Samba: passwords

Samba drove me nuts until I figured out that it keeps its own database of passwords. In other words, for each user that you intend to permit access for in Samba, you must also create a password. It's easy enough to do:

sudo smbpasswd -a <username>

but if no one tells you this, you will go nuts trying to figure it out. Not even the official Samba HOW-TO gives you a decent clue about this.

Apparently, you can set Debian Etch up to sync Samba and user passwords, but I haven't gone there yet.