Tested setup on Slack 12.2.

First create a simple Samba configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf:

[global]
    workgroup = testgroup
    follow symlinks = no
[mytest]
    path = /smb
    read only = no
    guest ok = no

Test Your Config File, create a directory for the [mytest] samba share above, start samba server and check if server responds (all as root):

testparm /etc/samba/smb.conf # test config file
mkdir /smb                   # create samba share
chmod 777 /smb
chomd +x /etc/rc.d/rc.samba  # start server
/etc/rc.d/rc.samba start
smbclient -U% -L localhost   # check (just press return at password promt)

Enable access for a normal user (eg „sandy“). Note that the user must already have a normal login on the machine (adduser sandy).

smbpasswd -a sandy

Check if samba share is accessable as normal user sandy on the server:

smbclient //localhost/mytest

Check if samba share is accessable as normal user sandy on a windows client:

M:\>net use j: \\etb-111\mytest

Other documentation: Using Samba, 2nd Edition, Samba-3 by Example, Samba man pages

[global]
    workgroup = testgroup
    follow symlinks = no
[user]
    path = /home/%U
    read only = no

M:\>net use j: \\etb-111\user
Username: sandy
Password: ***

%U was found here

As default a remote Win client creates a file on the server 744 = rwxr–r–. The mask can be changed with in smb.conf to e.g. the linux default 644 = rw-r–r–:

[global]
    create mask = 0644

pdbedit -L [-v]

Test this!

Just copy /etc/samba/private/passdb.tdb form old server to new server.

If this does not work, convert the passdb.tdb with the old server to the text based smbpasswd file, copy this file to the new server and convert it to passdb.tdb again. Use the pdbedit command for conversion. See 1 and 2