I have a RH Linux server which we use as a "windows file server" for all
manner of data storage and retrieval and it works better than our Windows NT
server except that I cannot get it to work reliably with our Paradox
database tables.  We have an application that runs from each users Win2k PRO
workstation.  The BDE 5.x is installed on each station.  The database tables
are on the Linux server using Samba.  All users can access the program and
share the database tables except for two large tables which contain Memo
fields.  The problem is that we constantly receive BLOB has been modified
errors on these two table(s) or they get corrupted often.  We repair or
restore them and then a few minutes later or an hour later it happens again.
When we move the database tables back to the Windows NT server the problem
goes away.  We don't want to give up on this because we have noticed a
significant difference in performance when sharing these tables on the Linux
server.  When opening certain tables when served up from the WinNT server it
is very slow, sometimes 30 seconds to open one data input screen.  When the
same data is served up from the Linux/Samba server the same window opens up
in 5 to 10 seconds depending on how many users are accessing the server when
the input window is opened.  I have tried everything I can think of to
eliminate the problem but nothing seems to help.  Can anyone out there
provide feedback on these two topics:

1.  Correct setup of a Samba share for sharing BDE compatible database
tables on Red Hat Linux 7.2
2.  Setup of  the Windows BDE for multi-user access to tables  stored on a
Linux Samba Server

Thanks

James

Do you have the BDE configured for peer-to-peer networking as described in
http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,15247,00.html ?

--
Bill
(TeamB cannot answer questions received via email)

Yes.  I am using UNC's for data and network dir's and
separate private folders (local c: drive) for each user.  It works great in
all aspects except for files with a BLOB field.  We are storing Rich Text in
a Memo field.  Paradox v5 tables.

James

"Bill Todd (TeamB)" <bill_nos...@dbginc.com> wrote in message
news:3ca33096_1@dnews...

Do you have Local Share set to true? If not, do so.

--
Bill
(TeamB cannot answer questions received via email)

Yes.  Local share is true. Our app checks for it and won't run if it's not
set to true unless its running from a Novell network.  Any other
suggestions?

James

"Bill Todd (TeamB)" <bill_nos...@dbginc.com> wrote in message
news:3ca383c9$1_1@dnews...

Sorry no. I have never tried running Paradox tables on a Samba server,
however, I have seen messages from people who have done it successfully. You
might try doing a newsgroup search on Google and see if you can find any
tips.

--
Bill
(TeamB cannot answer questions received via email)

My reason for attempting to do this was because our software is soooo slow
when the files are served from WinNT (actually Win2k now).  For example, we
have one form which has about 10 tables opened on it and it can often take
30 seconds to open the window, even longer if more than 5 users are
accessing the shared data folder.  Since we have successfully operated our
RH Linux Samba server as a central file store for almost 2 years I decided
one day to try it as a server for our BDE/Paradox database tables.  It took
a short time to copy the data to a Samba share and set it up.  My first test
was to see how well it performed with the input screen I referred to above.
It was incredible how much faster it was.  I then tested this with 5 users
all accessing the same forms at roughly the same time and again the
performance was excellent.  Much faster than Win2k.  The RH Linux server is
an Intel Pentium/MMX 166mhz w/ 128mb RAM.  The Win2k server is an Intel
Pentium III w/ 256mb RAM.  Interesting huh?

I repeat.  So long as we don't modify (Insert/update) records in a table
which uses BLOB's fields it works flawlessly, not a single corruption until
someone tries to access the BLOB data and then all hell breaks loose.  I
think it would be time well spent for Borland to give this a whirl since you
have exhibited such broad support for Linux this should be a no brainer
test.  I'd be willing to send you a copy of our software and a sample
database to simulate the testing.  We really want this to work cuz we're
tired of M$ pokey server w/ the BDE.

Thanks.....James

"Bill Todd (TeamB)" <bill_nos...@dbginc.com> wrote in message
news:3ca3bb69$1_1@dnews...