Writing to a shared directory under Mandrake 9x
 

I am trying to run up a server to store and serve files for a small home network. The server (called Server) is running Mandrake 9.2 and samba 2.2.8a. One of the desktop machines is called Client runs Mandrake 9.1 and Samba 2.2.7a. The other desktop machine I'll call Winnie runs Windows XP Home. User Bob exists on all three machines, with the same password. On the two Mdk machines he has the same User ID and Group ID. I have created a folder called /home/bob/test1 on Server.

User Bob can open and read a text document in /home/bob/test1 on Server from both clients. He cannot create a document on the client and save it in test1 on Server. From Client (Mdk 9.1) this gives the error message “error saving the document.... write error. the file could not be saved”.

On Server, user Bob has shared /home/bob/test1 using gnome's file browser (Properties, Permissions) setting Owner (which is Bob) for rwx and Group rwx. Root has used Mandrake Control Centre (MCC) > Mount Points > Set up sharing of your hard disk partitions to “allow all users”. This caused Mandrake to set /etc/exports to show “home/bob/test1 *(ro, all_squash, sync).

As root I have amended this line in /etc/exports from ro to rw, and also tried commenting Mdk's effort out and using “/home/bob/test1 valid IP address (rw). Same result. I can read the test file but cannot save a file to that directory. [reboots were carried out between tests to ensure that appropriate services were restarted with the new settings].

After 18 months tinkering with Linux, I have collected a couple of excellent O'Reilly books and tried to move away from using my Windows server but this problem always beats me! It is obviously a DFU problem, but I can't figure out why. Whilst I am quite comfortable with the command line, I note Mandrake set up things differently from how an expert might do it (according to O'Reilly). I also quite like the flexibility of using LinNeighbourhood to attach to network shares when I want them, and not leave them lying about unnecessarily. So perhaps I am being a bit lazy in using the GUI's with the odd dabble at the command line, rather than setting everything up from scratch.

This has to be a permissions issue for both Samba (Winnie accessing via Samba) and Client accessing via NFS, as they can definitely open a file on the share, but not save there.

I have checked services running on both Mandrake machines - nfs, smb, portmap are all running. querying rpm nfs-utils shows it is installed on both Mdk machines.

I'll bet this really is a DFU (Dumb F User) problem, but it beats me at the moment. Has anyone experienced this situation with Mandrake - and how did you solve it?
:scratch:

SORTED. Got advice from a couple of Linux gurus at work (i.e. use Webmin). I still don't know what the actual problem was, but there seemed to be a permissions issue with Samba. Made worse by my tinkering at the command line, possibly - it's all a learning curve. I have installed the version of Webmin that came with Mandrake - that's the key bit - use the Webmin version that is customised for your distro. This has allowed me to use a gui to get on with what I want to do. I am now using the command line to have a look at various files to learn what has been changed by Webmin to make it work. P.S. make sure you have a quick peek at the Webmin manual on the www (350 pages) it is a very useful download to guide us newbies in these early days.