windows desktop redirection -> samba has problems

[Alexander Lazarevich]

we are redirecting the desktop by way of registry hacks in a default
profile which we then store in the NETLOGON share on out NT server.
Every user then grabs this default profile. the registry change i made is
in:

HKCurrentUser->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Explorer->UserShellFolders.

This registry setting lets me redirect certain elements of the profile to
any other place.

I'm not sure if what you called "system policy" is the same thing as the
registry hack i did. i guess im not familiar with system policies,
although i do have a book on it, maybe i should read it....sigh....

what you say about upgrading samba seems right. you also mentioned
"directory notification". is this an option in the smb.conf file? i looked
in man pages for it from samba 2.2.2 and i couldnt find anyhting about it.
or is this an intrinsic property of new samba verisons?

thanks mucho,

alex
---                                                        ---
   Alex Lazarevich | Systems | Imaging Technology Group
   alazarev at itg.uiuc.edu | (217)244-1565 | www.itg.uiuc.edu
---                                                        ---



On Fri, 7 Dec 2001, Andrew Bartlett wrote:

> Alexander Lazarevich wrote:
> > 
> > here's our setup:
> > 
> > 1) Windows NT4.0 server/PDC
> > 2) Multiple Windows NT4.0 (SP 6) and Windows 2000 (SP 2)
> > 3) AIX 4.3 file server running samba (1.9)
> > 
> > currently we are trying to make a change in all users windows profiles. we
> > are trying to switch from roaming to local. thats easy engouh, but we also
> > want to redirect the windows desktop and my docs folder to our network
> > file server (samba) so that the desktop and my documents will, in effect,
> > roam to other comuters.
> > 
> > heres our problem:
> > 
> > a user, on a windows platform, creates a document in word, or any other
> > windows app, and saves it to the desktop (i.e., the redirected desktop,
> > which is actually the home directory of that user on the network filesever
> > running samba). the file is saved and you can see it on the unix side, but
> > the new file will not show up on the actual windows desktop unless the
> > user logs-out/logs-in, or the user craetes another file, and then removes
> > it. a right-click/refresh of the desktop does not work.
> > 
> > this is not good, because we cant tell users they need to logout/login
> > just to see things on there desktop.
> > 
> > i think the problem is in samba. because if i redirect the desktop to a
> > share on the windows server, the updates work just fine. has anyone else
> > delt with this problem before? anyone got any ideas? i hesitate to upgrade
> > samba because we tried that before and it didnt work, and im not sure its
> > gonna fix the current problem.
> 
> I've done this with Roaming profiles - the redirection was by use of a
> System Policy.  However I have only ever done it on Samba versions this
> side of 2.0, but it has always worked fine - except when the server
> 'goes away' :-).  
> 
> I really would recommend upgrading, becouse you will have to at some
> stage, and Samba will be changing more, not less - jumping from 1.9 to
> 3.0 will be a *really* big pain.
> 
> Other than that, I would not be supprised to learn that directory
> notification was only implemented reltivlty recently, and this is almost
> certainly what you need here.
> 
> Andrew Bartlett
> 
> -- 
> Andrew Bartlett                                 abartlet at pcug.org.au
> Manager, Authentication Subsystems, Samba Team  abartlet at samba.org
> Student Network Administrator, Hawker College   abartlet at hawkerc.net
> http://samba.org     http://build.samba.org     http://hawkerc.net
>