Anyone resolved "failed to lock SMB passwd file"?

[Fulvio Corno]

Hi all.

I'm experiencing long connect delays due to password file locking
errors. For each connection samba logs the following errors:

do_pw_lock: failed to lock SMB passwd file.
mod_smbpwd_entry: unable to lock file
                     /usr/local/samba-1.9.18p10/private/smbpasswd

In the archives I found some other messages reporting the problem (on
May this year), but no solution. Did I miss something or the problem is
still unsolved? I am willing to further debug it, if pointed in the
right direction.

Environment:
samba samba-1.9.18p10, running from inetd, on SunOS 4.1.4
update encrypted = yes, encrypt passwords = no

Thank you
	Fulvio