Authenticate SAMBA share against Active Directory

I have done this twice, ever and both times were tedious. I have a Linux file server and two Windows servers, one of which is the PDC. What I want to do, is have the samba shares check the PDC for authentication removing the need for separate samba passwords. There isn't a huge amount to this, it is just a matter of finding everything. You have to put references to a usermap in smb.conf and in the usermap have your *nix users mapped to you domain users in the following form

LinuxUser=DOMAIN\windowsUser

eg.

paulm=DOMAIN\paul.mulcahy

There are lines that have to be added to smb.conf so it will look use the active directory users, in my case, these are in the global section fo smb.conf

[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
realm = DOMAIN
preferred master = no
server string = Fileserver
security = domain
encrypt passwords = yes
log level = 1
log file = /var/log/samba/%m
max log size = 50
printcap name = cups
printing = cups
idmap uid = 600-20000
idmap gid = 600-20000
template homedir = /home/users/%U
template shell = /bin/bash
password server = server
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

This is all quite straightforward, what had me was getting it into the domain. After much searching I found this command.

net rpc join -S SERVER -U user

Which must be run as root. After that, I was able to log in to my samba shares using my Windows log in.

Al red italics are varialbes wich should be changed to suit your environment

Nortel case study

In work sometime ago I had a whole new network installed using Nortel equipment. We purchased a Nortel BCM 400 PBX and Nortel 1120e IP phones. Nortel asked me to participate in a case study so I decided I post it here.

http://www.nortel.com/corporate/global/emea/cstudies/collateral/nn123383emea.pdf

How to install Cairo dock in Ubuntu

Ok, this is very straight forward and I will admit, I used the article at http://maketecheasier.com/how-to-install-and-configure-cairo-dock-in-ubuntu-intrepid/2009/01/20 to do this. If you don't know that site, it is an excellent one.

Cairo dock is similar to Avant-Window-Manager (AWN) but does not need any composting
manager (Compiz) to run. I have found, with a little testing, that is uses less CPU than AWN too.

Installation is quite straightforward:

In a terminal:

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
add the following line and save and close
deb http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu intrepid cairo-dock
add the signed PGP key
wget -q http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu/cairo-dock.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Install the application
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

To Launch the dock

Applications-> System Tools -> Cairo-Dock

To add the dock to startup

System -> Preferences -> Session

Select the Startup tab

When the dialogue opens, click Add

Enter the command cairo-dock in the command to run text box.