Does NT4.0 recognize SAMBA domain controllers ?

[Monscheuer at t-online.de]

Hello !

I need some help to get rid of NT4.0 saying "unable to locate domain
controller" when attempting to change a PC from a workgroup's member
to a domain's member.

I've been trying to setup Samba 1.8.19p8 (?, well, the latest one dated
as of June, 13th) as a NT primary domain controller on a SUN Sparc5 
running Solaris 2.5.1 during the last days and basically Samba behaves 
excellent as for mounting drives and similar. But now I also need its 
PDC functionality to serve the PCs running NT4.0

At this point I perhaps should mention that I'm an alien from a galaxy 
called DEC, planet VAX, where the people do speak VMS. Foreign language 
tought at school there was *nix. And they never told us about Samba ...
Say I'm really new to this.
So please forgive me in case I'll make some unintelligible assumptions
or unintentionally will give incomplete descriptions of the problems
I'm experiencing. Please tell me what you need to know to point me
at a solution. Ah yes, and please be aware that I have to retranslate
all these (horrible) German NT messages and the German NT GUI terms... 
So don't be surprised if "my" NT messages/terms don't exactly match
what you are probably used to.

Back to the original topic:
The PCs running NT4.0 can't be changed to become a member of an
existing domain. "Cannot find the domain controller" is what NT4.0
always is coming up with.
Nevertheless, I think I have setup Samba and the SUN box as well 
as the PCs almost correctly - for a simple reason: The related logfiles 
(tried loglevels from 4 to 20) in /var/smb on the SUN show the 
negotiations between the PCs and the SUN (or more precisely between 
NT and Samba) when I'm trying to make a PC a member of a domain 
(network setup -> identification card -> change -> domain -> 
enter name -> OK).
The logfile shows someone/some process logging in to the SUN (or the 
Samba server ?), changing dirs and the like. All of this seems to work
like a charm when the PC attempts to contact the domain controller. 

But then, it fails. For no reason which is obvious to me (ok, that's
why I'm asking here ;-). 

At a particular point in the negotiations for making a NTws a domain's
member a list of machines is showing up in /var/smb/log.pc_name
Unfortunately, I'm not in the position to rate this list and whether
there's anything wrong with the machines' setups.
The machine in question running SAMBA appears twice in this list 
(if memory serves [no pun intended ;-)], I'm at home now and can't
access the boxes at work):

s: dom mismatch   S066223   80001000       S066223   TEC223
**SV**            S066223   59b09   Samba 1.8.19p8   TEC223
...
...

I'm not sure that 59b09 in the 3rd column on the line begining with 
**SV** is correct, but at least it looks similar to this value. It's the 
only value in the 3rd column which is different to all the other lines
(about 25) which are 80001000 in this place.
What exactly does each single column mean ? 
What exactly does **SV** mean ?
Why does the same machine (NT is trying to identify as the PDC)
appear twice ? What's the exact difference between these two lines ?
Am I right guessing that "dom mismatch" means "domain mismatch" ?
Is anything wrong with this list or with the machines' setup
respectively ?
You see, I'm pretty clueless and I'm trying to find a point to start
from to track down the problem. 
If a complete logfile of such an attempt to turn a NT box into a domain's
member is of any interest, just drop me a line.

There is yet another "interesting" behaviour with NT4.0 (at least here):
- Fire up your NT explorer
- Click on "network environment", then "complete network"
- Choose one of the domains being displayed (might need to choose
  M$ network before, too)
- Move your pointer to a machine in the domain you just selected
  and press the right mouse button, then select "properties"
  (may need to "connect" to this machine first).

What does the card coming up on your NT box say regarding the 
computer's domain ? Is the domain's name correct ?

Here it is not. Only the first three characters of the domain name are
being displayed when asking NT to display the properties of a machine
(having remote control enabled) running Samba (configured to be a PDC).

A domain called GENERIC is displayed to have the name GEN or a domain
called ALLG025 is displayed to have the name ALL...
Is there anything I can do to find the reason for this behaviour ?

Is this just a minor "NT display bug" or is this perhaps the culprit
why trying to turn a NT4.0 box into a domain member does miserably fail ?
It's somewhat of strange that all names are truncated to 3 chars here.

Again, I'm pretty clueless and so any insights are most welcome.


TIA and best regards !

Michael Monscheuer    Voice +49 4122   8083    Monscheuer at t-online.de
Stadtkoppelweg 1            +49 171 5107677    Monscheuer at decus.decus.de
D-25436 Moorrege      Fax   +49 4122  82637    monscheu at tc-wedel.de
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