Hi There,

I'm moving to a Linux environment in our office and I have been leaning
toward Slackware as our distro of choice. The consultant we brought in is
telling me that there are major hassles with Samba & PAM under Slackware.
Can anyone verify this or is he trying push Debian into our office?

Thanks for your help.

Owen

Owen Greaves wrote:
> Hi There,
>
> I'm moving to a Linux environment in our office and I have been leaning
> toward Slackware as our distro of choice. The consultant we brought in is
> telling me that there are major hassles with Samba & PAM under Slackware.
> Can anyone verify this or is he trying push Debian into our office?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Owen
>
>
Pat doesn't believe in PAM as it is insecure and buggy. To add PAM
support to Slackware, you would need to reconfigure and install many
basic utilities....

Matt Darby

Hi,

Thanks, so your recommending another distro?

Owen


"Matt Darby" <matt@matt-darby.com> wrote in message
news:U_Smd.12878$sk2.7331@fe2.columbus.rr.com...
> Owen Greaves wrote:
>> Hi There,
>>
>> I'm moving to a Linux environment in our office and I have been leaning
>> toward Slackware as our distro of choice. The consultant we brought in is
>> telling me that there are major hassles with Samba & PAM under Slackware.
>> Can anyone verify this or is he trying push Debian into our office?
>>
>> Thanks for your help.
>>
>> Owen
> Pat doesn't believe in PAM as it is insecure and buggy. To add PAM support
> to Slackware, you would need to reconfigure and install many basic
> utilities....
>
> Matt Darby

"Owen Greaves" <owen.g@telus.net> writes:
>> Pat doesn't believe in PAM as it is insecure and buggy. To add PAM support
>> to Slackware, you would need to reconfigure and install many basic
>> utilities....
>
> Thanks, so your recommending another distro?

(please don't top-post.)

i think what he's saying is that you shouldn't use PAM.

--
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments

Hi,

What other options are there outside of PAM to work with Active Directory?

Owen

"Joost Kremers" <joostkremers@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:87u0rnlx8x.fsf@teuctli.localdomain...
> "Owen Greaves" <owen.g@telus.net> writes:
>>> Pat doesn't believe in PAM as it is insecure and buggy. To add PAM
>>> support
>>> to Slackware, you would need to reconfigure and install many basic
>>> utilities....
>>
>> Thanks, so your recommending another distro?
>
> (please don't top-post.)
>
> i think what he's saying is that you shouldn't use PAM.
>
> --
> Joost Kremers
> Life has its moments

Joost Kremers wrote:
> "Owen Greaves" <owen.g@telus.net> writes:
>
>>>Pat doesn't believe in PAM as it is insecure and buggy. To add PAM support
>>>to Slackware, you would need to reconfigure and install many basic
>>>utilities....
>>
>> Thanks, so your recommending another distro?
>
>
> (please don't top-post.)
>
> i think what he's saying is that you shouldn't use PAM.
>

There are ways around using PAM auth, NDS is a good alternative for
LDAP, for example.

But, yes, If PAM is a absolute must, Slackware isn't the easiest route.

Matt Darby

Matt Darby wrote:
> Joost Kremers wrote:
>
>> "Owen Greaves" <owen.g@telus.net> writes:
>>
>>>> Pat doesn't believe in PAM as it is insecure and buggy. To add PAM
>>>> support to Slackware, you would need to reconfigure and install many
>>>> basic utilities....
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks, so your recommending another distro?
>>
>>
>>
>> (please don't top-post.)
>>
>> i think what he's saying is that you shouldn't use PAM.
>>
>
> There are ways around using PAM auth, NDS is a good alternative for
> LDAP, for example.
>
> But, yes, If PAM is a absolute must, Slackware isn't the easiest route.
>
> Matt Darby

Err, make that "NSS" is a good alternative. There are way too many
acronyms to remember these days...

Matt Darby

Hi Again,

I should explain a bit more. We are migrating Novell out of our office and
moving those servers (three of them) to Slackware. These three servers are;
two file servers and one back-up unit. I had to hire a consultant to come in
and do it because my three network...experienced people have left and I'm
trying to hire ONE strong Unix or Linux Admin. This consultant has been
installing debian without our knowledge after being told we wanted Slackware
as that is what my current people are familiar with for the most part
including myself. So they are setting up a Samba box that will have to work
a number of Windows 2000 Servers (Active Directory). The problem with
migrating Novell File Servers to Samba is the permissions and authentication
doesn't come over with the data when moved to the new server.

So, I'm trying to confirm what this consultant is telling me and or find
another solution so we can stick with Slackware.

Thanks again.

Owen


"Owen Greaves" <owen.g@telus.net> wrote in message
news:wCTmd.96638$E93.17108@clgrps12...
> Hi,
>
> What other options are there outside of PAM to work with Active
> Directory?
>
> Owen
>
> "Joost Kremers" <joostkremers@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:87u0rnlx8x.fsf@teuctli.localdomain...
>> "Owen Greaves" <owen.g@telus.net> writes:
>>>> Pat doesn't believe in PAM as it is insecure and buggy. To add PAM
>>>> support
>>>> to Slackware, you would need to reconfigure and install many basic
>>>> utilities....
>>>
>>> Thanks, so your recommending another distro?
>>
>> (please don't top-post.)
>>
>> i think what he's saying is that you shouldn't use PAM.
>>
>> --
>> Joost Kremers
>> Life has its moments
>
>

Owen Greaves <owen.g@telus.net> wrote:
> Thanks, so your recommending another distro?

Personally, I'd recommend re-evaluating your "need" for PAM. Yes, PAM is
not supported on Slackware, but look how well it gets along without it.
I also think that PAM is a buggy little bugger that isn't really needed as
often as people think it is. So ask the consultant probing questions as to
why he thinks your office requires PAM. Since you've given no details on
the requirements of your Linux environment, I can't say whether or not PAM
is necessary, although the security side of me that likes minimization has
a gut feeling that it isn't.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

In alt.os.linux.slackware, Owen Greaves dared to utter,
> I'm moving to a Linux environment in our office and I have been leaning
> toward Slackware as our distro of choice. The consultant we brought in is
> telling me that there are major hassles with Samba & PAM under Slackware.
> Can anyone verify this or is he trying push Debian into our office?

Slackware does not nor has it ever included PAM. Pat has thought over
this decision many times and like all decisions concerning Slackware,
it's primarily a technical one. I won't go into those reasons here, but
I will offer you what assistance I can.

I am unsure why you need PAM for Samba. PAM is sometimes used to sync
the passwords for unix users and smb users, but that is rarely needed.
For my unix users on a Samba server, I typically set their home
directory to /dev/null and their shell to /bin/false, which provides
enough security for my clients without resorting to virtual users
stored in some LDAP or SQL database. Unless you're talking about a huge
deployment, I wouldn't worry about PAM at all.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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