samba - Apr 2004 - unable to open file /etc/samba/smbpasswd. Error was Permission denied

HI.

I am trying to get domain logons to work with SuSE 9.0 and
samba-2.2.8a-107 with win2k and xp clients.

When using just a workgroup, and user level security, users can access
shares after providing the logon string - no problems.

However, when I activate domain logons = yes and try to join the clienbt
to the domain, I get unkkknown username errors. I checked my log files
and found the following entry:
[2004/04/14 06:47:30, 2]
rpc_server/srv_samr_nt.c:_samr_lookup_domain(2055)
  Returning domain sid for domain RPC ->
S-1-5-21-1122485599-2498461992-3370525754
[2004/04/14 06:47:30, 2]
rpc_parse/parse_samr.c:samr_io_userinfo_ctr(6285)
  samr_io_userinfo_ctr: unknown switch level 0x1a
[2004/04/14 06:47:30, 0]
rpc_server/srv_samr.c:api_samr_set_userinfo(670)
  api_samr_set_userinfo: Unable to unmarshall SAMR_Q_SET_USERINFO.
[2004/04/14 06:47:30, 2] passdb/pdb_smbpasswd.c:startsmbfilepwent(170)
  startsmbfilepwent_internal: unable to open file /etc/samba/smbpasswd.
Error was Permission denied
[2004/04/14 06:47:30, 0] passdb/pdb_smbpasswd.c:pdb_getsampwrid(1418)
  unable to open passdb database.
[2004/04/14 06:47:31, 2] smbd/server.c:exit_server(511)
  Closing connections
[2004/04/14 06:47:32, 2] smbd/server.c:exit_server(511)
  Closing connections


OK. Logical thing would be to change permissions on /etc/samba/smbpasswd
so I set it to chmod 666.

NOw here is where it gets weird. As soon as I try to join the client,
the permissions on smbpasswd is reset to 600!?!?

WTF?

Any ideas please?

thanks.

LAurie