samba - Oct 2007 - Request for some information: smbpasswd (NULL)

Hi,
 I am a new user of samba. I got a new board with marvell processor.
 Booted it with linux (2.6.12.6 kernel - patched with marvell code).
 
 When I try to change the samba password for user "admin", i get
 following error:

 # /usr/local/samba/bin/smbpasswd -a admin
New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:
Failed to open account policy database
Failed to open account policy database
Failed to open account policy database
PANIC (pid 19319): (NULL)
unable to produce a stack trace on this platform
Aborted
 #

My smb.conf:
#======================= Global Settings ======================
[global]

Workgroup = WORKGROUP
DeviceDescriptiveName = SOHO
server string = storage-3
security = share

domain master = yes
preferred master = yes
local master = yes
os level = 255
------------------------------------

Please guide me where to look / change ?

Thanks and Regards,
samant