[Watford] Weird samba problem

[Alan Secker]

Because the distro I had been using was only a test one, it was prone to 
becoming unstable after updates. As I like kde for my work machines, I 
was relieved when Mangeia released version 2. I installed it and then 
set about recovering my VMware and VirtualBox XP guests.

I prefer to use samba to access my Linux folders from Windows rather 
than the shared folders mode because some Windows programs cannot access 
anything above 'drive D'.

After setting up the Windows shares and re-attaching the XP guests, I 
then tested access from XP

Each day I power up the machine followed by VMware and then XP.

 From VMware, when I check each share, drive G: (which maps to my home 
directory) just comes up. No password is requested. The other four 
shares always require one.

I have done a few samba restarts and rebooted the virtual XP but nothing 
has changed.


This is the share structure:
      /home
         /family mapped to F: in XP
         /alan   mapped to G: in XP
         /public mapped to T: in XP
         /archive_documents mapped to R: in XP
         /Scan_Trap mapped to S: in XP

Only G: does not require a password when accessing it in Windows. BUT 
ONLY under VMware.

Every share has 'alan' as the sole user and admin user.

If I start up VirtualBox instead, every share from XP demands a password 
from Windows!

I have examined smb.conf several times but cannot find the root of the 
problem.

Has anyone a practical suggestion?