[Samba] Windows offline files synchronization failure for mounted Samba drive.

[PC]

Windows offline files synchronization fails for mounted Samba drive unless
files are "owned" by the user performing the synchronization.

 

You can duplicate this problem by making a folder or file which is located
on a samba mounted drive available offline.  

1)       From windows Explorer on a Windows XP SP2 Machine connected to the
network samba drive, right click on a test file owned by someone else but
which you have group rw permissions in Linux (-rwx rw- ---    otheruser
commongroup    testfilename) and select "make available offline". 

a.       You may need to enable offline file from the Tools - Folder options
- Offline Files Tab in Windows Explorer

2)       Disconnect from the network (unplug enet cable)

3)       You should notice the offline files icon appear in your task bar
(small computer icon). Verify you can still find and open the file using
windows explorer. Open, change, and save the file.

4)       Reconnect to the network.

5)       Synchronize offline files by right clicking on the offline files
icon in the task bar and selecting Synchronize.

6)       Windows Synchronization will fail and will present a message that
the system does not have permission to write the test file. 

 

Work around for single user synchronization:  "fource user = username" will
insure that all files created under the respective share are owned by
username.  Obviously does not work if more that one user need to
synchronizae offline files.