5/22/13

Linux Foundation Training Events Video

How to join a Ubuntu machine to a Windows domain | Linux.com

search linux.com

Home

News

Linux Community

Learn Linux

Directory

Jobs

Store

Home Learn Linux Windows domain

Linux Tutorials

How to join a Ubuntu machine to a

How to join a Ubuntu machine to a Windows domain

Wednesday, 04 August 2010 08:46 Jack Wallen | Exclusive

No matter how you try, sometimes you can't escape the clutches of Microsoft and Windows. You might have a fortress of Linux solitude at home, but unless you are one of the lucky ones working in a Linux-only environment, you are going to have to interact with Windows. One of the trickiest aspects of getting Linux to play well with Windows is the Windows Domain. For the longest time this was a challenge most were simply not ready (or able) to handle. This task required a very deep understanding of Samba and how to get Samba to communicate with that Windows domain. Even armed with that knowledge, this wouldn't always work. Even after hours of editing your /etc/samba/smb.conf file, you found yourself stumped until you simply gave up.

Upcoming Training Courses

LF331 Developing Linux Device Drivers 03 Jun 07 Jun - Virtual DETAILS

That is, until now. Fortunately, things have continued to get easier on the Linux operating system to where even what was once the most challenging tasks are mundane. One such tool that has made the challenge of joining a Windows domain is Likewise Open. Using Likewise Open's handy GUI tool (that also comes with an equally hand command line version) you can quickly and easily connect a Linux machine to a Windows domain. What you will need An already running Ubuntu installation (I prefer 10.04, but 9.10 should work fine). Domain name: This will be your company domain. DNS: If your machine uses something like OpenDNS, you might need to have the IP address(es) of your company DNS server(s). Access: You are going to need authentication credentials for an account that is able to join a domain. GROUP: You will need to know the group your user belongs to on the domain. Installation This is simple. Follow these steps to get both the GUI and command line tools installed: 1. Open up the Add/Remove Software tool. 2. Search for "likewise open". 3. Marke likewise-open5, likewise-open5-gui, and winb ind for installation (the Add/Remove tool will pick up any necessary dependencies for you). 4. Click Apply to install (and Apply to accept any dependencies). That's it. You are now ready to join your Windows domain. Let's tackle this via command line first. Joining using the command line You will be surprised how easy this is to do. Open up a terminal window and issue the following command: sudo domainjoin-cli join DOMAIN_NAME USER Where DOMAIN_NAME is the name of the Windows domain you want to join and USER is the user you authenticate with. You will be prompted for your user password and, upon successful authentication, you will have officially joined that domain! You should be able to do things like browse all machines on your network domain as well as connect to your Exchange server using Evolution! Now if you want to leave the domain you can do so equally as easy with the command:

LF411 Em bedded Linux Developm ent 24 Jun 28 Jun - Silicon Valley DETAILS LF422 High Availability Linux Architecture 15 Jul 18 Jul - New York DETAILS View All Upcom ing Courses

Tw eets about "@linuxfoundation OR @lf_training OR #linux"

Latest Tutorials
How to Support Your App on Older Android Devices Securing SSH On Ubuntu Precise With WiKID Tw o-Factor Authentication Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 Code Name Wheezy Server Installation Guide How to Run Fedora Linux on the MacBook Air Without Touching the SSD How To Configure Apache To Use Radius For WiKID Tw o-

www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/336477-how-to-join-a-ubuntu-machine-to-a-windows-domain

1/4

5/22/13
sudo domainjoin-cli leave

How to join a Ubuntu machine to a Windows domain | Linux.com

Factor Authentication On Ubuntu

This will drop you from the domain you are currently joined. Now let's take a look at the same task from the GUI tool. GUI goodness To start up the GUI click F2 and enter domainjoin-gui to open up the graphical tool (see Figure 1). This should be fairly straightforward. You can name your computer what you want but you do have to use the exact domain name you would use to connect a Windows machine to your domain. In other words, if you domain is DOMAIN.LOCAL then use DOMAIN.LOCAL. If your domain is just DOMAIN then just use DOMAIN. As well, if you have to use an OU (Ogranizational Unit) to connect, make sure you have that correct. Once you have the information entered click Connect and an authentication window will appear. In this window you must enter your username and your password as you would
Figure 1

Sign Up For the Linux.com Newsletter

First Nam e Last Nam e Em ail Country
Subscribe
View our Privacy Policy

Latest Software News

NASA is Funding a 3D Food Printer, and It'll Start w ith Pizza The Window s Kernel's 'Achilles' Heel' Intel Releases 'Beacon Mountain' Android-on-Atom Dev Tool Stable Kernels 3.9.3, 3.4.46, and 3.0.79

enter them when connecting on a Windows machine. After you enter your credentials click OK and Likewise Open will attempt to connect.

