[Samba] new to samba, pointers/guidance needed

[Ray Leventhal]

followup:

I'm guessing it's the passwd backend parameter that I've got wrong.  
What's the right setting to use /etc/passwd || /etc/shadow for 
authentication?  (Using webmin, I've managed to sync the Unix users and 
samba users)

Thanks,
-Ray

Ray Leventhal wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been fighting with samba for a day and a half and hope that I can 
> get some guidance and/or pointers to info which I clearly need.
>
> I'm running a small network, the Linux host (running samba) is CentOS 
> 5.1, fresh install.
>
> The workstations are WinXP and the goal is to use the workgroup logins 
> which people use on their local machines to access specific shares  on 
> the CentOS box.  This network is wholly off-internet, so security here 
> is not much of an issue.
>
> I've a minimal smb.conf file installed (sanitized for your reading 
> pleasure):
>
> [global]
> workgroup = <the workgroup name>
> netbios name = <the netbios name of the CentOS box>
> security = SHARE
> passdb backend = <currently 'guest', but I think this is an issue>
> [homes]
> guest ok = yes
> read only = no
> [cpr tools]
> comment = <description text>
> path = /home/<some folder name>
> guest only = No
>
> and when I restart samba, this is the result in /var/log/messages 
> (machine name is 'backup'):
>
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:   PANIC (pid 7295): 
> pdb_get_methods_reload: failed to get pdb methods for backend guest
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]: [2008/03/26 08:00:02, 0] 
> lib/util.c:log_stack_trace(1758)
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:   BACKTRACE: 7 stack frames:
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:    #0 smbd(log_stack_trace+0x2d) 
> [0x8aba3d]
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:    #1 smbd(smb_panic+0x5d) [0x8abb6d]
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:    #2 smbd [0x85cae0]
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:    #3 
> smbd(initialize_password_db+0xe) [0x85cb2e]
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:    #4 smbd(main+0x655) [0x9882a5]
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:    #5 
> /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xdc) [0x1c9dec]
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:    #6 smbd [0x6b2181]
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]: [2008/03/26 08:00:02, 0] 
> lib/fault.c:dump_core(181)
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:   dumping core in 
> /var/log/samba/cores/smbd
> Mar 26 08:00:02 backup smbd[7295]:
>
> I'd truly appreciate any pointers or outright 'do this' type stuff.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> -Ray
>
>