problem here?
>>>>>
>>>>> I would like to know what creative solutions people have come up 
>>>>> with to get around the issue.  We currently use 2.2.8 but I'm going 
>>>>> to push 3.0.x out Real Soon Now (TM), so if some negotiation has 
>>>>> somehow been done in 3 to make this work better I'll shut up and go 
>>>>> back to my hole.
>>>>>
>>>>>       
>>>
>>>   
>>
>>
>>  
>>
>