logging out hangs win95 consistently

Wed Sep 10 16:09:14 GMT 1997

On Wed, 10 Sep 1997, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:

> 
> 
> On Wed, 10 Sep 1997, Charles Owens wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, 9 Sep 1997, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> > 
> > > charles,
> > > 
> > > the only thing that i can suggest is that you try and do what i just 
> > > attempted, just now.  if it doesn't work, i'll let you in on a small 
> > > secret hack that might have something to do with it (to do with code 
> > > pages and country codes, in NetUserGetInfo).
> > > 
> > > from a fresh boot-up, instead of logging on to the w95 machine, press
> > > escape.  then, close progs, log off, and when you get the dialog prompt
> > > again, _again_ press escape (this procedure is to _stop_ the w95 machine
> > > from thinking that the previous users' profile is the default one.
> > > 
> > > then, backup and then delete the entire contents of the c:\windows\profiles 
> > > directory.  **** NOTE IF SOME OF YOUR USERS HAVE STORED ANY FILES ON THE 
> > > DESKTOP, YOU WILL BE DOING THEM A REALLY BAD FAVOUR BY NOT BACKING UP 
> > > THIS DIRECTORY ***
> > > 
> > > then, delete all c:\windows\*.pwl files.
> > > 
> > > then, in each user profile directory on the samba server, delete the 
> > > user.dat files.  i haven't deleted the entire contents of the remote 
> > > profile directory, and i don't think it's necessary.
> > > 
> > > check the keyboard settings, country settings etc etc.
> > > 
> > > then log in some users, log them out, and see if it creates USER.DAT files.
> > > 
> > > if that doesn't work, then... well.  i started throwing mice around.  then 
> > > went upstairs for some hot milk and some salt and vinegar crisps.
> > > 
> > > luke
> > 
> > 
> > I haven't tried this procedure explicitly, because I don't think it
> > applies in my case, especially for my lab computers.  When they're logged
> > in a logon script runs that does the following: 
> > 
> > 	deltree c:\windows\profiles
> > 	mount net drives, printers
> > 	etc.
> 
> i have something similar, for the guest account.
> 
> > Password caching is turned off on all machines via samba-served system
> > policies.  All share mounting is done via the logon script, not password
> > lists.
> 
> ah, ok.
> 
> > The default logon account does not have a home directory at all.  Also, in
> > a fit of desperation, I've disabled roving profile loading on these lab
> > systems by adding the registry entry:
> > 
> > 	Hkey_Local_Machine\Network\Logon\UseHomeDirectory=DWORD:0
> > 
> > 	(Win95 Resource Kit, page 487)
> > 
> > Still the problem happens...
> > 
> > It happens on systems that have been in place for months and on systems
> > that I've reintalled from the ground up just this week.
> > 
> >               ---------------------------------------
> > 
> > Here's where I get a bit rash:  ;-)
> > 
> > In 1.19.17 roving profiles are listed as being more properly supported. 
> > From this I infer that any previous support was only a subset of the
> > complete functionality as exhibited by WinNT.  Fine and dandy. 
> 
> no, not the case: i simply documented my experiences.  therefore, more of 
> these problems appear to be coming out of the woodwork.
> 
> > Even though this support in 1.19.16pX was not complete, as far as I was
> > aware it worked with the functionality that I'd expect.  (ie. when I log
> > in, user.dat gets loaded.  when I log out, it gets saved.  every time!) 
> > And, most importantly, the current "locking up when logging out" behavior
> > never happened!
> > 
> > Given that this bug is a REALLY BAD THING, in that it really screws up
> > things for many a samba user, I'd like you to consider the following
> > courses of action:
> > 
> > 	1. produce an iterim release with all roving profiles
> > 		code reverted to 1.19.16p11 state.
> 
> um, there actually hasn't been any significant code change for the 
> profile support.  the only thing of any significance is that i changed 
> the default profile directory from \\%L\HOMES to \\%L\%U\profile (because 
> of problems with NT).  i think i filled in some of the other fields, 
> instead of "<User Name>" i actually put the user's name.
> 
> i also did a code comparison of the main sections in smbd (server.c, 
> ipc.c, trans2.c, reply.c) and couldn't see anything particularly 
> significantly different from 1.9.16p2 to 1.9.17p1.  there was some DOS 
> error reporting, a mod to unix_path() to take an argument "&bad_path", 
> some changes to NetServerEnum2, some printing stuff, some share modes / 
> file locking...
> 
> not a lot to do with profiles!
> 
> > 	- or -
> > 
> > 	2. produce an iterim release with all roving profiles
> > 		code disabled
> 
> that's simple, and can be done without a code release.  disable profiles 
> on the w95 clients.

Which is essentially what my registry tweak from above does.  I could do
the more drastic disabling of user profiles (via the password control
panel), but if user profiles aren't enabled, then I loose the ability to
do system policies... yuck!

> > Obviously #1 would be preferred, but I can live without roving profiles
> > for a while, but I can't live with this bug.
> > 
> > Certainly the root cause of this bug needs to be found, but I'm sure we'd
> > all prefer stability to be the priority.  It is a shame that all of the
> > other great advances in the current release are married with this bug.
> 
> someone's just reported that not using samba for WINS service sorts this 
> out.  this i find particularly bizarre, but... what the heck!

!!!  Hmmm... along my move from a flat to a subnetted environment, I began
using samba as a WINS server for all clients.  So, maybe this _is_ the
area where the problem lies.  !!!

Going a bit further... wouldn't the fact that the locking up still happens
even with my above registry tweak in place seem to indicate that the root
cause of the problem is _not_ really in the area of user profile support?

Unfortunately I don't have a WinNT server handy to temporarily use for to
test this out (ie. problem goes away when not using samba for WINS
server).  I could set one up though, if need be.

Maybe we're on to something here...
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  Charles N. Owens                               Email:  owensc at enc.edu
                                             http://www.enc.edu/~owensc
  Network & Systems Administrator
  Information Technology Services  "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's
  Eastern Nazarene College         best friend.  Inside of a dog it's 
                                   too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
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