Linux – how to add a SMB (samba) password for a user in Debian, when there is no smbpasswd binary

Have a look on the Windows 7 box in Local Security Policy, under Local Policies > Security Options. There's a series of NTLM-related policies to play with.

The LmCompatibility option you've already changed in the registry is governed by the policy

Network security: LAN Manager authentication level

which in your case should be set to "Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated".

You will need to restart the Windows machine for this to take effect.

Well... the missing link was:

 libpam-smbpass

So, after installing this packages it works as expected. The Internet's long term memory just brings partial information sometimes. So in order to fight this I am publishing here the correct link how to sync samba passwords with unix passwords, and also my own test.

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# passwd mag2
passwd: user 'mag2' does not exist
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# useradd mag2
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# echo "mag2:12345" | chpasswd
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# smbclient -L localhost -U mag2
Enter mag2's password: 
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.6.6]

    Sharename       Type      Comment
    ---------       ----      -------
    print$          Disk      Printer Drivers
    IPC$            IPC       IPC Service (raspberrypi server)
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.6.6]

    Server               Comment
    ---------            -------
    RASPBERRYPI          raspberrypi server

    Workgroup            Master
    ---------            -------
    WORKGROUP            
root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# su pi
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ su mag2
Password: 
Added user mag2.

mag2@raspberrypi:/home/pi$ 

I hope this helps someone else.

update 2017:

libpam-smbpass is deprecated. It seems what replaced it is pam_winbindd. You can install the package libpam-winbind to get it. This however, still does not sync samba passwords with your unix passwords. Instead it allows you to authenticated to unix with a Windows Authentication server (AD). You can find info on that here: https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Setting_up_Samba_as_an_Active_Directory_Domain_Controller