Long share name

[Michael Kohne]

At 08:11 PM 1/7/99 +1100, you wrote:
>I have a problem with long user names.
>I was thinking if I could use Firstname.Lastname notation also in user
>names to be used in [Homes]. We are using Alpha Linux as one of our
>servers.
>I tried it, but if the username is over 12 characters long, NT 4.0
>client (at least) does not co-operate with [Homes]-share.
>It gives you an error: "Network name can not be found"
>
>I tried it also with a separate share but it works similarly. So, it is
>not a problem of Homes-special features.
>
>Currently I have a os level = 10, so it should be more than win95, but
>still under our domain controller which validates the passwords for 
>Samba.
>
>So, I would ask if it is over all a bad idea to use log usernames? It sure
>would be handy, since we have 3 Anders, 3 Jaris etc. I would not like to
>use some cryptic asld32nr as user names. With long usernames all the
>mail-aliases would become obsolete. Is it anyhow possible to make Samba
>as a server or NT and 95 clients to use long share names? Which one is the
>limiting one in this case?
>
>/Iiro Rinta-Jouppi
> 

First off, NT, 95, and samba all deal just fine with long usernames. The
problem is probably in what you are trying to do on the unix box. If I read
what you've done correctly, you've created unix accounts with
Firstname.Lastname and gone on from there. 

Here's my question: Can you log into your unix system at all with those
usernames? I ask because a quick check of man 5 passwd on the Alpha Linux
box I have access to indicates that you aren't supposed to use capital
letters in the username field. Now, that could be old information (PAM may
have changed things), but if you can't log into the unix box, you probably
won't be able to use samba.


You might want to look at the 'username map' option in the samba config
file. I have my users set up with unix accounts of the form 'fmLastname',
and a username map so they can login as 'Firstname Lastname'. 

Good luck!