samba setup.exe rant part 2

Stephen Waters swaters at amicus.com
Tue Oct 19 18:52:08 GMT 1999


this was previously posted only on samba-ntdom, but that was probably
not the right list so i'm cross-posting to both samba and samba-ntdom.

here's the problem:

on NT4 w/ SP4 or SP5, self-extracting 16-bit install files work just
fine in directories w/ Long File Names.

on SAMBA 2.0.5a, i can get none of the aforementioned files to install
from directories w/ Long File Names.

a good example of the situation is the HP JetAdmin for NT installer
which can be downloaded here:
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/prodhome/hpjetadmin1876.html

hp used Winzip to create the 16-bit self-extractor.

on our NT4 box, double-clicking here properly pops up the Winzip
extraction window:
\\winnt\public\printer_drivers\winnt\hpjanten.exe

on our SAMBA 2.0.5a box, double-clicking here:
\\roma\public\printer_drivers\winnt\hpjanten.exe
produces this error: Title Bar says, "Can't run 16-bit Windows program",
Error Message, "Cannot find file \\Roma\Public\\winnt\hpjanten.exe (or
one of its components). Check to ensure the path and filename are
correct and that all required libraries are available."

notice that "printer_drivers" is conveniently missing.
if i rename the offending directory from "printer_drivers" to "print",
everything works ok and i get the nice Winzip extraction window.

what has pissed me off last time i posted this is not that samba did not
support this feature nor that there is a simple workaround (rename the
directory), but that unnamed individuals simply dismissed the issue as
shoddy 16-bit installware and implied i was either crazy or stupid
because it did not in fact work from an NT server when clearly and
repeatedly it works like a charm.

however NT does it, it's a damn nice feature (for me and my users
anyway...) and i'd like to see it in a stable release sometime or
another.

just my $0.02USD rant,
and if i had any coding chops whatsoever, i might've taken a look at it
myself,

--
stephen waters
amicus, inc.


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