Clemson:Netware Authentication
From Linux 101, The beginner's guide to all things Linux.
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[edit] Introduction
The previous section explored how to access your Novell files once you were already logged into your computer. However, it is also possible to authenticate (when logging in) against Novell, using your login and password. This would be useful for a shared machine on campus where different people will be using the machine.
[edit] Do you know PAM?
No, not the cooking spray... PAM, Linux's Pluggable Authentication Modules. These easily allow you to switch a computer to authenticate against a variety of sources in mere seconds. For Novell, we will be using the pam_ncp_auth module provided by the tools discussed in the previous section.
It is recommended that you read the section on PAM, but it is not required to follow along.
[edit] Modifying system-auth
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Note: before changing any files, back them up in case you have to revert your changes. |
All of PAM's configuration is done in /etc/pam.d. You will see a variety of files named after the programs they correspond to. Depending on your distribution, the configuration may be done in one file or several. Based on the names and the contents of the files, you will see where things belong. Basically, other files can "inherit" the contents of another, so changing this file will affect the others.
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Note: it is possible to lock yourself out of your own system! It's vital to keep the |
In /etc/pam.d/system-auth after a line that looks like:
auth sufficient pam_unix.so
(which allows regular logins to the local system), add:
auth sufficient pam_ncp_auth.so tree=clemsonu ndsserver=cu-root-a -a -d -u2000,4000,pn,gcds -g2000,4000,pn -zA -m -A
If clemson.edu isn't in /etc/resolv.conf append .clemson.edu to the two domain names used in the configuration file.
Flags
| -a | Automatically creates the user on the local machine |
| -d | Writes debug information to the file containing login information in /var/log |
| -u2000,4000,pn,gcd | Users are created with id's between 2000 and 4000; various flags |
| -g2000,4000,pn | Groups are created with id's between 2000 and 4000; various flags |
| -zA | Turns on auto-mounting |
| -m | Mounts the Novell home to your Linux home directory |
| -A | |
| Uses IP instead of IPX (required) |
Refer to the author's webpage for a detailed listing of other flags and what they do.
Finally, add the following line first in /etc/pam.d/common-session:
session sufficient pam_ncp_auth.so
[edit] Logging In
Now you can log in at the prompt or through the GDM or KDM with your Novell username and password. Your U: drive will be mounted to your folder under "nwhome" by default if you didn't use the -m flag. To access any other shares, refer to the previous section. You would basically do something like this:
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ncpmap -S share -A share -o tcp <folder>
You're already authenticated to the network so you can map your drives just like that! To save typing, you could even put the commands into a script to execute every time you logged in. See the section on shell scripting.
