How can I authenticate a Slackware client against an LDAP server without PAM?

    If you've read above, you know that Slackware doesn't support PAM,
    but the most common way of configuring a linux client to authenticate
    against an LDAP server is to use PAM.  What to do?

    Well, one method is to use the nss_ldap software provided by PADL
    (http://www.padl.com).  You'll need to obtain and install the
    software yourself, but it's a lot easier than installing PAM.
    The basic procedure follows:

    - Install nss_ldap on the client.
    [FIX ME: some LDAP directories can be configured to permit anonymous
             binding for the purpose of authenticating users.  The
             following steps should not be necessary in those cases]
    [--------------------------------------------------------------]
    - Obtain from your LDAP server admin an LDAP account that has the
      ability to read (at least, write is helpful) all of the appropriate
      login information.  In particular, this account must have at least
      read access to the userPassword attribute of all accounts to be used
      on the Slackware client.
    - Configure this DN in ldap.conf as rootbinddn.
    - Create a file, /etc/ldap.secret, and add the rootbinddn's password
      (cleartext!) to the first line of the file.  Add a trailing newline
      to the password.
    [--------------------------------------------------------------]
    - Modify /etc/nsswitch.conf to authenticate against LDAP.  You'll
      probably want to modify at least passwd, group, and shadow.  It's
      best to add ldap after the files entry for each database (or in an
      appropriate order, if you use things like nis).  (Personally, I don't
      recommend using compat mode if also using nis or ldap.)

    That's all you should need to do - no restarting of daemons should be
    needed.