I got the following error again and again:

<snip>
.....
Sep  4 10:58:18 sun smbd[94479]: [2006/09/04 10:58:18, 0] smbd/notify_fam.c:fam_check_reconnect(136)
Sep  4 10:58:18 sun smbd[94479]:   failed to connect to FAM service
Sep  4 10:58:23 sun smbd[94479]: [2006/09/04 10:58:23, 0] smbd/notify_fam.c:fam_check_reconnect(136)
Sep  4 10:58:23 sun smbd[94479]:   failed to connect to FAM service
Sep  4 10:58:24 sun smbd[94479]: [2006/09/04 10:58:24, 0] smbd/notify_fam.c:fam_check_reconnect(136)
Sep  4 10:58:24 sun smbd[94479]:   failed to connect to FAM service
Sep  4 10:58:25 sun smbd[94479]: [2006/09/04 10:58:25, 0] smbd/notify_fam.c:fam_check_reconnect(136)
Sep  4 10:58:25 sun smbd[94479]:   failed to connect to FAM service
Sep  4 10:58:25 sun smbd[94479]: [2006/09/04 10:58:25, 0] smbd/notify_fam.c:fam_check_reconnect(136)
Sep  4 10:58:25 sun smbd[94479]:   failed to connect to FAM service
Sep  4 11:23:22 sun smbd[94479]: [2006/09/04 11:23:22, 0] smbd/notify_fam.c:fam_check_reconnect(136)
Sep  4 11:23:22 sun smbd[94479]:   failed to connect to FAM service
.....
</snip>

I'm using samba-3.0.23b,1 on FreeBSD 6.1

I did not specify anything with respect to fam in my
/usr/local/etc/smb.conf file.

I have only noticed that a new directory has been created in /tmp/

drwx------  2 root  wheel  512 Sep  4 08:45 /tmp/fam-root/

This directory is empty and updated once and a while. I mean the
directory is recreated at a later time. Attributes and owner do not
change.

In the clients log files I find the following:

<snip>
....
[2006/09/04 11:36:41, 0] smbd/notify_fam.c:fam_check_reconnect(136)
 failed to connect to FAM service
 Socket directory /tmp/fam-root has different owner
 Failed to remove unsafe path /tmp/fam-root
...
</snip>

It seems that the client tries to access /tmp/fam-root but has not the
right user priviliges.