[H-GEN] Win XP roaming profiles with Linux?

[R&J Stuart]

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David Duffy wrote:
> Robert:
> 
>>> [prefix my reponse with the fact that I have used XP for < 1hr total]
>>
>>
>> I think the key to your question is that you are using XP home 
>> edition.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but to get roaming profiles 
>> for Win2K and XP you need to be joined to the domain.  With XP home I 
>> don't think you can join a domain and so no roaming profiles....
> 
> 
> The Roaming option is still there in several screens but it's greyed 
> out. The help file
> mentions that you need the domain setup to be able to select it. I don't 
> really get
> what the domain bit is all about though. The RH7.3 box does DHCP and I 
> assume
> is capable of doing the domain part - it hasn't really clicked yet. :-(
> David...

A 'DOMAIN' is a logical collection of machines, but they also share user 
and authentication information (if you are familiar with NIS/NIS+ they 
have similar goals).  The leader of the pack is the Primary Domain 
Controller (PDC).  Do NOT confuse MS use of 'DOMAIN' with a dns domain 
(eg edu.au) or nis/+ domain, they are in no way related (I have a 
feeling XP shares the DNS domain with the MS domain, but that is as a 
convenience).

Roaming profiles depend on there being a logon server in the DOMAIN that 
your clients are part of.  This is because your profile gets copied down 
to the client from the server when you log on and copied back to the 
server from the client when you log off.  In a sense this is really a 
huge registry hack (and some files) - it makes the HK-Current-User point 
to YOUR personal registry entries.

What would it mean if this (HKCU merge) could happen at any time long 
after you had logged into the local machine?  Chaos (well more chaos 
that normal Windows use).  Yes, suddenly after working for 10 minutes, 
you suddenly attach a different profile and everything is changed even 
though you had many applications running.  Compare to mouting /home via 
nfs after users are already logged in, but worse because the old stuff 
is gone forever.

In fact, for Win2k at least there are some registry mods so that the 
HKCU tree and machine local profile get nuked after they are copied back 
to the server (just to make sure that there is only one valid copy - 
besides it just gets overwritten next time you log in anyhow).

HKCU is a "shortcut" to the specific tree corresponding to the "current 
user" under HK-Local-Users.

It sounds like you have done the right sort of things (you've got samba 
configured and are sharing a profile area, though I would recommend 
further testing with win9x or win2k to be sure), you've just been let 
down by old MS.  I might add that getting Win2k (and probably XP) to 
join a domain is a pain.  You need to create machine accounts and use 
encrypted passwords etc - you end up creating a Primary Domain 
Controller - there is plenty of samba docs on how to do this (there is 
one called samba-pdc-howto).  On the plus side, if you integrate it all 
into LDAP or similar, you get central authentication etc.

Appologies for talking a bit too much about windowsy things.

Regards,

Robert


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