BUG in Win9x server based profiles support?

D Davies djdavies at home.com
Sat Oct 28 09:50:29 GMT 2000


Hi, friends

Im running SAMBA_2_2 (updated Oct 28 4:00am EST ;-)

Im having trouble getting a Windows 98 computer to use
roaming profiles.. I understood that this was supported?

This computer is configured to login to the SAMBA PDC
and also for roaming profiles by setting the option to use
profiles in Control Panel->Passwords->Profiles.

I have the Windows 98 computer successfully logging into
the SAMBA PDC, meaning:
    - it connects, and runs its login script (you see the DOS window)
    - it gets its [homes] drive mapped from said script

At this point the Windows 98 computer knows its supposed
to start copying its default profile from the local disk in the case
of a new user, or copy the already local profile in the case of
the already known user, to the server based location for it..

ie., i have
--<snip>--
logon home = \\thisserver\profiles\%U
[profiles]
path=/home/profiles

in my smb.conf, as well as other stuff which is all working properly
including printing, etc.. Actually I haven't fully tested the printer
driver uploads because I don't have an NT client to experiment
with atm.  But I digress..

So at this point, my Windows 98 computer finishes running its login
script, the DOS window for it closes, and then the "Copying Files"
dialog, or something to that effect, pops up.  It clearly shows the
clients profile files and sub directories (Cookies, user.dat, Desktop,
Start Menu, etc, etc..) being copied to the server location:

\\theserver\profiles\%U\[ insert current copy operation here ]

A quick check of /home/profiles indeed shows that a nice
%U sub directory now lives there! Oh, and its also owned
by theuser.hisgroup so it would seem that the client created
it with the proper permissions.  For testing sake my
/home/profiles was chmod 777.

I tried using logon home = \\thisserver\profiles, and indeed
you get the client profile sub directory rooted in /home/profiles.
(ie. /home/profiles/user.dat, /home/profiles/Cookies, etc..).

I tried using logon home = \\thisserver\profiles\%U, and this
time pre made a /home/profiles/theuser directory, with the
appropriate users permissions, and again the client computers
profile sub directory structure gets copied successfully to the
server, but erroneously rooted in /home/profiles/%U, literally!
(whew, :-))

I hope this report is useful to those in the know here, and I haven't
stated the obvious.  It seems the %U isn't getting expanded, yes?

Oh, and before I go, let me extend a very grateful thank you, to
the SAMBA team and all the people who make this software
so wonderful for the rest of us.

Cheers

--
D Davies






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