I installed Red Hat 7.1 on my machine, upgraded it yesterday with the latest files (using RH Update Agent). Downloaded Samba sources and compiled. I can see my machine in Network Neighbourhood on a Win2K PC but trying to open them gives a message like
"\\ Linuxbox is not accessible. The network path was not found." Similar problems were reported in other threads but none of the suggested solutions work for me. I am interested in seamless movement of files from/to my LINUX box (migrating from Win2K Prof. to RH Linux 8.0). Please advise where/what I am wrong. I have created a user called root in my Win2K machine, blanked out password of Guest. There is a RH LINUX 7.x on the n/w that has been offering all services for over two years. I even tried with that machine's smb.conf file with no luck.

Given below is my smb.conf file:
(have excluded commented lines)

[global]

# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name, eg: REDHAT4
workgroup = MILKYWAY

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = P-Samba

; Netbios name added by Siva
netbios name = preethi

# this tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /usr/local/samba/var/log.%m

# Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).
max log size = 50

# Security mode. Most people will want user level security. See
# security_level.txt for details.
security = user

# DNS Proxy - tells Samba whether or not to try to resolve NetBIOS names
# via DNS nslookups.
dns proxy = no

# If you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
load printers = yes


#============================ Share Definitions ==============================
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = yes
writable = yes
valid users = %S

[test]
comment = Test share
path = /root/testshare
read only = no
public = yes
browseable = yes

# NOTE: If you have a BSD-style print system there is no need to
# specifically define each individual printer
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /usr/spool/samba
browseable = no
# Set public = yes to allow user 'guest account' to print
guest ok = no
writable = no
printable = yes

Thank you for your patient study of this request.

Cheers,
Siva

Have you done the smbpasswd thing?

I'm not entirely sure if your Guest thing will work, and if you *have* created an account on your Win2K machine called root, (and I assume given it a password) you'll need to create a samba password file to authenticate it.

I don't see any authentication lines in your smb.conf so here's an example :

encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

Your passwords will be stored in the file above. To create root's do this :

smbpasswd -a root <password>

I think.. *ponder*. The -a thing 'adds a user' but I've never done it for root, as root.. So you might just as well off log in as root on your linux box and

smbpasswd
New SMB password: <password here>
Retype new SMB password: <password again>

Now, when you're root on your NT box you should be able to see shares on your Linux box. If your passwords are different on both boxes you'll be prompted for the right password on the Linux box.

There are tools to sync passwords on the two boxes but they can come later

Slick.

I was able to install samba with minimum effort by installing RedHat Linux 8.0 from their CD (after formatting the hard drive) and by following the steps in the documentation (Customization of RH Linux 8.0).

I had earlier installed 7.1 from CD and upgraded using Update Agent. The foll. could also be the reasons for smooth installation:

1. Changed name of computer to a new name (unused earlier on any windows or linux machines on the network). Was wondering if my Win2K DNS remembered the machine name-IP address combinations and refused connection when combination is same but OS changed.

2. Changed IP address to an address unused earlier on any m/c on the n/w. We use static IPs on our network

3. Chose to have no firewall.

Thank you Slick for your detailed reply. I think I am now equipped to learn about password sync feature. Kindly throw some light on this.

Cheers,
Siva

did you add samba users.

normal users are different from samba users

Um.. I think he's got his users set up now.

To do the password syncronisation stuff you need to look at these parameters in your smb.conf file :

# Use password server option only with security = server
# The argument list may include:
# password server = My_PDC_Name [My_BDC_Name] [My_Next_BDC_Name]
# or to auto-locate the domain controller/s
# password server = *
; password server = <NT-Server-Name>

# Password Level allows matching of _n_ characters of the password for
# all combinations of upper and lower case.
; password level = 8
; username level = 8

# You may wish to use password encryption. Please read
# ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation.
# Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents
encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd


# The following are needed to allow password changing from Windows to
# update the Linux sytsem password also.
# NOTE: Use these with 'encrypt passwords' and 'smb passwd file' above.
# NOTE2: You do NOT need these to allow workstations to change only
# the encrypted SMB passwords. They allow the Unix password
# to be kept in sync with the SMB password.
; unix password sync = Yes
; passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
; passwd chat = *New*password* %n\n *Retype*new*password* %n\n *passwd:*all*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*

Essentially you pass it the name of your primary domain controller, and tell your box what password program to use to change passwords on your local machine. Tell it to authenticate using domain, and um.. I think that's it.

Note: I don't do this. So my experience with it is limited - I don't trust my domain controllers and use my Linux box as the authoratitive user dump instead of my NT boxes.

If someone else with experience with this would like to jump in here, you'd be more than welcome.

Slick.