Can anyone tell me how to start samba at system startup?

It depends on what distribution you are running on.

For Redhat (fedora, centos and other clones) - I assume that debian has a similar methods/tools.

in the console type:

chkconfig smb on

which will create all the links needed in the /etc/rc.d/rc[n].d directories to start and stop the daemons at the correct time.

If you are using a graphical desktop, then for fedora core 3 go to Applications->System Settings->Server Settings->Services, type in your root password when promted, then scroll down the left hand window till you find the service labelled 'smb'. There you can put a tick in the box and then click save. It should then take care of starting/stopping the dameons for you. You can hit the start button at the top of the window to start the service straight away too.

HTH

Dylan

Install the tool 'sysv-rc-conf' (you can install it with apt-get, aptitude or synaptic). When you run this tool as 'root' you can configure which daemons start at which runlevel.

Good luck.

thanks guys