I got samba working in one try!
the slackware book is so simple and useful. I followed the instructions and it worked. I don't need to rely on Suse GUI to set up SAMBA any more.
just set the workgroup, encrypt password yes, or else Windows Xp won't be able to access it. security is user.
then, set a path to share.
then add samba users. this is the part i didn't understand before.
to add samba users, the username must already exist on the samba server.
for example, i use fawkes as a username on my samba server.
then as root, smbpasswd -a fawkes
it'll ask for a samba password for the samba user fawkes.
when in windows, navigate to the samba server, and key in the username fawkes and password, and you'll be granted access!
what's more, you can restrict access to different paths by specifying the parameter "valid users"
