Strange bug with Open Office and Samba
 

Hi,

Our school's network (Slackware 14.0 server and desktop clients) mainly uses NFS for file sharing, but I've also setup a Samba file and print server for those teachers and students who have Windows and Mac OS X laptops.

I'm experiencing a strange bug with files on the Samba shares. I can open PDF files with Evince OK. I can open simple text files with Leafpad. But I can't open ODT or ODS files with Open Office.

I've googled a bit and found out that the bug seems to be in Open Office, which apparently can't always open files on Samba shares correctly.

Now I've experienced a bit more on my office's network, which has got more or less the same setup than the one in the school: NFS and NIS on a Slackware 14.0 server, Slackware 14.0 + Xfce + various addons on all the desktop clients. To my bewilderment, everything works OK here. I can create an ODT file with OO Writer, move it to the Samba server, and then open it from another desktop with another OO Writer. So Open Office doesn't seem to be the culprit, the more so since these are the exact same binaries - and the same version - I installed in the school.

Which leaves me clueless.

Is the samba share with the problem .odt and .ods files writeable by the user? OOo needs to write a hidden lockfile in the same place as the file it is editing (it is called .~lock.<whatever>.odt#

OK, I found the solution to the problem, and it was indeed a permission problem, though a nasty one, not the kind you'd expect. Some files could be opened on some machines with some applications, but the overall behaviour was rather erratic. I could access everything on my laptop, though not on the desktop clients.

After an unnerving couple of hours, I found out. Our desktop clients' home directories are located centrally on the server and exported via NFS. Now NFS' default behaviour is to prevent root from accessing the user home directories. It looks like this also prevents GVFS from working correctly. I edited /etc/exports on the server and added the no_root_squash option. All of a sudden, everything worked as expected.

Once again, I managed to avoid a career as a boat repairman on an island without computers. :cool:

.ODx and Samba
 

In experiencing the loading of .ODx files directly through Samba, I have always noticed it is very slow and can be arduous. Generally, I find it far safer and faster to copy the file into the local LVM, then Edit, then copy back, overwriting.

If the file is very small and simple, you might get away with it, but if it is a 25 sheet .ODS, loaded with a ton of formulae, Better not!!

Saving that way is apt to be even more srduous and less reliable. If you have a crash, it may also leave the file at either end locked - even worse!

Good luck! << bonne chance! >>

Bruce from Canada