samba - Jan 2006 - Connecting from XP to samba shares

Hi all,

This question has probably been asked and solved/dismissed several
times before, but I didn't find any clear solution googling about.

The problem is I have a samba server (in Mandriva LE2005) with
"security=share" (this is the setting I want). There I have a shared
directory I'd like to be available to anyone, provided they give the
correct password (win98 style).

When I connect from another linux box, it works. I get a window asking
for username and password, and I can write whatever username I want: if
the password is the correct one I get access to the files.

However, from XP (Pro), I get the window with greyed out username,
which doesn't really matter, but the password doesn't work, the window
just keeps coming again and again and I get no access to the files.

I have tried lots of different configuration options. If I set "guest
ok = yes", I can connect from XP, but with no password, and that's not
what I want, but this shows the network connections are ok, I guess.

I suspect the problem is in the XP box, but I have no further clue
about what the problem could be. I'd be grateful for any help.

Thanks

P.S. Another annoyance is that, from the linux box (with Konqueror), I
see the comments of the machines in the network with the last letter
missing. For example, I see "Machine (My nam)" instead of
"Machine (My
name)". I don't know whose fault is this either.

This is a summary of my smb.conf file:
("someuser" is a real username in the linux box and in the smbusers,
it's the username whose password I want to use when connecting)

===============================[global]
        workgroup = MY WORKGROUP
        server string = My name
        security = SHARE
        map to guest = Bad User
        username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
        encrypt passwords = yes
        log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
        log level = 3
        max log size = 50
        socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
        printcap cache time = 60
        printcap name = cups
        preferred master = Yes
        domain master = Yes
        dns proxy = No
        ldap ssl = No
        message command = /usr/bin/linpopup
        printer admin = @adm

[SharedDir]
        comment = Shared directory
        path = /home/users/Shared
        username = someuser
        invalid users = root
        force user = someuser
        force group = users
===============================

		
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> However, from XP (Pro), I get the window with greyed out username,
> which doesn't really matter, but the password doesn't work, the
window
> just keeps coming again and again and I get no access to the files.
If you run smbd with debug info turned on, what username/password is
the XP box connecting as?  That might narrow things down a bit.
> I have tried lots of different configuration options. If I set "guest
> ok = yes", I can connect from XP, but with no password, and that's
not
> what I want, but this shows the network connections are ok, I guess.
Is there a reason why you can't use security=user?  You could still use
'force user' to make all file accesses appear as though they come from
'someuser', and you could make a local account called anything you want
and list that as the only valid user for the share.  Then you'd have
to put in a username as well as a password when you connected, but
provided they matched the valid user you'd be allowed in.

Cheers,
Adam.