Samba Unix Password Sync

[Richard Potter]

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004, Jeff Boyce wrote:

> 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.

>  unix password sync = yes
>  pam password change = yes

Try this....

For encrypted samba passwords:
  encrypt passwords = yes

For updating linux passwords as well:
  unix password sync = Yes
  passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
  passwd chat = *New*UNIX*password* %n\n *ReType*new*UNIX*password* %n\n *passwd:*all*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*
  pam password change = no

If you have problems, turn on:
passwd chat debug = yes

and check smbd.log for errors.


Cheers!
-- 
Richard Potter RHCE
Re/Max
Kingston, ON  CANADA