[Samba] Capturing Quicktime Files into a Samba Share

[AndyLiebman at aol.com]

I'm hoping somebody can explain why I'm having this peculiar problem 
capturing quicktime video files with Final Cut Pro (running on OS X 10.3.4) and 
storing them on my Linux server. 

The Linux server has both Samba 3 and Netatalk 1.6.4. I have the server set 
up so that I can connect from the Mac to various Linux directories using either 
Samba or Netatalk. 

When I connect with Netatalk, this is what happens. If I set the default 
Final Cut capture time to 30 minutes,  just after I tell Final Cut  to start 
capturing a DV video clip, the application will instantly create three 2GB "empty 
files" on the Linux box -- I guess the application is just grabbing space and 
saying "it's mine" -- and within seconds Final Cut starts capturing. About 30 
minutes later, the capturing is done. 

However, when I connect to the Linux box through Samba, Final Cut (or the 
Mac) will actually write the three 2GB files (presumably with just zeros) before 
capturing. It takes almost 30 minutes to do that, almost real time. I can 
watch the files "grow" with Konqueror or Nautilus. Only after these "empty files" 
are completely written does the video capture process begin -- again taking 30 
minutes, presumably overwriting all the zeros. 

Thus, if I connect to the Linux box with Samba, it takes twice as long to 
capture a given video clip compared to connecting through Netatalk. 

You might wonder, "so why bother to use Samba?". The answers are many. Under 
Netatalk, if a user unplugs his network cable without shutting down his 
computer, the entire Netatalk network will crash -- disconnecting all Netatalk users 
and crashing their applications. 

I fear Netatalk is also doing all sorts of unpredictable things with 
directory ownership and permissions on the Linux server. When a Mac user accesses 
certain directories through Netatalk, I'm finding that the group permissions for 
that directory are instantly changing from "read/write" to "read only". Kind of 
scary that a client machine can change directory permissions on a Linux 
server, but I've watched it happen five times today -- right before my eyes. 

And Samba is so much more tweakable.

So, does anybody have a clue if there's a way to configure Samba on my Linux 
server, or the samba client in OS X 10.3.4, so that these huge pre-allocated 
spaces don't actually have to be written in real time before capturing can 
begin? 

Your help would be much appreciated. 

Regards, 
Andy Liebman
Boston, MA

P.S.  Thanks John if you have any clue what might be going on here.