Integrate Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) to Zentyal PDC (Primary Domain Controller) – Part 7

From my previous post about integrating Ubuntu 13.10 to Zentyal PDC Active Directory things have changed for some software packages once the release of Ubuntu 14.04, codename Trusty Tahr, and seems like Ubuntu developers had dropped support for “likewise-open” package which did an excellent job of integrating Ubuntu to Windows Active Directory in just a few moves and clicks.

Add Ubuntu 14.04 to Zentyal PDC
Add Ubuntu 14.04 to Zentyal PDC

On Ubuntu Launchpad.net the page for likewise-open package displays a warning message saying that there are no source release for the package in Trusty Tahr. So, trying a classic installation from CLI with apt-get install command.

Likewise Open Package
Likewise Open Package

But don’t worry, even if ‘Trusty Tahr‘ has dropped support for ‘likewise‘ packages ( let’s hope that maybe just for a short period ) we can still use the ‘Saucy Salamander‘ repositories, download and manually install the packages needed to join Ubuntu 14.04 on PDC Active Directory.

Step 1: Downloading Dependency Packages

1. For manually downloading the packages go to official ‘Ubuntu 13.10‘ packages page, select your location and download the following packages.

  1. likewise-open
  2. libglade2-0
  3. likewise-open-gui
Download Likewise Open Package
Download Likewise Open Package

2. After downloading packages, install the packages using a GUI installer like ‘Gdebi‘ or install it from command line. You can also download and install the packages from command line only by opening a Terminal and issue the following commands in this order.

$ wget http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/l/likewise-open/likewise-open_6.1.0.406-0ubuntu10_amd64.deb
$ wget http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libg/libglade2/libglade2-0_2.6.4-1ubuntu3_amd64.deb
$ wget http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/l/likewise-open/likewise-open-gui_6.1.0.406-0ubuntu10_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i likewise-open_6.1.0.406-0ubuntu10_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i libglade2-0_2.6.4-1ubuntu3_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i likewise-open-gui_6.1.0.406-0ubuntu10_amd64.deb

That’s all for downloading and installing ‘likewise-open‘ packages needed for joining ‘Ubuntu 14.04‘ to Active Directory. Also you can backup all of this three packages for a later reuse.

Step 2: Integrating Ubuntu 14.04 to Zentyal PDC

The procedure for joining ‘Ubuntu 14.04‘ with ‘likewise‘ is the same as for all Ubuntu predecessors as in this post Integrate Ubuntu in Zentyal PDC.

3. If you prefer using a GUI, issue the following command in Terminal, enter your settings and PDC administrator credentials.

Integrating Ubuntu 14.04 to Zentyal PDC
Integrating Ubuntu 14.04 to Zentyal PDC
Domain Join Authentication
Domain Join Authentication

If your network settings are correct and DNS entry points to ‘Zentyal PDC‘ at the end you should get a successfully confirmation message.

Joining Domain
Joining Domain

4. If you prefer command line, issue the following command to integrate ‘Ubuntu 14.04’ to Active Directory.

$ sudo domainjoin-cli join domain.tld domain_administrator
Domain Integration Using CLI
Domain Integration Using CLI

5. After joining Ubuntu 14.04 successfully, reboot your system. Next, open a browser and navigate to ‘Zentyal Web Interface‘ and verify if ‘Ubuntu 14.04‘ hostname appears in Users and Computers module.

Verify Added Domain
Verify Added Domain

You can see your ‘Zentyal PDC Server‘ status by running the following command.

$ lw-get-status
Check Zentyal PDC Status
Check Zentyal PDC Status

Step 3: Login with Domain Credentials

Ubuntu 14.04 accepts only internal system users on Logon screen and doesn’t provide the ability to manual login a user from Active Directory.

6. To actually perform a GUI Logon on Ubuntu 14.04 with an Active Directory User edit ‘50-ubuntu.conf‘ file located in ‘/usr/share/lightdm.conf.d/‘ path and add the following lines then reboot to apply changes.

allow-guest=false      		## If you want to disable Guest login
greeter-show-manual-login=true  ## Enables manual login field

7. After reboot on Logon screen select Login and provide your Active Directory User credentials with related to syntax.

domain_name\domain_user
domain_name.tld\domain_user
domain_user
Active Directory User Login
Active Directory User Login

8. To perform a CLI login from Terminal use the following syntax.

$ su - domain_name\\domain_user
$ su - domain_user
AD CLI Login
AD CLI Login

As you can see the Active Directory User has home Path, UID and group appearance different from internal Ubuntu users.

AD User Path
AD User Path

Step 4: Enable Active Directory Administrative Rights

Remote users from Active Directory have the same Standard status as internal Ubuntu users and are not allowed to perform administrative tasks on system.

9. To grant root privileges to an Active Directory Administrative User, issue the following command with root privileges.

$ sudo usermod -a -G sudo AD_administrative_user
Enable Active Directory Administrative Rights
Enable Active Directory Administrative Rights

Basically the above command, adds the Active Directory Administrative User to Ubuntu local group “sudo“, group enabled with root powers.

Add AD Users to sudo Group
Add AD Users to sudo Group

Step 5: Leave Domain

10. For leaving domain from GUI, open ‘Likewise‘ from command line and hit on Leave Domain.

Leave Domain
Leave Domain

If you prefer to do from command line, run the following command and provide AD Admin User password.

