I notice that my notes from a couple of days ago gets a lot of hits, so I feel inclined to be a bit more detailed about how to integrate Ubuntu Lucid Lynx in to a windows domain.
Setting up Kerberos
This is worth doing regardless of whether or not you set up PAM. You can see why later.
1. Install the following packages:
sudo apt-get install krb5-config krb5-user
During the installation process, it will ask you for your realm. Enter the Realm for your Windows Domain (talk to your Active Directory administrator if you don’t know)
2. Edit /etc/krb5.conf
You will need to add a stanza for your realm in /etc/krb5.conf. something like this:
<REALM> = {
kdc = <active directory server>
admin_server = <active directory server>
default_domain = <domain.name>
}
3. Test
kinit <user>
The user should be a windows domain user. When challenged input the windows password for that account. Look for the ticket with the klist command.
Setting up PAM
If you want to sign in to your desktop / server using your Windows network credentials, then do follow these steps.
1. Prerequisite -This is your get out of jail free card
Set up the root account. If you mess this up and you need to fix it, then you need to be able sign in as root. I strongly recommend you do this so that you can.
sudo passwd root
and then test:
su -
Glad we got that done – lets move on.
2. Install the PAM module
sudo apt-get install libpam-krb5
Ubuntu sets up PAM for you, so that should be it.
3. Test
Try to log in to the computer with your windows credentials. There must be a local account already created and the user name and must be the same as the domain user name. It should just work. Run klist and you should also see a ticket. Nice!
Applications
Firefox
If you have kerborized web applications, or spnego enabled sites, then you can configure Firefox to use your kerberos ticket to negotiate for you and logging you in unchallenged. You need to type the following in to the location bar (preferably in another tab – you don;t want to lose this page just yet)
about:config
Say that you will be careful and make sure the following attributes are set to true:
- network.automatic-ntlm-auth.allow-proxies
- network.negotiate-auth.allow-proxies
- network.negotiate-auth.using-native-gsslib
Set the following to your local DNS sub-domain. This defines the scope of the trust for sites it will try to negotiate with:
- network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris
- network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris
Next time you attach to such a web site, then you will get logged in.
Pidgin
If your company uses the Microsoft Office Communicator Suite for IM, then you too can join the conversaton with the Sipe plugin. Install it with this commend:
sudo apt-get install pidgin-sipe
Once you have restarted Pidgin, then you can add an account. Here are some guidelines:
- Protocol: Office Communicator
- Username: Exchange email address
- Login: <DOMAIN>\<User>
- Password: <domain password>
- In the advanced tab, set the server to your IM server.
Kerberos seemingly works but the version that is here has not really worked for me. Give it a try by blanking out the password and checking the kerberos box and see how you do.
Mounting Windows File Shares
Once you have a kerberos ticket, then you can mount file shares without providing a user name or password. You can use the connect to server form in the Places menu. You set the service type to be windows server, set the server to the fully qualified domain name of the windows file server and enter the share name. You do not need to put a user name of domain in. Bookmark if you like. The share should open up in nautilus with no further prompting.
Evolution
I tried the evolution-mapi plugin which implements the Exchange MAPI protocol. It works but I found it sluggish and still very buggy. I would wait a little longer for anything more serious than testing.
That’s all folks!
If you have any other tricks that I have not mentioned then let us know.
There seems to be a typo in step 1.
instead of
sudo apt-get install krb-config krb5-user
should be:
sudo apt-get install krb5-config krb5-user
you are right – article updated
Arrived here off a google search. Thanks. Works great.
Do you have any ideas if this should also work for authenticating over an ISA proxy server and how should I configure in this particular case?
best regards,
Rafael Ribeiro
I have never worked with ISA proxy, but my understanding is that kerberos should pass straight through the proxy and work so long as both the server and the client (in this case your browser) can see the KDC (ie. Active Directory). If the negotiated authentication is NTLM then it will not work. The IIS in Windows Server 2008 will try krb/spnego first then twill fall back to NTLM. That way Internet Explorer users will still get negotiated authentication.
In fact it works. But there is a tricky thing… you have to specify proxy address as a hostname, if you specify as an IP Firefox simply asks you for a password (without trying ntlm_auth), you swap it with the proxy hostname and it magically works!
regards,
Rafael Ribeiro
i skipped the realm entry how can entry it again?
You edit the /etc/krb5.conf file. See section 2 above.