In searching usenet, this is the only message I can find describing the same problem I'm having:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...31f41b2f4ff8cd

Any ideas? Running Samba as an NT4 PDC. The add machine script fails because RHEL4 appears to disallow the '$' character in usernames in /etc/passwd. I have successfully joined an XP PC to the domain by adding the user to the passwd file manually. Can't seem to automate it because of this error though:

# /usr/sbin/useradd -n -g machines -c Machine -d /dev/null -s /bin/false pc1$
useradd: invalid user name 'pc1$'

I'll also pose this question to RedHat since we pay for Enterprise support.. I just get so much better and quicker support from the community and from here in particular

Might be a stupid suggestion, but have you tried escaping the $ sign (with a \)?

The useradd command in RHEL4 does not allow the dollar sign ($) in usernames and it is specific to RHEL4 only.

To solve your problem, do not include the dollar sign i.e.
# /usr/sbin/useradd -n -g machines -c Machine -d /dev/null -s /bin/false pc1

and then add the dollar sign by editing the /etc/passwd file. It's kindda crude but this is the way it will work and it is document in Red Hat's knowledge base.

nowanda, RHCT

Thank heavens for this community!

Ability to add Win machines to samba domain stopped on upgrade to RHEL4, have been racking my brains (and google!) for days ........

Does anyone know if RedHat plan to address the issue?