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Marc
Asked: 2011-12-24 08:04:29 +0800 CST

How to use Windows Share has home directory

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I've got a windows 2K server, with ubuntu 11.10 desktops.

I'd like to implement something like roaming profiles. It can be "local" that's synched to the server. I've used LIkewise-open to get my windows logins working on my Ubuntu machines, but to get the full benefit, something like roaming profiles would be good.

Any ideas/pointers?

11.10

1 Answers

  1. I can think of a few ways to do this:

    1. Set up autofs to mount the user's home directory from a network drive. I don't know how well this would work with a Windows server, what with the filename restrictions, the lack of soft links, and the different permissions systems, but I think you could try it at least. This is the "correct" way to do this, but you'd normally use a more suitable server.

    2. Create a start-up script (in .xsessionrc, perhaps?) to rsync the contents of the home directory. You'd also need to set up some sort of system for pushing changes back to the server, either at log-out, or periodically. You'd need to be very careful with your rsync options to avoid overwriting modified files in the case of a failed sync, and using it simultaneously from multiple machines would be a bad plan.

    3. Create the various setting directories you are interested in as soft-links into a network-mounted folder, and mount it at start-up. This would probably be somewhat unsatisfactory.

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