[Samba] server stored profiles and mixed case usernames?

[Andreas Haumer]

Hi!

I noticed a problem on a samba PDC together with mixed
case usernames. I already reported this problem a few 
weeks ago but haven't got an answer yet. Now I found out 
some further details and I think it might be of interest
for some of you.

We have a samba PDC and all the users have mixed case
usernames (the first letter is always upper case, like "Andreas")

The NT profiles for all users are stored on the samba 
server using the following configuration:

logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%U
preserve case = yes
case sensitive = no

[Profiles]
    comment = Share for user profiles
    path = /home/admin/samba/profiles
    browseable = no
    guest ok = yes
    writeable = yes
    create mask = 0600
    directory mask = 0700


This did work fine with samba 2.2.0
For each user there was a profile directory created
automatically when the user first logged in, like this:

/home/admin/samba/profiles/Andreas/

and so on.

On the first login after upgrading the PDC to samba-2.2.2
windows (W2K) suddenly couldn't read the profile and created
a new local one. After logging out on the Windows workstation
we found a new user profile directory on the samba server
with all characters in lower case!

Like this:

/home/admin/samba/profiles/Andreas/
/home/admin/samba/profiles/andreas/

I tried several things, and eventually found the reason 
for the problem (at least I think so): It seems the
semantics of the "%U" substitution has changed between
samba-2.2.0 and 2.2.2.

When I configure the logon path like this:

logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%u

it works.

Can anyone confirm there was a change regarding the
%u / %U substitutions? What should be the preferred
"logon path" configuration in my case? Should we use
the "%u" substitution?

The manual pages are a little bit unclear about this:

%u ... user name of the current service, if any.
%U ... session user name (the user name that the client wanted, 
       not necessarily the same as the one they got).

Any help is appreciated.

- andreas

-- 
Andreas Haumer                     | mailto:andreas at xss.co.at
*x Software + Systeme              | http://www.xss.co.at/
Karmarschgasse 51/2/20             | Tel: +43-1-6060114-0
A-1100 Vienna, Austria             | Fax: +43-1-6060114-71