[Samba] Oddness with dfree command and Samba 2.2.3a

[Andrew Gray]

I am attempting to use the 'dfree command' option of smb.conf to handle 
a few special cases and the like for returning disk free information. 
 The Samba server is acting in a PDC role, running Samba 2.2.3a on a 
SunBlade 100 running Solaris 8, patched with all Recommended patches. 
 From a Windows 2000 box (the only thing I have handy to test with, and 
will be the bulk of our client systems when this is deployed), the disk 
free command is already broken natively, and my dfree script never gets 
called (it, for debug purposes, creates a log file when called as you 
can see below).  Pertinent lines from my smb.conf file:

        dfree command = /usr/local/samba/bin/dfree

The users are able to login fine, and run a logon script that maps their 
home directory to a directory on the local server (which is NFS mounted 
by Solaris's automounter).  When the user opens that drive letter, they 
get shown that the disk has 512 bytes free, 19.9 megs used.

Log file (from a log level of 100):
[2002/02/14 13:47:01, 3] smbd/dfree.c:disk_free(89)
  disk_free: Running command /usr/local/samba/bin/dfree .
[2002/02/14 13:47:01, 0] smbd/dfree.c:disk_free(117)
  disk_free: sys_popen() failed for command /usr/local/samba/bin/dfree 
.. Error was : No child processes
[2002/02/14 13:47:01, 5] smbd/quotas.c:disk_quotas(540)
  disk_quotas: looking for path "." devno=3bc0002
[2002/02/14 13:47:01, 5] smbd/quotas.c:disk_quotas(553)
  disk_quotas: testing "/homes" dev=3bc0002
[2002/02/14 13:47:01, 0] smbd/dfree.c:disk_free(139)
  WARNING: dfree is broken on this system

The dfree script runs fine when executed from a local shell, and is 
basically verbatim from the documentation except for the logging:
#!/bin/sh
echo $1 >> /usr/local/samba/var/dfree.log
df -k $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $2" "$4}'

No entry is ever made in the dfree.log file unless I run the dfree 
command manually.

I guess, in summary, what does the 'No child process' error message mean?

Also, as a side note, is there any way to set up accounts other than 
root to be able to add machines to the domain?  A deja search showed 
some messages from May of last year saying this problem was going to be 
looked at, but I haven't found anything more recent.

-- 
Andrew Gray
Systems Administrator
College of Engineering
University of Nevada, Las Vegas