samba - Oct 2003 - samba 3.0 problems with word files and possible other msoffice files

We have several problems with word files which I would really like to have 
solved.
The users are getting restless and me too ... 

Situation :

I can not reproduce the problem with my version and config of  pc.
But we have a group of people which use windows 2000 and  msoffice 2000. 
They use only word with an addon which translates texts (these people are 
translators).
The translator addon hooks in word and allows them to translate parts of 
the word documents to other languages.
The server version is samba 3.0.0 on redhat 7.3 (kernel 2.4.18)

Symptoms : 

- When they save some files they are error messages like : 
disk is write protected , format the media , invalid filename , etc ... 
This also happens on files which are not new and it doesn't happen always.

- Also frequently these files are staying readonly (also after closing the 
file).

A wild guess :

- something is still wrong with the permissions although the unix rights 
are ok (user is member of group and group has rw rights).
Maybe word still see the wrong rights and thinks it can not write. Word 
does not change the file to readwrite and the file stays readonly.
Wrong guess ?

- maybe turning off all oplocks is not such a good idea ? 


Notes :

- We turned of all oplocks because of a sometimes not too reliable network 
was giving file corruption.

- I read the faq and saw the explanation on word.
This does not seem to be the problem ? 
All files have alway the same group and the people are member of it. 
So I guess the changing of rights part is ok. 
I tried the force group but also tried to turn this of and use ony bit set 
of the group.
Same problems.



If someone can shed a light on this we would be very grateful as I don't 
see a solution for the moment.

regards,

Christian

Here is most of  [global] and the problem share :

