Can this be done? Automount home dirs on desktop

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I admit I’m not the most advanced UNIX geek, or Mac OS X guru, though I generally know my way around the OS. Even so, I’m getting extremely frustrated at not being able to do the things I’m used to doing when administering other network environments. I’ve searched the Web, read lots of books and manuals (not that there’s many where OS X Server is concerned) and come up with little. If I could find the information I needed to teach me, the learning part wouldn’t be hard. With that said, feel free to give me an answer that explains this in terms a ten-year-old could understand; I won’t be annoyed by it.

What I want is this: I have an OS X 10.2.8 server, and OS X 10.3.5 clients. I want each user’s home directory to auto-mount on their desktop when they connect to the server, if possible. I do NOT want each user to see the entire Users folder when they connect to the server. Nor do I want them to see the Groups folder if there is a group they are part of with an automount shared folder nested inside. I want them to see the folders they are supposed to have access to, and ONLY those folders.

This was pretty easy to do in AppleShare IP back in the day, despite the limitations of that setup. I am finding it difficult with OS X Server. When you’re setting this up for high school students, you want this to be as simple as possible. Am I seeking to do the impossible? Can someone tell me what I need to do to make this work? And finally, is there a way to make this a part of a preset file so every user I create will have this set correctly? For all those more experienced than I am with OS X Server (and I’m sure there’s plenty of you), any help you could provide would be sincerely appreciated. If I’m doing something dumb, enlighten me.

P.S. Does OS X Server 10.3 make this easier? I’m just curious, seeing as 10.4 server is out soon, I don’t want to switch to 10.3 and have to pay two upgrades unless I absolutely have to, and I don’t know if the money will be approved to buy 10.3 Server if I ask for it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply…These are users I am setting up through WGM.
When they connect via “Go…Connect To Server” from the client, it
does not give them their folder, but rather the “Users” folder. They
have to open this folder, then find their own. I am sure I have
something set up incorrectly, but I don’t know what. I’m just not
familiar enough to know what I have to do. I’ve tried booting up a
client and connecting by setting the client to “Other” rather than the
local users listed, and typing in the WGM user, but this does not
work; the user is not authenticated. I have tried to use the
Directory Access application from the client to set it to authenticate
to the server, and I have added my client workstations to the
Computers list in WGM, but it’s not working for me, and it’s likely
just because I don’t know the right steps to take.

By network home folder I mean I am using the network homes feature of
OS X Server, version 10.2.8 . My clients are running 10.3.5 . I set
up Open Directory with LDAP enabled, to provide directory information
to other computers, and to provide password and authentication
information to other systems. I enabled the default authentication
protocols.

I have sent this message via e-mail as well, if you get my message there it would probably be easier for both of us to talk there, unless you prefer to reply here. Thanks a lot for your time.

[Heath]

I am working on building a login windows interface which allows are students to use lab computer which login as a default lab account with their network credentials.
What I would like to do is build an interface (first I have to have the applescript working).
basicall I have a script
tell application “Finder”
activate
display dialog “ENTER YOUR USERNAME” default answer “”
set currentUser to text returned of the result
display dialog “ENTER YOUR PASSWORD” default answer “”
set currentPass to text returned of the result
mount volume “afp://currentUser:currentPass@10.3.1.105”
end tell

I need to mask the password field with ****** how? I also need to capture those items and pass them to the mount command?

How to go about this?

[Author]

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