$ sudo domainjoin-cli leave domain_name
Leave Domain from CLI
Leave Domain from CLI

That’s all the settings needed for a basic Ubuntu 14.04 integration into a Primary Domain Controller Active Directory with the help of ‘Likewise-open‘ packages borrowed from Ubuntu 13.10 repositories.

Hey TecMint readers,

Exciting news! Every month, our top blog commenters will have the chance to win fantastic rewards, like free Linux eBooks such as RHCE, RHCSA, LFCS, Learn Linux, and Awk, each worth $20!

Learn more about the contest and stand a chance to win by sharing your thoughts below!

Matei Cezar
I'am a computer addicted guy, a fan of open source and linux based system software, have about 4 years experience with Linux distributions desktop, servers and bash scripting.

Each tutorial at TecMint is created by a team of experienced Linux system administrators so that it meets our high-quality standards.

Join the TecMint Weekly Newsletter (More Than 156,129 Linux Enthusiasts Have Subscribed)
Was this article helpful? Please add a comment or buy me a coffee to show your appreciation.

16 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. It’s not possible to just integrate Zentyal into a Domain controler as a simple member. The design of its web admin console doesn’t allow just a simple membership. It can function as a PDC or BDC.

    Reply
  2. Hi Cezar,

    This procedure can be applied for second Zentyal 4 server. I can see into webadmin interface of Zentyal this type of membership with PDC. I what that Zentyal to be a simple member of domain, not BDC or PDC. I have already one Zentyal – role PDC.
    Thanks in advanced

    Reply
  3. I have joined the domain successfully. But could not see the 50-ubuntu.conf file in the designated folder. It contains 5 files. I am running kubuntu 64 Bit

    Reply
  4. Hi

    I have added windows domain to ubuntu 14.04
    I have edited /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-ubuntu.conf

    But I still can’t login with domain user also I can still see Guest Login.

    Please help me to login with domain user.

    Thanks

    Reply
  5. @Ashima Loomba : There’s seems to be a problem with lightdm, try this from shell:
    sudo mv /home/pbis/domain/domain_user/.Xauthority /home/pbis/domain/domain_user/.Xauthority.backup ,
    rm /home/pbis/domain/domain_user/.profile
    sudo service lightdm restart
    mv /home/pbis/domain/domain_user/.config /home/pbis/domain/domain_user/.config.bak
    If this settings wont work try reinstall lightdm or ubuntu-desktop:
    sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install –reinstall ubuntu-desktop
    sudo apt-get install unity
    If none of this settings work for you try reinstall your system.

    Reply
  6. I am sorry i typed a wrong email-id in my previous post.
    Pl ignore the previous comment

    Could you please help ? It’s very important.

    I am able to do

    su domain_user

    It logs me as domain-user. But when I try to login from login screen. It logs me in and immediately logs me out. It also creates a home directory in /home/pbis/domain/domain_user

    I am able to run enum-users, get-status command without any error. Just from main login screen it’s not able to log me in.

    I am using Ubunto 14.04 LTS with PowerBroker (likewise package I got from net).
    Please help. It’s quite urgent

    Reply
  7. Error: DNS_ERROR_BAD_PACKET [code 0x0000251e]

    A bad packet was received from a DNS server. Potentially the requested address does not exist.

    ?

    Reply
  8. Hi Thanks for this, I was just wondering if you had any pointers on how to mount the users directory on the server as home instead of /home/likewise-open/server/username.

    I am trying to setup 5 machines in a small lab but 10-15 users logging in to any machine at different times so would like their files saved to the server home instead of the local machine.

    Reply
  9. Excellent tutorial !

    At the login screen I select “Login”, I type in the user, “chr\chr”, and I type in his password, then it tries to login for some seconds. but suddenly it puts me back at the login screen again.

    Content of: /var/log/auth.log

    May 6 18:42:42 ch-ub14 lightdm: pam_succeed_if(lightdm:auth): requirement “user ingroup nopasswdlogin” not met by user “chr\chr”

    May 6 18:42:43 ch-ub14 lightdm: pam_unix(lightdm-greeter:session): session closed for user lightdm

    May 6 18:42:43 ch-ub14 lightdm: pam_unix(lightdm:session): session opened for user CHR\chr by (uid=0)
    May 6 18:42:44 ch-ub14 lightdm: pam_unix(lightdm:session): session closed for user CHR\chr
    ….

    Thank.

    Reply
  10. Sorry my last post. My mother lang is spanish. My android device is spanish toó. What i wanted to say is Your posts are great

    Reply
  11. Thanks for this excellent tutorial!

    Just one question:

    How can I enable the login history for domain accounts in lightdm greeter?
    It seems that lightdm ignores these users because their folders are listed in /home/likewise-open/%user%/ instead of /home/%user%

    thanks.

    Reply

Got Something to Say? Join the Discussion...

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. We appreciate your decision to leave a comment and value your contribution to the discussion. It's important to note that we moderate all comments in accordance with our comment policy to ensure a respectful and constructive conversation.

Rest assured that your email address will remain private and will not be published or shared with anyone. We prioritize the privacy and security of our users.