Client Authentication:Fedora

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Warning.png Warning:
If your reading this then this page isn't finished. Don't follow the instructions as they are untested and being converted from the Ubuntu Howto


Warning.png Warning:
This is based upon limited testing and a small number of users via a VirtualBox virtual machine installation of Fedora. YMMV


Fedora 11 Authentication

Introduction

The following details the setup of Fedora 11 as a desktop to authenticate users against SME. The method has been tested using Fedora installed in a VirtualBox virtual machine on a Windows XP host. It assumes login is via the gui interface.

Install Fedora

Download the Fedora .iso and install. The initial install process asks for a root password and the hostname (which defaults to localhost.localdomain). Change this to a hostname of your choice and your domain name.

<HOSTNAME>.<yourdomain>.<yourtld>
  Tip:
Make sure you set the <HOSTNAME> to something less than 15 characters.


When the install has finished you need to remove the media and reboot. A gui startup process then completes the setup and installation. During this process you will be asked for a username and password to set up the first user, and also the date/time configuration.

  Tip:
When prompted for a user name to log in with, give a non-SME user such as 'administrator', as this first user effectively becomes a local user for Gnome login. Root is not allowed to login at the Gnome GDM prompt. You can login as this user, open an 'Applications - System - Terminal' cli and 'su' to root to carry out most of the authentication setup.

You can also add the SME server ip to the list of NTP servers


  Warning:
On the User setup screen do not select the 'Use Network Login'. This will not work yet, missing packages etc, and will just complicate the setup below


Complete install, login and apply all updates.

  Note:
There may be a lot of updates so apply the security fixes as a minimum.

For VirtualBox VM installation only, install the 'Guest Additions'. See section below for details.


Additional Packages

Use the 'System - Administration - Add/Remove Software' or yum to install additional packages

Windows file server (Note this is a group of packages under Package Collections or yum groupinstall)
pam_mount
libtalloc (this needs to be updated if you haven't run all the updates, else samba and the domain join don't work)

Firewall Modifications

Open the 'System - Administration - Firewall' and tick

samba
samba-client

as Trusted Services. Don't forget to 'Apply'

Samba Modifications

  • Open 'System - Administration - Services' and enable 'smb'
  • Open 'System - Administration - Authentication'. This will open an 'Authentication Configuration' dialogue.
  Tip:
Do not press the 'Join Domain' button until you have completed the changes below on all three of the dialogue tabs


  • On the 'User Information' tab tick 'Enable Winbind Support' and press the 'Configure Winbind ' button.
    A 'Winbind Configuration' dialogue opens. Complete the boxes with the relevant information and press OK
Winbind Domain             - this is the Windows Workgroup name for your SME Server
Security                   - set this to domain
Winbind Domain Controllers - this is the ip address of your SME server
Template Shell             - set this to /bin/bash
Allow Offline Login        - tick
  • Change to the 'Authentication' tab. Check 'Enable Winbind Support' is ticked and press the 'Configure Winbind' button.
    A 'Winbind Settings' dialogue opens. Check the values are the same as above and press OK.
  • Change to the Options tab and check the following are ticked or set
Use Shadow Passwords
Password Hashing Algorithym - MD5
Local Authorization is sufficient for local users
Create Home directories on first login
  • Now change back to the 'User Information' tab, press 'Configure Winbind' and then 'Join Domain'. Save the configuration when prompted.
  • Close this application down.
  • Open an 'Applications - Accessories - Terminal' cli and 'su' to root
  • Open and edit /etc/samba/smb.conf. Under [global] there will be a section commented as having been generated by authconfig. Check this section is as below. Some lines may not exist and may need to be added.
workgroup = <WORKGROUP>
password server = <ip of sme server>
security = domain
idmap uid = <whatever range is set>
idmap gid = <whatever range is set>
template shell = /bin/bash
winbind use default domain = yes             (you will probably need to change this from false)
winbind offline logo n = true 
wins server = <ip of sme server>
name resolve order = wins host lmhosts bcast
socket options = TCP_NODELAY
template homedir = /home/%D/%U
winbind enum users = yes
winbind enum groups = yes
winbind cache time = 10
obey pam restrictions = yes
pam password change = yes
hostname lookup = yes 
  • Replace <WORKGROUP> above (and below) with the 'Windows workgroup' name of your SME server. Replace <ip of sme server> above with the internal network ip address of your SME server.
  Note:
If you run the 'System - Administration - Authentication' tool again your amendments will be lost


  • To check validation of smb.conf, run
testparm
  • The 'Join Domain' above should also have worked so to list users, groups and available shares respectively from the SME server, test with
wbinfo -u
wbinfo -g
smbtree
  • If it doesn't appear to have worked then run
net rpc join -D <WORKGROUP> -U admin
  • Enter the admin password for the SME server when prompted and you should get a message,
Joined domain <WORKGROUP>

Authentication Modifications

  Warning:
Altering the pam system authentication files can seriously effect your ability to login in to the system. Take a backup of the /etc/pam.d directory and /etc/nsswitch.conf. Have a live CD available to give access and re-apply the backup files if you make a mistake and/or get locked out


Open and edit /etc/nsswitch.conf and find the 'hosts:' line. Change it to

hosts: files wins dns

Check also

group:  files winbind
passwd: files winbind
shadow: files winbind

Save and close

cd/etc/pam.d

Open and edit the system-auth file, and amend as below

Open and edit the password-auth file, and amend as below


Automount User Home Directories at Login

cd /etc/security

Open and edit pam_mount.conf.xml file. Find the 'Volume Definitions' section. Add a volume line below the header

<!-- Volume Definitions --> 
<volume fstype="cifs" server="<SMESERVER>" path="homes" mountpoint="~/nethome" options="nosuid,nodev" />

Replace <SMESERVER> above with the samba name of your SME server. This will mount the users 'home' directory from SME into a directory called 'nethome' in their local home directory.

Login and Test

Exit the Terminal cli

Logout of Fedora.

Login as a valid SME server user on your system, just giving username and password. No need for DOMAIN\user as samba configured above to use the default Windows Workgroup

Authentication against SME should proceed and the user log in. A home directory on the local machine should be created as /home/DOMAIN/user, and a sub directory to that called 'nethome' mounted to the users home directory on the SME server. The mount point should also appear on the users gui desktop.

VirtualBox Guest Additions Installation

  Note:
This section is only applicable if you have installed Fedora in a VirtualBox Virtual Machine. It should be carried out immediately after installation and before setting up the rest of the authentication features


The autorun.sh script on the VirtualBox Guest Additions media does not run on Fedora as it requires gksu which doesn't appear to be available as a standard RedHat package. You will need to add the following packages therefore either through the 'System - Adminsitration - Add/Remove Software' or with yum at a Terminal cli command prompt

gcc
kernel-headers
kernel-devel

Change to the mounted Virtual Box Guest Additions CDROM, eg

cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.10_54097

Run the relevant script for your processor type, eg for i386 processors

sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

The script should run, build and install the guest additions.

Issues / ToDo

The above was tested on a VirtualBox virtual machine. The login appears to stall after username and password entered due to the mount of the home directory, but this does complete after a little while. Appears to be due to NAT traversal and WINS lookup as VM is using NAT and a different subnet. Couldn't get bridged mode to work, and haven't installed on a dedicated machine on the same subnet to confirm. Login is a little slow therefore using the VM. Perhaps someone could confirm its OK when on proper subnet.

Haven't tested the pam password configuration to see if password changes are handled correctly.