[Samba] Samba as a Client Accessing Windows 2008 Roaming Profiles

[Nicholas Betcher]

Hello,
I am using Samba on Linux as a CLIENT which is accessing Windows Server 2008
and I am trying to setup roaming profiles on the Linux/Samba client. My
Linux distribution is openSUSE 11.3 RC1/Factory and YaST does a very good
job at setting up Kerberos/Samba to join the domain. It all seems to work,
except the Linux profile isn't synchronized back to the Windows domain
server. I assume this is working-as-intended using the configuration I have
setup, but for the life of me I cannot find any configuration information on
how to synchronize Linux profiles so it can be used in a roaming
environment.

I realize that what I'm asking for is likely a hack-job since roaming
profiles are fairly ugly to begin with, but unfortunately there's not many
other options. I am not the network admin, nor do I have admin privileges,
but I am working on this project with the approval of my network admin.
There is some room for minor setup modifications, especially if I can prove
it works, but I would like to do this with as few network-level
modifications as possible.

The setup in my office currently consists of all Windows XP machines using
roaming profiles, but we have some older machines we would like to convert
to Linux in order to avoid spending money on new systems. Because we do not
have enough computers for each user to have their own, we are forced to
allow people to share computers and sit where ever they can (we are a
24-hour call center). Because of this I need the Linux computers to be able
to roam within the network as well. Items preserved just need to include
documents and Linux/Windows settings.

Any suggestions (beyond "scrap it all and start over with the proper
solution") are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick Betcher, CPhT
Certified Pharmacy Technician