MS Word File Corruption on HP-UXv11.0 & Samba

[Anna van Tatenhove]

I have a problem that happens to only one group of users.
When a word file is saved over a network to a HP-UX server via Samba, the file
gets corrupted after doing cut & paste or any text formatting: part of the document gets
replaced by random characters, most appearing as rectangles on the
screen, some as new lines, columns or page breaks.
The group of users affected are all running Windows NT4 or Win2K and are saving to an HP-UXv11.0 server through Samba 2.0.7-2. Win95/98 users don't have the same problems, no file corruption at all.

[Herve BRANGIER]

Hi,

We use exactly the same version of samba with
NT4, W95/98 and 2000 clients (with Word 97)
without problem.

Did you try to save others files on this server
(binaries for example) and save the same .doc
on you local disk to see if you have (or not)
the same problem. (compare sizes, use sum to
have a checksum of each one,...)

You can go in debug level ( -d option) and see
logs... But I think that a .doc is like all
binaries files : if you can copy one, you can
copy all of them.

Good luck :-)

Herve

[Anna van Tatenhove]

The same files to an NT box/server (Win2K or NT4) - no corruption, Other Office suite files are also corrupted, HP-UX text files and other stuff, no problems back and forth

[Vincent Stedema]

Hi Anna,

Did you disable locking on this share? According to the smb.conf man page, disabling file locking may cause data corruption. Also, set the "fake oplocks" parameter to "No" if multiple clients are accessing a file. "Fake oplocks" causes file data to be cached and this may cause corruption if multiple clients are working on the same file. Same goes for the "oplocks" parameter.

Check the smb.conf man page for information on oplocks and file locking.

HTH.

Regards,

Vincent

[Herve BRANGIER]

Anna,

Look oplocks parameter (like Vincent said),
this parameter allow client files caching...
and is True by default ! So if there are
synchronize errors or multiple access.

According to smb.conf man page, it exists a
"veto oplocks files" to specify files where
oplocks (and caching) is forbiden.

In our configuration we specify oplocks = False
so you can try this.

Regards,

Herve

[Anna van Tatenhove]

Thanks for the input - file locking wasn't disabled but have set the oplocks parameter to "No". will let you know how I go.

[Anna van Tatenhove]

No luck with the oplocks. Have included a copy of the smb.conf file to see if anyone can see anything that I am missing

[Herve BRANGIER]

Hi,

Sorry, this file seems to be ok... We have a
similar one... which works well !!!
I send you our smb.conf to compare (sorry
comments are in french).

Good luck,

Herve

[Vincent Stedema]

Hi Anna,

A few params you can try:

locking = Yes
oplocks = No
fake oplocks = No
level2 oplocks = No

If this doesn't work, there's also the "strict locking" param. But, setting this to "Yes" will probably downgrade performance as the server will check for locks for every read and/or write.

Regards,

Vincent

[Anna van Tatenhove]

Tried and to no avail - the problem persists.
Has anyone got any other ideas? Am at a stage where I think I might uninstall and reinstall Samba as a next step. Can't be any worse than it is now.