version: OS: RHEL 5.5 x86_64 samba: samba-3.3.9 When I use "userdel noboby" to remove the user of nobody. and restart samba service and running a status check, it shows the following: bash-3.2$ service samba status nmbd (pid 8201) is running... winbindd (pid 8245 8229 8208 8207) is running... smbd dead but pid file exists Log: [2011/07/08 14:44:11, 3] smbd/sec_ctx.c:set_sec_ctx(327) setting sec ctx (0, 0) - sec_ctx_stack_ndx = 1 [2011/07/08 14:44:11, 5] auth/token_util.c:debug_nt_user_token(522) NT user token: (NULL) [2011/07/08 14:44:11, 5] auth/token_util.c:debug_unix_user_token(548) UNIX token of user 0 Primary group is 0 and contains 0 supplementary groups [2011/07/08 14:44:11, 6] passdb/pdb_interface.c:pdb_getsampwsid(279) pdb_getsampwsid: Building guest account [2011/07/08 14:44:11, 0] passdb/pdb_interface.c:guest_user_info(253) guest_user_info: Unable to locate guest account [nobody]! [2011/07/08 14:44:11, 3] smbd/sec_ctx.c:pop_sec_ctx(435) pop_sec_ctx (0, 0) - sec_ctx_stack_ndx = 0 [2011/07/08 14:44:11, 0] smbd/server.c:main(1403) ERROR: failed to setup guest info. this issue also exits samba-3.5.*
This works as designed. We do need a guest account.