I'm running webmin with Samba.

I'm trying trying to add an admin user that has access to all home directories, ie user accounts.

I had tried with a sym link, and while I can see all the folders. I can't access them.

Any help is much appreciated.

Edit: Running Centos 6.2 x64

Here's my smb.conf


follow symlinks = yes
wide links = yes
unix extensions = no

[allusers]
comment = All Users
path = /home/shares/allusers
valid users = @users
force group = users
create mask = 0660
directory mask = 0771
writable = yes
public = yes
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = yes
valid users = %S
public = yes
writable = yes
create mask = 0700
directory mask = 0700
smb ports=445

[Admin]
comment = Top level
valid users = user1,user2,user3
user = user2
path = /home
write list = user2,@root

I suggest you check the group rights for your admin user. If it is a rights issue, the admin user will need rights to the home directories. This would be typical only for root. So you need to make your admin user a member of some group, and then make sure the directories allow that group full rights.

Another possibility is a problem I have had in the past. My server has the home directories on a different drive. On top of that I had to add space, and stuck a new drive in that enters the tree in the primary user directory. There are times and circumstances when I cannot use the files on the 2nd hdd, but the loss of functionality is limited. What I see is an inability to copy files from one partition to another by a user who is not on the server itself. I have seen this both in ssh and samba - but my point is your problem may be more esoteric then just rights.

Thank you for you response. Does the user root belong to a group? Sounds like I would simply need to add the admin user to that group?

The user root belongs to several groups. And, actually, when you are running as root I would think you should be able to exactly as you wish - access everything. However, if you are running as your normal self, and you "su" into root, and then try to put links on your desktop, they will not work. If you log in as root to root's desktop, then you could do put links on the desktop or bookmarks in the file manager. Or, you should be able to. You would also have to connect to the samba shares as root, I think. I'm not sure, but I think you would have to add root to the samba-users database.

That might be considered a security risk, so you would probably be better off creating a special admin user, and giving them the appropriate rights.

Actually, I got it to work by making the following changes to my smb.conf

[global]
admin users = root, smbadmin, user1, user2, user3
security = user