"A duplicate name exists on the network" error

[colpaarm]

I'm attempting to set up samba as a pdc on my network (on a rh linux 9.0 box). I've followed steps that I've seen in numerous resources, used testparm to confirm my smb.conf is syntactically correct, used the smbclient command to connect from my unix box, and even changed domains to my new one with no problem. Now for the problems.

After switching over to the new domain (using xp pro as the client) I am prompted to reboot my machine. When I reboot, however, I'm greeted at the login screen with the following error

"A duplicate name exists on the network" (I know my computer name is unique because we use a router and I can see all computers connected)

Pressing on anyway, I select the samba domain from the drop down box and attempt to log in. I get the following

The system cannot log you on now because the domain UBERBEAST is not available

What do you do when your config file looks fine and you get no errors in the samba logs (I cranked it up to level 4). Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Headmaster]

Probably nothing to do with samba... Did you work the XP system over as needed? You need to figure out why the name error happens first.

See here:
Whenblows XP:

http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/esdd/tutorials/samba/samba-4-4.html

Samba as a PDC:

http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/esdd/tutorials/samba/index.html

and more:

http://hr.uoregon.edu/davidrl/samba/

 

[colpaarm]

The first two links were some of the (MANY) resources that I used when doing this. Yes, I downloaded the registry update and configured my policies. Remember, I'm able to join the samba domain. The problem arises after I join and am told to reboot. At the usual log in screen after rebooting, I get the pop up error message greeting me. So as soon as the log in screen appears, the error message pops up, before I try and even do anything. This error generats nothing in the samba logs.

The only thing I can think of is the following (from

http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/esdd/tutorials/samba/samba-2-7.html)

"First, a word of caution: There can be only ONE PDC on the network. Having more than one PDC on a network will cause you no end of head-scratching and unexplained weirdness--don't go there."

We currently have an NT domain control. However, I assumed (looks like I was incorrect) that you couldn't have another SAMBA pdc on the network. What I'll probably try and do is set up a subnet or another firewall and try to make this work.

 

[colpaarm]

I'm Completely stumped at this point. I got a separate firewall and didn't even connect it to the network. I connected my samba box and one xp machine to it. Once again, I was able to switch over to the new domain. Once again, it prompted me to reboot. Once again, upon reboot, I was greeted with "A duplicate name exists on the network" error. One samba pdc, one xp machine. Obviously something's wrong on my end but it would appear that the error message I'm getting is misleading. Any other suggestions?

 

[clonny2]

Who is the WINS server. On the Samba server make sure you either have
wins support = yes
;wins server =

or
wins support = no
wins server = ip.of.wins.server.

Just to make sure WINS is not having any issues.


>---------------------------------------Lawrence Feldman
SR. QA. Engineer SNAP Appliance
lfeldman@snapappliance.com

 

[colpaarm]

Alas, that has not fixed the problem. At first, I had nothing for the wins support directive. So I took your advice and tried wins support = yes. That did not solve it.

I was actually kind of skeptical that it would. You see, after joining the domain and rebooting, the error shows up right away on the windows login screen even before I attempt to do anything. What's more, the error that shows up on the windows side generates nothing within the samba logs.

Thanks for the help. Any other ideas?

 

[clonny2]

you can try this as a quick fix

netbios name = {something different}

there is also

netbios aliases = {NAME1} {NAME2} {NAME3} etc...




>---------------------------------------Lawrence Feldman
SR. QA. Engineer SNAP Appliance
lfeldman@snapappliance.com

 

[colpaarm]

I tried that. I got the following in the logs

build_sam_account: smbpasswd database is corrupt! username hercules$ not in unix passwd database!

Now here's what I've done recently. I originally tried adding my machine manually. Then I added the add user script directive. I just rememberd that I did that an thought that having both may have something to do with my problems. So I removed the user (machine) from the passwd file. However, I didn't do it from samba. I'm going to remove it from samba and see how that goes. If that doesn't work, I'll add them back to samba and remove the directive from smb.conf. Wish me luck. I'm grasping at straws at this point.

 

[colpaarm]

Here's the latest. I completely removed the trust account for the xp machine and added the add user script directive in smb.conf. Here's what I got in the logs:

smb_create_user: Running the command `/usr/sbin/useradd -d /dev/null - g machines -s /bin/false -M hercules$' gave 6

What does that mean, I don't know. However, on the client side when I tried to log into the domain for the first time, I got "Access Denied", so things are actually getting worse! Ughh, somebody take me out of my misery!

 

[colpaarm]

Okay, I got things working, but I'm not really sure what can be learned from this. I did the following:

1. completely removed the smbpasswd file and started from scratch. (I did this because of the corrupt db message)
2. Eliminated the add user script directive in smb.conf (because it didn't seem to be working for me - rh 9.0)
3. Changed the name of my workgroup (domain) to something other than the host name

Those three things did the trick. I make changes to the desktop and they're being saved and retrieved for future use, so that's good. Now what I've got to figure out is

1. How to get the add user script directive working (save on admin tasks)
2. How to copy existing nt profiles so that people don't have to recreate their desktop.

Thanks for the help guys.