[Samba] new server: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE

[Mathew D. Watson]

Mathew D. Watson wrote:
> I installed samba on a Ubuntu 5.10 machine (named mog). My XP machine 
> "sees" it, but the username/password dialog fails.
> 
> I've traced it down to what I think is an authentication problem:
> 
> mat at mog:/etc/samba$ smbclient -L mog -U mat
> Password: <I enter my password here>
> session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
> 
> If I replace -U mat with -N I get a typical smbclient -L listing, so I 
> know something is working.
> 
> Another fact is that I have an older Ubuntu (Hoary) machine that also 
> serves samba and works. I copied its /etc/samba/smb.conf to the machine 
> having trouble; the two machines are the same (config, username, and 
> password). Right now the workgroup names are different on the two 
> machines, but that didn't make a difference.
> 

The solution to this problem is to run (as root):

# smbpasswd -a username

where username corresponds to a user account that already exists on the 
samba server.

In my case I used mat as the username. This account is on all of my 
systems, and the login password is the same on all accounts. I'm not 
sure this is necessary, but I can say it worked.

I was tempted to run this earlier, but I didn't for two reasons. First, 
the official documentation says something about smbpasswd backend being 
replaced by tdbsam. Second, my old (working system) didn't have an 
smbpasswd file at the location reported by 'smbd -b', so I figured I 
hadn't run smbpasswd before (otherwise there'd be an smbpasswd file. 
right?).

Wrong. Running smbpasswd didn't create an smbpasswd file. I guess it's 
because I specified the tdbsam backend, which must use some-other-place 
to stash the password data gathered by smbpasswd.

Mat