Okay, I'm still a newbie regardless of what my "by-line" says. I have downloaded the latest version of Samba (as of a week ago) and bunzipped it and tarred. I cd to the source directory in the resultant directory and enter the following command:

# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/bin --bindir=/usr/bin --sbindir=/usr/sbin --with-fhs --with-swatdir=/usr/local/bin/swat --with-smbwrapper --with-ads --with-automount --with-smbmount --with-syslog --with-manpages-lang=en --with-libsmbclient --with-winbind --with-ldap

and after a nice long wait for everything to process, I end up with the following:

checking for LDAP support... yes
checking ldap.h usability... no
checking ldap.h presence... no
checking for ldap.h... no
checking lber.h usability... no
checking lber.h presence... no
checking for lber.h... no
configure: error: ldap.h is needed for LDAP support

So, I went looking on the web, found ldap.h and lber.h (it appears they are both needed) and saved them to (1) the include directory in this directory tree and (2) the /usr/include directory. I still get the same results from the ./configure command. Has anybody seen this before? What is the solution?

they are needed only beacause of your config options. at the end of your options your specifying to include ldap --with-ldap
if you dont need this, you should be able to run it without that option.

# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/bin --bindir=/usr/bin --sbindir=/usr/sbin --with-fhs --with-swatdir=/usr/local/bin/swat --with-smbwrapper --with-ads --with-automount --with-smbmount --with-syslog --with-manpages-lang=en --with-libsmbclient --with-winbind

I know why they are needed. They are needed because I have --with-ldap in the ./configure command. And I have --with-ldap in the ./configure command because that is the only way to attain Active Directory support. And the objective of the entire exercise is to set up a Linux version (or near approximation) of a Domain server, including Active Directory, network logins, private and shared network "drives" and (hopefully, someday) a reasonable facsimile of Exchange. I know all of these are possible, most are possible simply by running Samba. But the version which comes bundled with Mandrake9.1 (or RH8.0, for that matter) is not current enough to support Active Directory technology as far as I can tell.

I have a fairly recent source tarball of Samba and would like to configure, compile and run it. But first I must get past this issue. It appears that a few people have had this issue in the past and never gotten a response let alone a solution.

do you have the current stable version of openLDAP installed? as well as the libraries?

No, I don't think I do. I guess I failed to pick up on that while reading the docs.

I'll give that a go and see if it helps. Thanks.

Okay, so now I've downloaded openLDAP and entered the following command to attempt to configure it:

# ./configure --prefix=/usr --host=uther --x-includes=/usr/include --x-libraries=/usr/lib --enable-syslog --enable-dynamic --with-kerberos --with-tls --enable-slapd --enable-crypt --enable-lmpasswd --enable-ldap

This was followed by (edited for brevity):

Copyright 1998-2003 The OpenLDAP Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
Restrictions apply, see COPYRIGHT and LICENSE files.
Configuring OpenLDAP 2.1.22-Release ...
checking host system type... Invalid configuration `uther': machine `uther' not recognized

checking target system type... Invalid configuration `uther': machine `uther' not recognized

checking build system type... Invalid configuration `uther': machine `uther' not recognized

......

checking for sys/un.h... yes
checking for openssl/ssl.h... no
checking for ssl.h... no
configure: error: Could not locate TLS/SSL package

And that's what I get. Am I doing something completely wrong or is this nightmare as bad as Windows .dll dependencies?

Afraid so, What your doing relies heavily on alot of non-standard distro packages. Obviously you dont have SSL either. But, before this, why would you? I think after this one, you may be alright... keep 'em crossed. But, nonetheless, another 'brief' update is going to be needed. Mandy may have a package for this, but openSSL should have what you need.

Not sure of the 'uther' bit, but once, you have all the packages in place, it will be easier to trace down in the config.

But, on the brighter side, lotsa people have done this, so it is certainly achieveable after some very hard work. And all without the cost of M$! Making it well worth it.