[Samba] samba as a pdc problems

[Jon H. Peterson]

hi,

so you know, I am new to samba and Linux.
opensuse 10.1; samba 3.0.22; windows xp/sp2 client
Running: smbd, nmbd, dns server;
NOT running: winbindd; ldap
"Digitally encrypt or sign secure channel data (always)" is Disabled in xp.

what works:
-browsing & editing files on the Linux server from xp client
-joining the domain (home.local) from xp
-starting the win2k version of usrmgr.exe on xp
-(note: the win2003 version of usrmgr.exe does NOT work at all)
-all functions/networking tests given in "Using Samba", 3rd Ed., O'Reilly.
-swat on linux server

problems:

1 - cannot log on to winxp with domain set to home.local
"...domain home.local is not available"
this message is almost instantaneous after clicking OK on the "Log On to
Windows" dialog.
I left this one in because it might help someone to know the answer: I set
ntlmv2 on in smb.conf
and the logon when just fine--wow this has taken forever to figure out.

2 - when using the user manager, usrmgr.exe the following occurs:

a - can display user properties with no problem. when trying to change the
"Description" field
of a user, windows said "Access Denied". At the same time the log.smbd
showed "...Unable to
open/create TDB passwd". this sounds like a permissions problem for smbd, so
I changed the permissions on passdb.tdb to -rwxrwx-. Tried it again and the
problem changes to "Group name could not be found". It appears, however,
that the "Description" field change was completed successfully (via
pdbedit -L -v).

b - when trying to add a new user:
Windows error: "The user name could not be found". The log file showed:
[2007/11/20 17:33:20, 0] rpc_server/srv_samr_nt.c:_samr_create_user(2415)
_samr_create_user: Running the command `/usr/sbin/useradd -m 'akop'' gave 5
This looks like another permissions problem with smbd as running this
command by hand when signed on as root works just fine.

I can post anything appropriate: logs, configs, etc. just didn't want to
post unnecessary noise to the list.

Any help or ideas would be most appreciated.
Thanks, Jon