Hi,
I'd like to announce a beta patch to the KDE user manager (kuser)
that integrates the management of the smbpasswd encrypted password
file with the existing password file.
The eventual target audience is administrators installing Samba
based PDC's, or other applications where an encrypted smbpasswd file
needs to be managed using graphical tools not too dissimilar to those
provided by MS.
Kuser is the user manager distributed with KDE 1.1.2. It provides a
GUI for managing users in the system password database (/etc/passwd
and optionally /etc/shadow). In this respect it offers some of the
functionality of the NT user manager for domains.
Patch URL: http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/~atp/comp/linux.html
Follow the last link on the page.
This patch will be integrated (in some form) into the main distribution
early next year. It is in active use at at least one site, which is
running samba 2.0.5a as a PDC to a mix of WinNT 4.0 wksta, w95/w98.
Details.
--------
This patch adds an extra tab in the preferences pulldown menu option,
which allows you to specify two levels of smbpasswd integration.
The first option "Enable Samba smbpasswd file" will create a
smbpasswd file if it does not exist, or re-read an existing smbpasswd
file. Every time a user is added or removed to the system, an entry
for them will be added/removed from the smbpasswd file. Existing Users
can be added to the smbpasswd file, or removed from the smbpasswd file
(leaving their standard UNIX account details untouched) via the
"Present in smbpasswd file" option in the "Edit User"
dialog box
Sub options here are the first (lowest) user id that will be
added to the smbpasswd file by default. This is normally set at
100 to exclude system users (root/lp etc..), and the path to the
smbpasswd file, which must be set properly. As there are many
places an smbpasswd file can reside you may have to change the default
/etc/smbpasswd (which is appropriate for redhat 6.0 (sorry everyone
else, but I had to choose a suitable value for me)) to match your
system.
The second option allows the setting of SMB/NT passwords whenever
a users UNIX password is changed. The passwords are all set to the
same value. This is like the smb.conf option "unix password sync"
except in reverse.
Restrictions.
------------
1) Warning - Beta Software
2) There is no locking of the smbpasswd file at present. Beware.
3) Beta Software. I'm away from the net for 2 months from tomorrow
so no email support either - sorry.
4) Machine accounts are not handled, only user accounts.
5) Only tested on redhat linux 6.0/i386. There are bound to be
bugs - sorry. My main recreational system is NetBSD/pmax so
*BSD is next on my list for qualification.
6) GPL. (some people may regard this as a restriction.)
7) You will need to patch kdeadmin-1.1.2 package. (not included)
Cheers,
Andy
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