Samba (cont.)

As I said in my previous post, I finally got around to getting a Samba domain server up and running in my little home office. This post will be a brief rundown of how I managed to get a Samba server up and running. After all kinds of reading and getting to know Google quite well, it turned out to be quite a bit easier to set up than I originally anticipated. Some links that came in handy:

SAMBA (Domain Controller) Server For Small Workgroups With Ubuntu 5.10
SettingUpSambaPDC
Lightweight Gnome

Machine:
Athlon 1GHz
32MB RAM (going to upgrade this soon)
4 GB HDD (holds the OS, mounted as /)
80 GB HDD (to setup as a share, mounted as /share)

Step 1: Install Ubuntu
I went with the server install just to avoid all the extra stuff that normally comes with the default desktop install. I needed to save space since I was going to squeeze the entire OS onto a 4 GB hard drive.

Step 2: Install Gnome
Using the link above as a guide, I installed as minimal a Gnome desktop as I could. I like Linux, but I'm not that hardcore to want to work from a text interface. One little problem I had after I got Gnome up and going was that I was stuck in a 1024x768 screen resolution, despite picking other larger resolutions in the configuration. A solution I found was to re-run the setup program.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

After choosing all the defaults, I had to choose the "Medium" monitor detection instead of the default selection (Automatic I believe). Blessed again with a 1200x1024 resolutions, I was ready to move on to the next step.

Step 3: Installing/Configure Samba
With Gnome up and going and the Ubuntu package manager up and going, I simply fired up Synaptic Package Manager (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager) and installed samba and it's dependencies.

With Samba installed I used the information on the links above as a guide to setup my Samba configuration.

# Samba configuration file (/etc/samba/smb.conf)
[global]
 workgroup = CEREBRO
 server string = Samba %v on %L
 netbios name = professorx
 wins support = yes
 dns proxy = no

 log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
 log level = 1
 max log size = 1000
 syslog = 0

 admin users = root
 security = user
 username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
 guest account = nobody
 encrypt passwords = yes
 passdb backend = tdbsam
 obey pam restrictions = yes
 invalid users =
 unix password sync = yes
 passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
 passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
 map to guest = Bad Password
 password level = 0

 add user script = /usr/sbin/useradd -m '%u' -g smbusers -G smbusers
 delete user script = /usr/sbin/userdel -r '%u'
 add group script = /usr/sbin/groupadd '%g'
 delete group script = /usr/sbin/groupdel '%g'
 add user to group script = /usr/sbin/usermod -G '%g' '%u'
 add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -s /bin/false -d /var/lib/nobody %u

 logon path =
 logon home =
 logon drive = H:

 domain logons = yes
 os level = 65
 domain master = yes
 preferred master = yes
 local master = yes
 logon script =

 printcap = cups
 printers = cups
 load printers = yes

 socket options = TCP_NODELAY
 time server = no

[share]
 path = /share
 comment = Network Share
 volume = Network_Share
 writeable = yes

The links above spell out more of the Samba installation/configuration which can be followed with no additional information coming from me (though in the future I may come back and flush these steps out some more).

Step 4: Add machine to the domain
The machine I wanted to add to the domain is my Windows XP machine. This is done fairly easily by:

right click My Computer > Properties > Computer Name tab > Change

Choose the Domain radio button and specify the domain name. A dialog box should pop up, specify the Administrator username/password and you should get added to the domain. Restart the machine and boom, you are now part of the domain.

Samba... not the dance

Well after a lot of reading and procrastination I finally got a Ubuntu server running Samba set up as a domain controller. I'm still tweaking on the config file a bit, I will post it as soon as I get it finalized. Overall the process went pretty smoothly, but it did take me a couple of attempts. My first try I think I managed to jack things up pretty badly trying to get SWAT to run (web gui interface to the Samba config file). So I just cut bait and re-installed everything.

One quick note on the Ubuntu server, by default it runs in text mode after installation, but I still wanted some kind of gui interface. I managed to find a how-to (link to come) that walks through how to install a minimal Gnome interface.