Gsmb 0.5

Gsmb provides a graphical interface allowing simplified management of the file of the Samba users file /etc/smbpasswd.

In initial Windows 95 releases, passwords for accessing shared volumes were sent as cleartext over the network. Sambda authentication used the /etc/passwd file on the server. The Windows 95 updates introduced encryption of these passwords. There are two methods for making Samba support this new authentication scheme:

- modify the register base of Win95 clients to reactivate cleartext passwords
- configure Samba so that it accepts the encrypted password

The second option is what we are interested in here.

Installation:

You can download version 0.5 (released 1999-09-30) of gsmb.

To activate the recognition of encrypted passwords, the option ENCRYPT PASSWORDS = yes should be positioned in the /etc/smb.conf configuration file.

In addition to this, it is necessary to create the Samba users file. On Redhat 5.2, this is called /etc/smbpasswd.

The Gsmb program allows the management of the Samba users by modifying this file. It uses the Gtk 1.2.0. library.

Usage:

At this point, the possibility of the program are the following:

- The function Quit presented in the menu "File" allow to quit the program (Incredible, isnt it !!)

- The function presented in the menu "smbpasswd/create smbpasswd version 1.9.x from passwd" will erase the "/etc/smbpasswd" and another one. The /etc/passwd is read and a Samba count is created for each Linux users. The /etc/smbpasswd is filled with the samba 1.9.x format.

- The function presented in the menu "smbpasswd/create smbpasswd version 2.0.x from passwd" will erase the "/etc/smbpasswd" and another one. The /etc/passwd is read and a Samba count is created for each Linux users. The /etc/smbpasswd is filled with the samba 2.0.x format.

- The function presented in the menu "smbpasswd/create another users" creates a linux users by calling the program Adduser.

- The buttons between the two list permits to create samba users. Before, just select in the linux list one or several users, select the format you want, and then click on the button with the arrows. This action will create the corresponding Samba users.

- Possibility to delete Samba users. First, select the Samba users (Dont forget the shift and crtl buttons for multiple selection) and then click on the button delete.

- You have the possibility now have a null password for Samba users. If the row for a user is red, then you have validate the Null password option for this user.

- You can disable Samba users accounts. For the format 1.9.x, the password field will be replaced by "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX". For the format 2.0.X, the "D" will be added in a field. In each case, you can see the state of the account in the first column of the samba users list.