when i try to join the domain provided my my linux box, from an xp pro machine, i get the error "the user name could not be found" i know root is in the smb.passwd file, i checked it manually. what do i do?

There are aa few things you must keep an eye on it when doing such things.

1. Deactivate in WiinXP the option that encrypts the connection to the domain controller. samba 2 wont deal with it.
2. You need to add a machine trust account to the domain controller
3. you must then logon with the user "root" to the domain controller
4. forget the account "root" you cant use it after adding the machine to the domain. use some other user.

greetz

raven

noob mistake... for all the other noobs out there, i will explain how i fixed the problem

you must first create a machine account using useradd ( i knew this much ) in the /etc/passwd and shadow files, find the machine account. some versions of linux will put a $ behind the name. if there is not one, you must put one there. ex if the machine is named beta change beta to beta$... in the passwd and shadow files.

useradd -d /dev/null -s /bin/false %computer name% ...i think that was the command...

once that is done, type smbpasswd -am %computer name%

this will tell samba that the user you are adding is a machine, not a normal user.

if you skip the first step, you will get something like

can not write to file bla bla beta$
can not create user beta$

that's not exactly what it does, but just to know what to look for. once that is done, go to the box you wish to log in with, change the domain name, use root for the user and whatever password you told samba to use... you have to have set up root as a user and supplied it with a password.

good luck to everyone else...