This won't be a question, but a solution to an infuriating problem on Ubuntu 10.04. If you tried to deploy an LDAP server using this distro following the tutorials below, you'll be on serious trouble. Tutorials: https://help.ubuntu.com/9.10/serverguide/C/openldap-server.html https://help.ubuntu.com/9.10/serverguide/C/samba-ldap.html The error first appear, on the line: "ldapsearch -xLLL -b cn=config -D cn=admin,cn=config -W olcDatabase=hdb olcAccess" It simply won't allow admin to access the "cn=config", thus you won't be able to deploy the LDAP server correctly. After almost a week searching for a solution, I've found this page: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-docs/+bug/333733 On comment #5, the solution is presented. Quoting the author: when you get to the setting up ACL part you all of a sudden need to use a cn=admin,cn=config, that doesn't exist creating a config.ldif with dn: olcDatabase={0}config,cn=config changetype: modify add: olcRootDN olcRootDN: cn=admin,cn=config dn: olcDatabase={0}config,cn=config changetype: modify add: olcRootPW olcRootPW: secret dn: olcDatabase={0}config,cn=config changetype: modify delete: olcAccess and adding it with ldapadd -Y EXTERNAL -H ldapi:/// -f config.ldif It's unacceptable that a Linux distribution, popular like Ubuntu, have such ridiculous bug. Hope it helps everyone!