Samba & AD

[kmsigma]

Hello all.
I'm not quite a newb, but I find that I'm running into some problems. Here's the deal. I have a system at the office that I'd like to setup as a simple file share. The share would be open to everyone and I have no real security threat as this is just for bits and pieces. Since I don't feel like investing in another copy of Win 2K3 Server, I wanted to setup a Linux Samba Server.

Here's the crux. I've tried to set one up with unbuntu, Fedora Core 4, Knoppix, RedHat EL3, and debian. Long story short, no luck. I'm at a loss when I'm trying to get interoperability between Active Directory and Samba. I know it's supposed to work and I've poured over page after page about winbind, pam, samba, and a host of other config files.

Here's my requirement. I want to do NOTHING to the existing AD Servers on the network. I will add and remove computer accounts, but I refuse to touch any of the security settings. It's working and I'm not fudging with that.

So here's my question...
What Distro should I use for the simplest implementation? What packages are needed? Should I start with a "base" system and then add to that?

I'm really looking for some guidance.

Thanks,

--KMSigma

[KG6KVQ]

If you don't want the Samba server to in anyway touch the AD, and are not concerned with security issues then any distro should work with the proper Samba settings. You would have to create a drive mapping or some sort of link on the client systems (or require the users to enter \\my.ip.goes.here at the address bar).

[winter]

You'll need to have the following items installed.
kerberos 5 (mit or hamedal, client files only needed)
openldap(client files only needed)
samba

I recomend debian, youll need to set the kerberos client to point to the ADC, Then samba will have to be set as a AD client. Theres some how tos on net, the one i used when i had to set a linux server to authenticate against a AD domain is here. You may want to look in to pam_mkhomedir I had a scrip somewhere that enumerated info to create all the home directories

[genesus]

Gentoo or OpenBSD...any source based distro