[Gumstix-users] Another Samba problem, and solution

[Paul D. D. <pde...@ix...>]

I assume most people don't use Samba on the Gumstix, but for those who do, I
figure I'll post news of my ongoing sparring with it, in case someone else
comes up against the same issues.

By default, Samba keeps its usernames and passwords in a TDB database called
passdb.tdb. However, the version of Samba included in the Gumstix Yocto
stuff puts that file (and all the other .tdb files Samba uses) into
/var/lock, which is linked to /var/volatiles/lock, in a RAM file system
which disappears when the power is turned off. The solution seems to be to
provide an alternate smb.conf file (which you pretty much have to do anyway)
as part of the build, and add a "passdb backend" parameter to the [global]
section to point to a nonvolatile location for the password file. My choice
was to switch to the (deprecated) smbpasswd backend:

	passdb backend = smbpasswd

and rely on the fact that the default location is
/etc/samba/private/smbpasswd, which isn't volatile. But you should also be
able to use the TDB backend with:

	passdb backend = tdbsam:/path/to/passdb.tdb

according to the Samba docs.

Once the server is running that way, you can execute something like
"smbpasswd -a defaultusername" and give it a password, then copy the
resulting passdb.tdb or smbpasswd file into the build system and include it
as part of the build, if you want a built-in default username and password.

-- 

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pde...@ix...