Why does smbpasswd not work for some users?

[Bob Latham]

In article <1219990339.2949.1.camel at lin-workstation.azapple.com>,
   Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-08-29 at 10:04 +0100, Bob Latham wrote:
> > Hi Everyone,
> > 
> > Using Fedora8.
> > 
> > I find some users I create have no problem having their smb passwords
> > changed using smbpasswd. Others simply don't work and I get the error
> > message "Failed to modify password entry for user <whatever>".
> > 
> > What are the possible causes for this, and could you point me at a
> > method of fixing it please?
> > 
> > I remember from a fiddle I had with Linux some years ago that I used
> > to have to copy the OS user passwords to SMB passwords using a method
> > like this...
> > 
> > cat /etc/passwd | mksmbpasswd.sh > /etc/samba/smbpasswd
> > 
> > Is this procedure still required?

> ---- No way...and I don't recall when that ever would have worked.

> users changing their password from command line smbpasswd, I've never
> seen that fail. It makes no sense that it would fail.

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the help.

So I should never need to do this?

Okay, so how does Samba authenticate users (no other server) is it with
the smbpasswd file? If so how does it get its info?

In stupidity and desperation I've managed to break my smbpasswd file. Now
the command smbpasswd -a <name> doesn't function at all. Is there anyway
to repair it? Or get a default copy?

The amazing thing is, the samba shares still work after a reboot with no
smbpasswd file. I'm so confused, I think i've got my head around how it
works and then something comes along and proves I had it wrong again.

I only want to set up samba shares. <sob>


Cheers,

Bob.