Samba and UNIX password synchronization

This document (7001120) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Support Pack 1

Situation

Setting the password for a Samba enabled user requires the passwd and smbpasswd programs. If you only change the password with one of these then the passwords are out of sync.

Resolution

In the [global] section of the etc/samba/smb.conf add the following lines and save the file.

unix password sync = yes

passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u

passwd chat = "*New Password:*" %n\n "*Reenter New Password:*" %n\n "*Password changed.*"

Now restart Samba (rcsmb restart)

Now set a users password by changing to that user (su<username>) and typing smbpasswd <username><enter>. Follow the smbpasswd chat to change the Samba password for this user. In the background smbpasswd will launch the passwd program specified and follow the passwd chat to change the UNIX password for that user.

The passwd chat line must be exactly what the password program (in this case /usr/bin/passwd) returns when changing a password using that program.

The passwd chat line tells Samba what to expect so that it knows how to respond.

You can see what the chat will be by simply using the specified password program to manually change a password.

Example:
passwd testuser <enter> will generate the following chat,"New Password:" followed by "Reenter New Password:" and finally "Password changed."

Disclaimer

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