[Samba] Problem with old version of Samba - 2.2.7a

[Frank Millman]

Hi all

This is a question about a very old version of Samba - 2.2.7a. Hope that is 
ok.

I have an old machine running Redhat 9, which ships with 2.2.7a. I have some 
old software that needs RH9, but I want to move it to a newer machine, so I 
am trying to reinstall RH9 on a new hdd, and set up Samba at the same time.

I still have the old machine, and Samba is working, but I cannot get it 
working on the new one. I only want to map home directories. I tried to set 
up a new home directory on the old machine, and that would not work either. 
I have just spent hours trying to spot the difference between the old, 
working, home directory, and the new, non-working one. I have just spotted 
it, and whoever set up the original machine obviously had the same problem, 
but then found a 'cheat' solution.

The problem is that , whatever I try, if a Windows machine tries to connect, 
I get 'smb_pam_auth' failed. The trick that was used to get around this was 
to edit /etc/passwd and remove the 'x' in the second parameter from the 
user's entry, which means that the user can log in on the Unix side without 
a password. There is an smb password, and the Windows client has to supply 
this password, but it can then see the home directory without a problem.

I can use the same trick on the new machine - it is not exposed to the 
internet, so it is not a security risk. However, I would much prefer to 
understand the problem and fix it properly.

The only changes I have made to smb.conf are to change the workgroup name 
and the server string, and to uncomment the line that enables mapping of 
Unix user names to SMB user names. Both client and server use encrypted 
passwords. Security mode is 'user'.

The workstation is running Windows7, but I am pretty sure I had the same 
problem with Windows XP and Server 2003.

Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Frank Millman