One of the best diagnostic tools for debugging problems is Samba itself. You can use the -d option for both smbd and nmbd to specify the debug level at which to run. See the man pages for smbd, nmbd , and smb.conf for more information regarding debugging options. The debug level (log level) can range from 1 (the default) to 10 (100 for debugging passwords).

Another helpful method of debugging is to compile Samba using the gcc -g flag. This will include debug information in the binaries and allow you to attach gdb to the running smbd/nmbd process. To attach gdb to an smbd process for an NT workstation, first get the workstation to make the connection. Pressing ctrl-alt-delete and going down to the domain box is sufficient (at least, the first time you join the domain) to generate a LsaEnumTrustedDomains . Thereafter, the workstation maintains an open connection and there will be an smbd process running (assuming that you haven't set a really short smbd idle timeout). So, in between pressing ctrl-alt-delete and actually typing in your password, you can attach gdb and continue.

Some useful Samba commands worth investigating are:

$ 

testparm | more

$ 

smbclient -L //{netbios name of server}