How to authenticate linux-user against samba?

[Peter Hübschen]

Hello Samba-Gurus,

I don't know if it's possible what I want, but I want to hear some
opinions:
The situation is as follows:
I have a Samba-server running (2.2.2) which authenticate all
Win98-clients and users. All users are stored in NDS (Novell Directory
Service) and I access this via edir and pam_modules; this works _nearly_
fine, but this is an other story. Now I want to create a Linux-Image so
that students can choose if they use Windows or Linux. But I don't know
how to authenticate the students under Linux. I've tried pam_smb, but no
success, cause all users have to be in passwd (we have about 2300
users). As I think winbind won't work too, because it needs a PDC, but I
can't make a PDC, cause I have to use unencrypted passwords due to pam.
BTW the NDS-Installation (or better edir for Linux) was made by an
Novell-specialist.

I think ldap could do the trick, but somehow the server can not be found
and I have no expierience with ldap.

So any hint is welcome

Peter