[global]
        dos charset = CP850
        unix charset = UTF-8
        display charset = ISO8859-1
        workgroup = COMPANY
         netbios name = FileSRV
        netbios aliases         netbios scope         server string =
Company_name Samba %L [v%v]
        interfaces         bind interfaces only = No
        security = USER
        auth methods         encrypt passwords = Yes
        update encrypted = No
        client schannel = Auto
        server schannel = Auto
        allow trusted domains = Yes
        hosts equiv         min passwd length = 6
        map to guest = Never
        null passwords = No
        obey pam restrictions = Yes
        password server = *
        smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
        private dir = /etc/samba
        passdb backend = ldapsam:ldap://our.ldapserver.com
        algorithmic rid base = 1000
        root directory         guest account = nobody
        pam password change = No
        username map         password level = 0
        username level = 0
        unix password sync = No
        restrict anonymous = 0
        lanman auth = No
        ntlm auth = Yes
        client NTLMv2 auth = No
        client lanman auth = Yes
        client plaintext auth = Yes
        preload modules = /usr/lib/libldap.so.2
        log level = 2
        syslog = 1
        syslog only = No
        log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
        max log size = 50
        timestamp logs = Yes
        debug hires timestamp = No
        debug pid = No
        debug uid = No
        smb ports = 445 139
        protocol = NT1
        large readwrite = Yes
        max protocol = NT1
        min protocol = NT1
        unicode = Yes
        read bmpx = No
        read raw = Yes
        write raw = Yes
        disable netbios = No
        acl compatibility         nt pipe support = Yes
        nt status support = Yes
        announce version = 4.9
        announce as = NT
        max mux = 50
        max xmit = 16644
        name resolve order = lmhosts wins host bcast
        max ttl = 259200
        max wins ttl = 518400
        min wins ttl = 21600
        time server = Yes
        unix extensions = Yes
        use spnego = Yes
        client signing = auto
        server signing = No
        client use spnego = Yes
        change notify timeout = 60
        deadtime = 0
        getwd cache = Yes
        keepalive = 300
        kernel change notify = Yes
        lpq cache time = 10
        max smbd processes = 0
        paranoid server security = Yes
        max disk size = 0
        max open files = 10000
        read size = 16384
        socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_KEEPALIVE 
SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
        use mmap = Yes
        hostname lookups = No
        name cache timeout = 660
        load printers = Yes
        printcap name = cups
        disable spoolss = No
        enumports command         addprinter command         deleteprinter
command         show add printer wizard = Yes
        os2 driver map         mangling method = hash2
        mangle prefix = 1
        mangled stack = 50
        stat cache = Yes
        machine password timeout = 604800
        add user script         delete user script         add group script     
delete group script         add user to group script         delete user from
group script         set primary group script         add machine script        
shutdown script         abort shutdown script         logon script         logon
path = \\%N\%U\profile
        logon drive         logon home = \\%N\%U
        domain logons = Yes
        os level = 255
        lm announce = No
        lm interval = 60
        preferred master = Yes
        local master = Yes
        domain master = Yes
        browse list = Yes
        enhanced browsing = Yes
        dns proxy = Yes
        wins proxy = No
        wins server         wins support = Yes
        wins hook         wins partners         kernel oplocks = Yes
        lock spin count = 3
        lock spin time = 10
        oplock break wait time = 0
        ldap suffix = O=company
        ldap machine suffix = O=company
        ldap user suffix = O=company
        ldap group suffix = O=company
        ldap idmap suffix = O=company
        ldap filter = (uid=%u)
        ldap admin dn = "cn=admindn,ou=accounts,o=company"
        ldap ssl = no
        ldap passwd sync = no
        ldap delete dn = No
        add share command         change share command         delete share
command         config file         preload         lock directory =
/var/cache/samba
        pid directory = /var/run/samba
        utmp directory         wtmp directory         utmp = No
        default service         message command         dfree command        
get quota command         set quota command         remote announce        
remote browse sync         socket address = 0.0.0.0
        homedir map         time offset = 0
        NIS homedir = No
        source environment         panic action         hide local users = No
        host msdfs = No
        enable rid algorithm = Yes
        read list         write list         printer admin         force user   
force group         read only = Yes
        create mask = 0744
        force create mode = 00
        security mask = 0777
        force security mode = 00
        directory mask = 0755
        force directory mode = 00
        directory security mask = 0777
        force directory security mode = 00
        inherit permissions = No
        inherit acls = No
        guest only = No
        guest ok = No
        only user = No
        hosts allow = 127., 192.168.10.0/255.255.255.0
        hosts deny = ALL
        nt acl support = Yes
        profile acls = No
        map acl inherit = No
        afs share = No
        block size = 1024
        max connections = 0
        min print space = 500000
        strict allocate = No
        strict sync = No
        sync always = No
        use sendfile = No
        write cache size = 0
        max reported print jobs = 0
        max print jobs = 1000
        default devmode = No
        default case = lower
        case sensitive = No
        preserve case = Yes
        short preserve case = Yes
        mangle case = No
        mangling char = ~
        hide dot files = Yes
        hide special files = No
        hide unreadable = No
        hide unwriteable files = No
        delete veto files = No
        veto files         hide files         veto oplock files = /*.SEM/
        map system = No
        map hidden = No
        map archive = Yes
        mangled names = Yes
        mangled map         browseable = Yes
        blocking locks = Yes
        csc policy = manual
        fake oplocks = No
        locking = Yes
        oplocks = No
        level2 oplocks = No
        oplock contention limit = 2
        posix locking = Yes
        strict locking = Yes
        share modes = Yes
         include = /etc/samba/samba_shares.cfg
         available = Yes
        volume         fstype = NTFS
        set directory = No
        wide links = Yes
        follow symlinks = No
        dont descend         magic script         magic output         delete
readonly = No
        dos filemode = No
        dos filetimes = No
        dos filetime resolution = No
        fake directory create times = No
        vfs objects         msdfs root = No
        msdfs proxy 
[problem_share]
        path = /home/problem_share
        valid users = @admins, @users
        admin users = @admins
        force group = users
        read only = No
        create mask = 0660
        force create mode = 0660
        force directory mode = 0770
        strict allocate = Yes
        browseable = No

and the directory rights :

drwxrwx---    8 root     users     4096 oct 16 14:30 problem_directory

A follow-up on my own message. :-)
I tried a few other things yesterday. 

A problem is also (like another poster said) that I don't see a difference 
in rights of some directories.
With one dir word doesn't save the files and with another it does.

So I have 2 directories in problem_share :

problem_share|dir/dir1 --> word doesn't save the files (memory or disk 
space msword error) 
problem_share|dir/dir2 --> word saves without problem

both dirs have the same rights.

Now I tried this :
- enabled all oplocks 

problem_share|dir/dir1 --> word saves the file ! but takes a long time to 
finalize (it looks like word has crashed but returns after approx 30s a 
1min)
problem_share|dir/dir2 --> word saves without problem (no delays)



Finally I tried this : 
- enabled all oplocks and copied the files to a new directory 
Till now I heard no problems. Let's see how it behaves today and next 
week.


The disk config is 4 disks in raid 5 with raid ctrl.
I described the problem with 1 problem dir but there were also other 
directories with problems.


Christian