[Samba] problem with Windows XP file syncing

Jon Wilson jon at netcraft.com
Fri Mar 14 16:16:12 GMT 2003

I am having problems getting a Windows XP laptop to properly "synchronize"
files, aka "Make these files available off-line", to a FreeBSD samba
server (2.2.7a).

When the laptop user connects to the network, and starts to synchronize,
the synchronization fails with "NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED". A bit of tracing
through debugging output show that:

 * Synchronization fails only on files not owned by the laptop owner

 * The laptop user is in the correct unix group to read and write these
   files, and smbd knows this.

 * Some packet dumping shows that the actual point of failure comes when
   the laptop issues a SET_FILE_INFORMATION request.

It looks like XP is trying to set the mode of the files (even though it
doesn't need to). Samba is "doing the right thing" and translates this into
a chmod call, which fails correctly due to the file owner not being the
laptop user.

This is a new laptop, and other XP users have no problems syncing to the
same share. I wouldnt want to rule out user error ...

Anyone got any ideas on:

 1) Why XP wants to change the file modes?
 2) A client side fix or workaround?
 3) A server side fix?



Jon Wilson
Netcraft Ltd.                                     Tel: +44 (0)1225 867975
jon at netcraft.com                                  Fax: +44 (0)8700 517767
http://www.netcraft.com                           Mob: +44 (0)7776 137939

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