iDisk works, but often disconnects; plus some SUSE tips

[brianwc]

Hi,

This is a really helpful HOWTO. Thanks.

I'm running Apache 2.0.53 on OpenSUSE 9.3 and managed to get the WebDAV stuff working well enough that I could connect to my personal idisk through OS X (10.4.4)'s Finder. (Cool!)

However, it just barely works. I've managed to copy two small files over, but it took several attempts and it often stalls on the "Copy" pop-up and then eventually gives a little pop-up that reads: "Server connection interrupted: idisk.mydomainname.tld" with a little "Disconnect" button.

Any thoughts on how I could troubleshoot this lousy performance? One other question: the HOWTO includes a line for the apache config:  

AuthGroupFile /home/idisk/WebDavGroups

but this file never gets created in any subsequent step of the HOWTO. Since we're using Digest authentication, shouldn't this be:

AuthDigestGroupFile /home/idisk/WebDavGroups

and then from my reading of the documentation the file WebDavGroups would just consist of:

mygroup: user1 user2

However, does it matter what I call "mygroup" i.e., is that groupname ever referenced by anything else? Or is this file necessary at all?

I've also noticed this error in the apache logs:

[warn] Init: Session Cache is not configured [hint: SSLSessionCache]

Not sure what to make of that.

Finally, OpenSUSE 9.3 required differences in several steps of the HOWTO. Here's where I had to alter it:

1. The Suse Apache user is called wwwrun, not www, so:

# chown wwwrun:www /home/idisk/html /var/run/webdav

2. "htdigest2" is provided but not "htdigest" so alter accordingly. Also, do another htdigest2 step for the additional (wife) user, but without '-c'. At first I added the wife with '-c' and it erased my own username, leaving only hers.

3. I had to edit /etc/sysconfig/apache2
to add these three modules: dav dav_fs auth_digest

4. I did a:

# chown -R wwwrun:www /home/idisk

(so that the WebDavUsers file is owned by the right user/group.)

5. Finally, when using Finder to connect to the idisk, be sure to type "http://" before your fully qualified domain name. Not including that kept me spinning my wheels for longer than anything else.

Hope someone has some insight on any of the above questions. Thanks.
Brian