Hello,
At my school, the Domain logons are handled for all students through
a collection of Domain Controllers. Our WebTeam maintains a Linux
server, and in the past has had it set up as a Samba PDC through which
they can log in and access their files on the webserver through shares.
The webteam no longer uses Windows 98 computers, and has moved to XP
computers. The problem here is that XP joins a domain specifically,
here called DOMAIN, and has a dropdown list on the login screen instead
of an editable text box. Is there any way to join the linux server,
currently a PDC for WEBTEAM and net bios name LINSERVER, to the NT
domain such that it will appear in the drop down menu on Windows XP?
I've searched FAQs, looked at documentation on BDCs, looked at
numerous PDC howtos, looked at how one would migrate an NT4 PDC to
Samba, and none of those have shown me how to do what I want to do. I
don't want to go to the System Administrators with a proposal that I
have not thoroughly researched, and experimentation is not an option.
Some questions that I've been looking for which I think might help me
solve my problem: Are the servers that show up in the Windows XP
Drop-down menu PDCs? are they BDCs? Are they workgroups instead of
domains? If they are workgroups, then would I just net rpc join the
NT4 domain, and the server would appear in the drop down menu? Would
it not try to win any elections to take over the network as a master of
the domain?
My primary concern is that, from what I have read, when Samba starts
up it polls the network and tries to win the domain master elections
for it's workgroup name. I think taking control of the network would
be a Bad Thing. If this is a faulty assumption, by all means let me
know! I don't know a whole lot about how NT4-style domains work, other
than from an observer's point of view and from what i've gleaned from
running a Samba server in the past.
If there is a part of the manual, a website, a HOWTO, or a previous
thread that deals with this, let me know, i'm rapidly running out of
ideas. Thank you for your time!