Issues with SAMBA install

[Gerry George]

I just completed installing a SAMBA "PDC" serving a number of Win9x 
clients.  I am using encrypted passwords, and Domain logons.  Works well on 
Red Hat Linux 6.0.  Still tweaking, though.

My install was based on the documentation from the online version of 
O'Reily's Samba book (at http://us3.samba.org/samba/oreilly/samba) and the 
Samba - Integrating Unix & Windows, plus the online docs.

I did come across some issues not mentioned in any of the docs.  I thought 
I should mention it here for those who may come across it and not be 
stumped as I was.

I am using DHCP to serve IP addresses to the clients.  Initial connections 
were failing.  The logs stated that the "gethostbydomain" (I think) 
failed.  As such, I needed to create entries for all my clients in my 
DNS.  I used generic ws-100 thru to ws-200, my range of IP's and also 
create reverse records for those.

It down not seem critical to have the correct workgroup name in the "Logon 
to Domain" section of Win9x Microsoft Client networking.  Mine seems to 
work regardless.

My login script was apparently not having any effect.  Turned out that my 
first mapping, to drive "z" was disconnecting the "netlogon" share and the 
"batch file not found" error was being returned.  Solution - do not use a 
"Z" drive mapping.

I have two interfaces on my server.  when I use the "interfaces" keyword, 
clients cannot connect.  Dunno why.

In the "hosts allow" section, the networks are specified as 
192.168.201.  as opposed to the 192.168.201.0/24 (as specified in the docs).

I am trying to set some environment variables in my login script.  It does 
not work.  (I know this is not a SAMBA issue, but someone may have 
experienced and solved it)
I am using a single/global login script in [netlogon]  Also, how do I 
launch a windows app (winpopup, e-mail client) minimized?

On occasion, my SAMBA did not initialize as a domain master.  There is some 
conversation between its two interfaces, one complaining that the packet 
was from ourself and the broadcast name is ours.  A shutdown-long 
pause-restart took care of it.  smbclient  would now show the domain master 
and clients can connect.

Altogether, I am thrilled and pleased with SAMBA - thanks to all of the 
developers and all those on the mailing lists whose issues serve to 
enlighten me further.

Suggestions and other questions:

Can one create a share for a specific user or group **which is only visible 
to that group**?  I would like to create a share of the entire file system 
accesible *only* to the admin group to allow for easy transfer of system 
files, since my server is not easily accessible.  However, I do not want it 
to be visible to all users even though they do not have access to it.

I realized that the smbd process is dynamically reading the smb file.  some 
changes are automatically updated once the file is saved. - I must have 
missed this from the docs.

Suggestion: could someone suggest minimum permissions desirable and 
file/directory create modes on the files and directories for the "system" 
shares for a reasonably secure system. e.g.  netlogon, profiles, homes, 
etc.  I eventually figured it out, but some time could have been saved.  I 
am not near the system now, so I can't post what i configured.  I may  do 
so later.

Is there an X-client for SMB to allow one to browse and use  SMB shares 
from within X?

Altogether, thanks again. I am looking at another 3-4 SAMBA installs in the 
very near future.

HW: P-III 600, 128MB, dual 9GB IBM 72000RPM drives (for s/w RAID), 2 
ethernets, possible third for a link into an enterprise WAN., RedHat 6.0, 
SAMBA 2.0.3-8
(downloaded but not yet upgraded to 2.0.6).  Approx 20 - 30 clients


Gerry George



Gerry E. George  <ggeorge at digisolv.com>
Information Technology Specialist,
DigiSolv, Inc.
http://www.digisolv.com


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