[vox-tech] samba: smbpasswd not working

[Peter Salzman]

I'm trying to access Linux "shares" from a windows machine.  So I went
through this on my Linux server:

# cat /etc/passwd | mksmbpasswd > /etc/samba/smbpasswd
# smbpasswd -U p
New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:


The first command created the file /etc/samba/smbpasswd with all the
user names (as expected) with disabled accounts (passwords are all
X's).  I typed in the same password twice.  Everything looked good,
but when I looked at /etc/samba/smbpasswd, it didn't change.  The
entry still says:

p:1000:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX: ......

I was expecting some of those "X"'s to be part of an encrypted string.
 Shouldn't smbpasswd change this file in *some* way?  I do declare the
location of the password file in /etc/samba/smb.conf:

        security           = user
        encrypt passwords  = yes
        smb passwd file    = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

Help.  I have no idea what to do.   I'm leaving on Saturday for
Guatemala for 2.5 weeks, and I'd like to get this fixed before I go if
possible.

Thanks!
Pete