Hi all,

I wiped and reinstalled RH 8 on my server a few days ago, and before I wiped it, I copied all the contents of the /etc/samba directory to floppy. After I had the system back up, I copied the files from the floppy back to the new /etc/samba directory. I recreated all my regular system users and rebuilt the smbpasswd file. Now, when I try to map a drive from one of my Windows machines to a home directory of the user on the RH box, it asks me for a username and password, which it does not accept! This used to work fine, and I can't for the life of me figure out what's different now. All of the Windows machines are ALL automatically logged in at boot with the same username and password that I have in Samba. For example:

Windows machine: Gemini
Logged in user: chris
Logged in user password: xxxxx

Samba password for chris: xxxxx

Yet, when I try to map a drive to \\goliath\chris, it asks me for a username and password, which it doesn't accept anyway! Goliath is the hostname of the RH box running samba, BTW. Any thoughts about what could be wrong? I can see goliath in Network Neighborhood, but cannot browse it, either. I know my smb.conf file is good since it is the same file I had before I took the machine offline. Any thoughts?

Chris

Check:

-If the share "chris" is declared in your smb.conf
-Have you added the username at smbpasswd with smbpasswd -a username?

Yes to both. This is bothering me because everything is right as best as I can figure. I'm pretty good with Samba at this point, and I can't figure out what's wrong.

Chris

If your network is safe, you can change the security level to share instead of user to see if the problem is in smb.conf or in smbpasswd.

I don't even have a security level setting in smb.conf, so I don't think that's the problem. I have no idea what samba defaults to if it is not specified. My smb.conf is about as simple as it gets.

Chris

I´m not at my computer right now so I can´t post a copy of my smb.conf so you can try it just changing parameters to yours, but you can try a search and you´ll find tons of posted smb.conf files, maybe you can try one.

P.D. I also don´t know what´s the default security level if not specified.

Well, here's my smb.conf. Let me know if you see any problems, but I'm quite positive that it's ok.

# Samba config file created using SWAT
# from 192.168.5.16 (192.168.5.16)
# Date: 2003/03/31 14:40:35

# Global parameters
[global]
workgroup = BARTLETT
server string = File Server
encrypt passwords = Yes
min passwd length = 3
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
name resolve order = wins lmhosts bcast
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
os level = 65
local master = Yes
dns proxy = No
wins support = Yes

[sokhan]
valid users = sokhan
comment = My Stuff
path = /home/sokhan
writable = yes
browseable = No

[john]
valid users = john
comment = My Stuff
path = /home/john
writable = yes
browseable = No

[nancy]
valid users = nancy
comment = My Stuff
path = /home/nancy
writable = yes
browseable = No

[chris]
valid users = chris
comment = My Stuff
path = /home/chris
writable = yes
browseable = No

[public]
comment = Save important files here
path = /home/public
public = yes
writable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = no
create mode = 777
directory mode = 777

why don´t you try adding a line just before the shares in the global´s:

security = share

I will try that shortly, but like I said, I don't think that can't be the problem because this is the sambe smb.conf file I have always used, and it used to work fine. We'll see, though!

Chris

Yo cjwsb,

I guess even experienced Linux users can have difficulties

Here are a few questions...

Which files did you backup and restore? Give me the names.

Are you using the same version of Samba that you had used before?

Have you disabled the Linux firewall?


Try running testparm on your smb.conf file. Make sure all of the directories referenced by the smb.conf file have been recreated.

try adding the user again by smbadduser
also the user in smbadduser should be a valid user first of all in the linuxoperating system

Jamrock,

The files I backed up and restored were the entire contants of the /etc/samba directory, such as smb.conf, smbpasswd, lmhosts, smbusers, etc.

Come to think of it, I can't recall what version of samba I was running before, but right now I am running version2.2.5-10. Perhaps I was running a different version before?!

I don't have a firewall running. Just using NAT and IP-masquerading through iptables.

Does that help?

Also, I know the users are all good for Linux and samba. I generated the smbpasswd file using this command:

# cat /etc/passwd | mksmbpasswd.sh > /etc/samba/smbpasswd

That creates an smbpasswd file based on the contents of your regular passwd file, which all the regular users were already in (ie, users chris, john, nancy, sokhan, etc). Got that right out of a samba book.

What is the exact error message that you are getting?

Hi jamrock. Not really getting an error message. This is what's happening:

From a Windows machine named Gemini, user chris logged in, password xxxxx. I attempt to map a drive to the home directory of chris on the Linux machine running samba (Goliath). Map network drive to \\goliath\chris. I enter username chris and password xxxxx, and it simply asks me for the information over and over again. Does this on all my other machines, too. I can't actually connect to Goliath. Any thoughts? I don't think it's a permissions or ownership problem, but I suppose it could be. Lemme know what you think, man!

Chris

To be honest, I am not sure what is happening. I have never re-created a smbpasswd file using this method so I don't know if that is an issue.

Normally, after a re-install I would just add the users manually and copy the smb.conf back over. I would have manually recreated everything except the smb.conf file. I am not saying that your way doesn't work, I just haven't used it before.

Are you using Windows 95/98 or Windows 2000 clients?

I know that Windows NT/2000/XP clients have a unique I.D. which is added to the server when they join the domain. If I had to re-install a Windows 2000/NT server or client I would have to delete the original account on the server and let the client rejoin the domain. Not too sure what Samba requires.

Does the login window say something about IPC or something like that? I think that happens when the user does not exist in the smbpasswd file.

If all else fails, you can try renaming the smbpasswd file and re-creating it manually.

Sorry I can't give you more help than this.