On setting up samba, and I run into a strange error. I'm posting it here 
because I have samba running on a few other (linux) machines, a search of 
the archives returned nothing similar, and same with the samba archives at 
the aimsgroup site. I consulted the mans for all the daemon and the conf 
file, looked for but did not find the DIAGNOSES.txt file on this server.

This is not a problem with shares, it is a problem with daemon processes.

When I do /etc/rc.d/samba start
/etc/rc.d/nmdb: WARNING: $nmdb is not set properly
/etc/rc.d/smdb: WARNING: $smdb is not set properly

Same goes when I do /etc/rc.d/smdb -D and also the nmdb -D commands.

The /etc/rc.d/smbd file:

if [ -f /etc/rc.subr ]
then
        . /etc/rc.subr
fi

name="smbd"
rcvar=$name
command="/usr/local/sbin/${name}"
required_files="/usr/local/etc/samba/smb.conf"
extra_commands="reload"
command_args="-D"               # _must_ start as daemon from rc.d;
                                # add more flags through ${${name}_flags}

if [ -f /etc/rc.subr ]
then
        load_rc_config $name
        run_rc_command "$1"
else
        echo -n ' ${name}'
        ${command} ${smbd_flags} ${command_args}
fi

..the nmdb file is similar

Do you need to see the (hand massaged, never use swat) smb.conf file?

        workgroup = beechtree 
        server string = Samba Server
        hosts allow = 192.168.0.0./24 127.0.0.1
        log file = /usr/local/samba/var/log.%m
        # Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).
        max log size = 50
        security = user
##
## Network Browsing
##
        os level = 20
##
## WINS & Name Resolution
##
        wins server = 192.168.0.117 
        dns proxy = no
        encrypt passwords = yes
        passwd chat = *New*password* %n\n *Retype*new*password* %n\n 
*passwd:*all*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*
##
## Domain Control
##
#============================ Share Definitions 
==============================
[homes]
     comment = Home Directories
     browseable = no
     writable = yes
     valid users = %S
[tmp]
   comment = Temporary file space
   path = /tmp
   read only = no
   public = yes
[web]
   comment = Web Service
   path = /chroot
   valid users = kmastin
   public = no
   writable = yes
   printable = no

Any thoughts or advice on this?

TIA

What worries me is that this is the first of about 30 daemon processes I 
have to configure, and if I have to troubleshoot every one of them because 
they were altered from the source release, I'm screwed.

-- 
Keith Mastin       BeechTree Information Technology Services Inc.
137 Laird Drive    Toronto    M4G 3V5     http://www.beechtree.ca
  (416)696-6070      Fax(416)696-6072      kmastin@beechtree.ca