Thanks Matt for this. You are right I am used to setting up Windows clients and Linux Servers and I think that is my problem. I will try the NIS server route. Stupid of me to think of a Windows solution when the Linux one should be easier to set up. Something had gotten into my head that made me think that I would have to set up a second layer of users -doh of course the unix users already exist (I even wrote a script to help with changing passwords so I know this, making me feel more stupid) (Sorry that I was not clear about my needs Thomas - thanks for replying though. I want a Suse 9.1 client to log on to a Fedora server) <snip>
I'm envious of your position. I've got the opposite problem. I've inherited an NT4 PDC network and I want to put linux (debian) clients into our library. I've done it, but I've had to setup a *new* (second) user account for each user. So I'm "m johnson" on the nt4 network, and "mjohnson" in the library :( It took me a lot of effort to get school to go down the Linux server route. Can't you just use smbclient (admittedly I couldn't get this to work - hence my question ;)
I'm trying to get the debian workstations to authenticate from the NT server (using winbind and security = domain, and PAM). It's possible, but not easy. Some muppet allowed whitespaces into the NT4 usernames, which are just one of the problems I have to get over. Winbind is very clever (and I've got the debian machines allowing access to to windows clients to themselves via winbind, but the holy grail is getting them to allow local logins to usernames such as "john smith" with no password! Not proving easy. Beyond me. We thought we might have to get involved with winbind at one point and it left me feeling sick it seemed so complicated. White space ugh! you have my sympathies <snip> Someone will mention that NIS isn't secure... It isn't secure. Why is it not secure?
Thanks again I will try it tomorrow. kind regards Simon