Is there a way to set an ubuntu machine to login to an ubuntu server just as Windows XP Pro computers can login to a domain in the business type setup.

E.g. The ubuntu box starts up and then logs into to A domain hosted by an ubuntu server.

I'm not quite sure what i should be googling... Any ideas?

Cheers

Do you want to log into a Windows domain? Please explain better what system you have. You can configure a samba server as an NT styled domain controller and have the windows & linux computers use it for authentication. When you join a domain, you are using that domains domain controller for authentication. The Samba books from the samba-doc package have instructions on what you need to do. ( Samba 3 by Example & Samba 3 Reference & HOWTO ) Your distro may automate some of it such as changing the authentication source from /etc/passwd and editing the pam configuration as needed.


There is also NIS for a pure Unix/Linux network. This uses an nis server for authentication. You have netgroups rather than windows domains. Don't confuse window's hostnames and domains with internet hostnames and domains.

You can also use an ldap server for authentication. This involves a pam-ldap module that tries to authenticate you against an ldap server.

The advantages to these solutions is to be able to change your password on only one computer. The disadvantage is the complexity.
If you only have a handful of computers on your LAN, it may not be worth it.

if you want to access to a normal linux network server, u could use ssh if the server authorizes you, sftp in nautilus.

Thats excatly what i'm after.

I'm basically wanting to setup a system that is the linux version of a windows domain setup (where the user logs in when their computer starts up and all their data is saved on the server, as well as all the user limitations etc)

I guess i'd better start googling then!

Cheers

You can obtain that with user groups, would be pretty much the same thing as having a domain in windows... setup permissions for each group and let them log in into the server as you like.

At the moment i'm trying LTSP servers.. but the driver support is really hit and miss