Samba Unix Password Sync

[Jeff Boyce]

Greetings -

I manage a small office network running RH ES3 with a dozen Window clients (XP and 2000) using Samba 3.  I would like to synchronize password changes so that when the login password is changed on the Windows client it is perpetuated to Samba and the Linux user account.  I have been able to confirm that Samba is configured with PAM enabled (although I am completely ignorant of PAM), and have recently added the "unix password sync = yes" and "pam password change = yes" to my smb.conf file as shown below.  My documentation indicated that this is the only configuration parameters that are necessary to synchronize passwords, if PAM was enabled.  Testing this configuration reveals that changing the Windows password IS changing the Samba password, but IS NOT changing the Linux user password.  I can't seem to find another possible solution to this in my Samba reference book and other samba documentation reviewed on the web.  I am not sure whether this is a Samba issue or a Linux issue, so I thought I would post my question here.

#===== Global Settings =====
[global]
 server string = Bison samba server

 printcap name = /etc/printcap
 load printers = yes

 log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
 max log size = 50

 unix password sync = yes
 pam password change = yes

 socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

 os level = 33
 preferred master = yes

 password server = None
 guest ok = yes
 security = SHARE
 dns proxy = no

#===== Share Definitions =====
[homes]
 comment = Home Directories
 browseable = no
 writeable = yes
 hide dot files = yes

[printers]
 comment = All Printers
 path = /var/spool/samba
 browseable = no
 printable = yes

[ecosystem]
 path = /ecosystem
 writeable = yes
 create mask = 0777
 directory mask = 0777
 inherit permissions = yes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Boyce
www.meridianenv.com