CentOS - Jul 2015 - Problems with Samba-based Home-Directory

Hi folks,

I'm running CentOS 6.6 on my workstation. There I have a user meikel, 
and its home directory /home/meikel ist stored on a samba share on a 
server which also runs CentOS 6.6.

In the very beginning I added the mount options for that home directory 
into the /etc/fstab file which led to some problems, so I set up autofs 
for mounting the home directory.

The autofs seems to work for /home/meikel, but sometimes when I login at 
the GUI, I get error messages which look a little as if the home dir 
isn't available, I then also don't get my desktop background image. The 
two error dialogs which I get in that situation show the following messages:

   "Could not update ICEauthority file /home/meikel/.ICEauthority"

and

   "Es gibt ein Problem mit dem Konfigurationsserver. 
(/usr/libexec/gconf-sanity-check-2 beendet mit Status 256)"

Sorry for the german, it's not clear to me how to get it in english. 
It's something like "There's a problem with configuration server. 
(/usr/libexec/gconf-sanity-check-2 terminated with exit-code 256)"

To do some analysis I did the following:

- Restart workstation, wait until login screen appears

- use CTRL-ALT-F2 to go to a text console

- log in as root

- mount --> it seems that /home/meikel isn't mounted (and this is what I 
expect)

- ll /home/meikel/ --> it's fine, I can see alls the files and 
subdirectories

- ll /home/meikel/Dokumente/ --> it's also fine

- df -h /home/meikel --> now the mount is there

- mount | grep meikel --> yes, the mount is there

- use CTRL-ALT-F3 to go to another text console

- log in as user meikel --> I get an error saying "No directory 
/home/meikel!", but I'm logged in

- pwd --> it shows the root dir /

- id --> it shows uid=500(meikel) gid=500(meikel)

- ll -d /home/meikel --> drwx------ meikel:meikel

- echo ${HOME} --> shows /home/meikel

So the directory /home/meikel is definitely there. Can someone explain 
the error message "No directory /home/meikel!" and give any hints
about
possible problem causes? How can it say that the directory isn't here 
but I can see all the data?

Regards,

Meikel

Have you yet:
setsebool -P use_samba_home_dirs 1

Am 02.07.2015 um 20:16 schrieb Gordon Messmer:
> Have you yet:
> setsebool -P use_samba_home_dirs 1
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>
>
No, I didn't set it. Now I've set it and when logging into text console 
I no longer have the problem with the home directory. That's fine now. 
Thanks a lot!

But the other problem remains, that very soon after startup I can't log 
into the GUI. I think the remaining problem doesn't has to do something 
with Samba/Autofs. It looks as if the network becomes ready very late 
(after autofs started), which perhaps would explain my problem.

In the /var/log/boot.log I see:

...
Schnittstelle eth0 hochfahren:  IP-Informationen f?r eth0 werden 
bestimmt ... fehlgeschlagen; keine Verbindung vorhanden. Kabel pr?fen? 
FEHLGESCHLAGEN
...
Netzwerkparameter einstellen ... OK
NetworkManager-Daemon starten: OK
Loading autofs4: OK
automount starten: OK

In /var/log/messages I see:

Jul  5 16:36:08 meikel-pc kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not 
ready
Jul  5 16:36:23 meikel-pc kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link 
becomes ready

It takes 15 seconds between the two messages until it becomes ready. I 
have no idea why it first says that the link is not ready.

Any ideas?

Regards,

Meikel

>
> So the directory /home/meikel is definitely there. Can someone explain 
> the error message "No directory /home/meikel!" and give any hints
> about possible problem causes? How can it say that the directory isn't 
> here but I can see all the data?
>
> Jul  5 16:36:08 meikel-pc kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is 
> not ready
> Jul  5 16:36:23 meikel-pc kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link 
> becomes ready
>

There were two problems. Solution for the first:

setsebool -P use_samba_home_dirs 1



Solution for the second:

The ethernet cable was defect, I had to replace it.