Upon successful authentication you will be a part of your company domain. Congratulations!
Is Patenting Open Source Softw are The New Normal?

Logging in Now log out of your desktop and log back in with your domain credentials. This most likely will mean you will log in with the username in the DOMAIN\user configuration. You can also log in to your local machine by logging in with the standard username and password on your local system. Sudo issues You will find, when logged into your domain, that your user doesn't have sudo privileges. This means you will not be able to install software and administer various tasks/tools. You can fix this by making an addition to the /etc/sudoers file. Do this with the following warning: You can really mess up your system with an improperly configured /etc/sudoers file...so use caution! Open up the /etc/sudoers file and look for the line: #Memb ers of the Admin group may gain root privileges and do the following: Under this line add the following: %DOMAIN\GROUP ALL=(ALL) ALL Where DOMAIN is the actual domain and GROUP is the group your user belongs to on the domain. Now log out and log back in and your domain user should have sudoer privileges. Final thoughts I remember the days when joining a Windows domain was something very few could manage. Now anyone who can install an application can join a Windows domain. The method I describe has worked for me flawlessly on a number of domains. If you have trouble connecting to your domain, post the information below (just don't break company policy by posting information that should not be made public) and see how quickly any given member of the Linux.com community comes to the rescue. Bazinga!

Jack Wallen

Comments

www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/336477-how-to-join-a-ubuntu-machine-to-a-windows-domain

2/4

5/22/13

How to join a Ubuntu machine to a Windows domain | Linux.com

varazir : Hello, how you do this from command line only ?

07 Nov 12

Report

Reply

Vallabh :

26 Dec 12

Its not working on ubuntu 10.4 32bit getting an error with downloading likewiseopen. Its showing an error

Report

Reply

Alivallo :

22 Feb

Likewise does not work with WinBind... they clash SID's and UID's as they authenticate differerntly Do Not install both USE ONE ONLY: likewise or winbind or Centrify express.

Report

Reply

Kamunge :

25 Jan

Please help me to know if its possible for my computer which is now running on Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows 7 Profession successfully. In Windows 7, i am logging in using my credentials with the company's domain, but when i tried to log in in Ubuntu after successfully joining the machine in the domain, it gave me the error that it cant create my account. The error is 'Ubuntu :: Could Not Update ICEauthority File /home/DOMAINNAME/username/.ICEauthority' and also the error, 'There is a problem with the configuration server. (/usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256)' and the last error, 'Nautilus could not create the required folder "/home/DOMAINNAME/username/Desktop/home/DOMAINNAME/username/.nautilus". Before running Nautilus, please create the following folder, or set permissions such that Nautilus can create it. ' Please help, is it possible for this to happen, logging in using the same username and the same password of the company domain in two different operating systems in the same machines?

Report

Reply

Nic : I followed your steps on the command line, and I received the error

17 Apr

LW_ERROR_KRB5KDC_ERR_C_PRINCIPAL_UNKOWN [code 0x0000a309] Client not found in Kerberos database Any help to point me in the right direction would greatly help. Thank you.

Report

Reply

Nmouse :

14 May

Hi Running clean Ubuntu 13.04 (danish) The joining went fine, but the CLI in background says : (domainjoin-gui:4306): IBUS-WARNING **: The owner of /home/sysadm/.config/ibus/bus is not root! I write this : sudo domainjoin-gui And after reebook, i cannot login other wise, that before ? Have you any workaround ? Regards Nmouse

Report

Reply

wouter : Dude, post is almost 3 years old.

1 day ago

www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/336477-how-to-join-a-ubuntu-machine-to-a-windows-domain

3/4

5/22/13

How to join a Ubuntu machine to a Windows domain | Linux.com

Report Reply

Muhamed Rafi :

5 days ago

can you help..I was unable to install USB Modem Idea net setter in ubuntu 10.4.I tried with the help of gdebi.But I was not able to do it..

Report

Reply

Name :

Email :

Comment :

Subscribe to Comments

Post Comment

WHO WE ARE ? The Linux Foundation is a non-profit consortium dedicated to the grow th of Linux. More About the foundation... Frequent Questions Join / Linux Training / Board

EXPLORE Answ ers Blogs Forums Directory

STAY CURRENT Netbooks Cloud Computing Enterprise Embedded & Mobile

ABOUT LINUX.COM How to Participate Contact / About Advertise Privacy / Terms / Editorial Policy

Linux.com 2012 Linux.com. All rights reserved. The Linux Foundation Symbol is a trademark of the Linux Foundation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/336477-how-to-join-a-ubuntu-machine-to-a-windows-domain

4/4