[Samba] Strange behaviour with M$ WORD 97 under Win 2K

[Jean-Paul ARGUDO]

Hi all,

I searched thru excellent http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=samba&r=1&w=2 
(samba ML archive...) answer to my questions.
I asked Google too.

Both doesnt know about my problem. That's why I finaly decided to polute 
samba ML :-(

Here's the environment: a Linux Box under Debian Woody (stable, nothing 
compiled by hand EXCEPT KERNEL (aacraid issue..)):

master:~# uname -a
Linux master 2.4.20 #2 SMP Mon Dec 2 18:49:26 CET 2002 i686 unknown

master:~# smbd -V
Version 2.2.3a-12 for Debian

The server is a DELL PowerEdge 1650 with Raid Mirror on two 18Gb disks.

Clients : DELL Inspiron 4150 under windows 2000 SP2
           M$ OFFICE 97 (Word, Excel only)
           M$ EURO PATCH applied (fonts with EURO symbol...)
		
All works fine with Samba except:

(1) profile and netlogon directories are stil in user homes. *I KNOW* I 
have to re-read the samba howto collection, the soluce is in. Will be 
fixed in a few. I already have netlogon ant profile shares enabled, but 
client just dont use it ... You'll see this in my smb.conf above...

(2) _the real topic of this mail_ :

My users work with M$ Office 97, Word and Excel, only.

With Word 97, frequently, when a user tries to open a file in the 
"public" share (see smb.conf above), he has a message telling him he is 
on READ ONLY mode.

With smbstatus, I clearly see the user is on RDONLY mode on this file.

The problem is that nobody is using this file |-( except him.

I really suspect Word 97 (client side then) to be the origin of the 
problem. I noticed Word 97 creates a temp file on opening, It is surely 
used to notice others users the file is accessed?.. *but* when the file 
is opened, this temp file isn't there?..

So?? Whats up??? Why a such message? really Dunno.

I think I'll have to dig around samba caching issue? or any timeout issue??

I'll really be glad if you could help me in any way. Thanks a lot!

Here's smb.conf, where you'll notice I disabled oplocks, because of data 
corruption (filled a report in samba's bugtrack a month ago) with 
excel/word files...  :

[global]
netbios name=MASTER
workgroup=CPTA
security=user
encrypt passwords=Yes

domain logons=yes
logon script=logon.bat

os level=64
domain master=yes
local master=yes
preferred master=yes
wins support = yes
name resolve order = wins hosts lmhosts bcast
oplocks=no

#interfaces=127.0.0.1 eth0
#bind interfaces only=Yes
#invalid users=root

hosts allow=192.168.0. 192.168.1.

log level=1

#guest account=nobody
printer driver file=/home/public/driver/printers.def
server string=Controleur du domaine CPTA

[netlogon]         --dunno why unused :-( RTFM: Samba HOWTO Collection
path=/var/samba/netlogon
read only=yes
public=no

[profiles]         --dunno why unused :-( RTFM: Samba HOWTO Collection
path=/var/samba/profiles
read only=no
create mask = 0600
directory mask = 0700


[homes]
browseable=No
writeable=Yes
guest ok=no
comment=Repertoire personnel      --means "personal home" in fr
create mask = 0600
directory mask = 0700
valid users = %S

[public]           --share where read only word issues occurs
path=/home/public
browseable=Yes
writeable=Yes
guest ok=yes
read only=no                 -- redundant with writeable=yes, I know :-)
force user=nobody
comment=Repertoire commun	--means "public home" in fr

[pdf]
path=/tmp
printable=yes
guest ok=yes
print command=/usr/bin/printpdf %s
lpq command=
lprm command=
printer driver=HP C LaserJet 4500-PS
printer driver location=\\%h\printer$

[printer$]
path=/home/public/driver
guest ok=yes
read only=yes


<<EOF>>

note: "--" comments not in original file

-- 
Jean-Paul ARGUDO