[Samba] samba 3.0.4 on SLES8: password sync will not work...(decode_pw_buffer: incorrect password length)

[Chris Almond]

Has anyone got unix password sync for samba3.0.x running successfully on 
SLES8 server?  Do I need the SLES service packs?  Is there an 
interaction with PAM that I need to be aware of?

I've compiled the full developer build of samba from 3.0.4-4 source. 
Compile was successful.  I'm running tdbsam as password backend.  I've 
troubleshooted quit a bit using google, docs, etc. as guide.

Everytime I get same DEBUG output in the log file:

    [2004/05/17 09:44:08, 0] libsmb/smbencrypt.c:decode_pw_buffer(519)
      decode_pw_buffer: incorrect password length (-2013139859).
    [2004/05/17 09:44:08, 0] libsmb/smbencrypt.c:decode_pw_buffer(520)
      decode_pw_buffer: check that 'encrypt passwords = yes'

and here is the DEBUG source code from smbencrypt.c generating the 
output above:

    /* Password cannot be longer than the size of the password buffer */
         if ( (byte_len < 0) || (byte_len > 512)) {
             DEBUG(0, ("decode_pw_buffer: incorrect password length 
(%d).\n", byte_len));
             DEBUG(0, ("decode_pw_buffer: check that 'encrypt passwords 
= yes'\n"));
             return False;
         }

So somewhow the byte_len of the password buffer (first 4 bits of the 
buffer) is not being set correctly.

I've played with many different passwd chat scripts - all leading to the 
same problem.