Announce: KDE User Manager does smbpasswd.

[Andy Phillips]

Hi,

    I'd like to announce a beta patch to the KDE user manager (kuser) 
  that integrates the management of the smbpasswd encrypted password 
  file with the existing password file.
  
    The eventual target audience is administrators installing Samba 
  based PDC's, or other applications where an encrypted smbpasswd file
  needs to be managed using graphical tools not too dissimilar to those
  provided by MS. 
  
    Kuser is the user manager distributed with KDE 1.1.2. It provides a 
  GUI for managing users in the system password database (/etc/passwd 
  and optionally /etc/shadow). In this respect it offers some of the 
  functionality of the NT user manager for domains. 
  
    Patch URL: http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/~atp/comp/linux.html 
               
	       Follow the last link on the page. 
  
  This patch will be integrated (in some form) into the main distribution
  early next year. It is in active use at at least one site, which is 
  running samba 2.0.5a as a PDC to a mix of WinNT 4.0 wksta, w95/w98.
  
  Details.
  --------
  
  This patch adds an extra tab in the preferences pulldown menu option,
  which allows you to specify two levels of smbpasswd integration. 
    
    The first option "Enable Samba smbpasswd file" will create a 
  smbpasswd file if it does not exist, or re-read an existing smbpasswd 
  file. Every time a user is added or removed to the system, an entry 
  for them will be added/removed from the smbpasswd file. Existing Users
  can be added to the smbpasswd file, or removed from the smbpasswd file
  (leaving their standard UNIX account details untouched) via the 
  "Present in smbpasswd file" option in the "Edit User" dialog box 
    Sub options here are the first (lowest) user id that will be 
  added to the smbpasswd file by default. This is normally set at 
  100 to exclude system users (root/lp etc..), and the path to the 
  smbpasswd file, which must be set properly. As there are many 
  places an smbpasswd file can reside you may have to change the default
  /etc/smbpasswd (which is appropriate for redhat 6.0 (sorry everyone
  else, but I had to choose a suitable value for me)) to match your 
  system. 
  
   The second option allows the setting of SMB/NT passwords whenever 
  a users UNIX password is changed. The passwords are all set to the
  same value. This is like the smb.conf option "unix password sync"
  except in reverse. 
  
  Restrictions.
  ------------
     
    1) Warning - Beta Software
    2) There is no locking of the smbpasswd file at present. Beware.
    3) Beta Software. I'm away from the net for 2 months from tomorrow 
       so no email support either - sorry. 
    4) Machine accounts are not handled, only user accounts. 
    5) Only tested on redhat linux 6.0/i386. There are bound to be
       bugs - sorry. My main recreational system is NetBSD/pmax so 
       *BSD is next on my list for qualification. 
    6) GPL. (some people may regard this as a restriction.)
    7) You will need to patch kdeadmin-1.1.2 package. (not included)
    
         
           Cheers,
	         Andy

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