I have a long-running samba 2 machine (on top of Debian) running as my PDC. It is also running dhcp.

I added the machine to my dhcpd.config files. (We issue ip addresses based on mac addresses.) When I boot it, I get my ip address, and can ping all machines.

I am attempting to do the initial authentication of a new XP Pro SP2 machine to it to join the domain, but with no success. I have done this about 30 times over the past 5 years without issue. I know samba is configured correctly because my office is still up and running - as it has for years.

I have done the WinXP reg hack I know of:
Digitally encrypt or sign secure channel data (always) - 0

I have added the machine account on the debian server:

useradd -s /bin/false -d /dev/null machinename\$
smbpasswd -a -m machiinename
then restarted samba

I then try to authenticate to join the domain:
System Properties -> change name -> domain radio button & put in the domain name -> hit OK. I am prompted for UID/PW. I supply the linux uid/pw for root - which I have done many times.

Instead of the normal "welcome to the domain", I get a windows error message: "Login failure: unknown user name or bad password"

I have tried several times, even changing the machine name a couple of times. But with no success. I have done many googles, but cannot find any solutions.

Any suggestions? What am I missing?

FIrst for XP-pro sp2 you do no need to do the registry hack.
Second i hope you would have had added root user& pass to samba pass database.
Third I hope you would'nt be having firewall(default windows) running at this particular XP box.
Fourth I hope you would'nt have disabled netbios over tcp-ip in the lan card properties over XP box.
Fifth I hope you wont have any firewall at linux-samba box block the same as well.
Sixth; Are you getting this problem at thix box only; Try to unjoin any previously other attached box & try to rejoin it.

And i can understand though as you have done the same process over the years again n again with success but sometimes it simple doesnt do & thats when frustration creeps in... but i suggest you to keep yourself cool & assure you that you yourself will find the solution tothis problem.

One more thing; have you also referred to the logs(samba-box); What does they say when you get this error at XP box ?

With best regards,

First, I have authenticated many computers on this network. Yes, root has had a password in smbpasswd since the start, many years ago (more on this in a moment, though).

As to firewalls, turned off (behind my hardware firewall) temporarily until the machine is set up. But I am not open to the outside owrld, either at this point.

All of the other things are set correctly - checked, double cehcked, and dtriple checked over the course of 2 days. And while I have been frustrated, its only a computer! But thanks for worrying!

Back to root smbpasswd, though.

Problem was solved this am. I had rechecked my smbpasswd, as I realized this was an user authentication issue. Sure enough, it was in smbpasswd. But for some reason I thought maybe, just maybe it got corrupted...so I redid the smbpasswd for root.

Sure enough, it worked. I can only think that I might have corrupted it while deleting a user in the past, and this was the first authentication I was doing since then. So, while I had root and a password in smbpasswd, the passwd was incorrect.

Up and running now, everything going great!

Thanks for the help & suggestions.