I've managed to enable ldap authentication first for 'admin' user, and then for 'xwiki' user. I've changed these values on the site you've mentioned (http://yourdomain/xwiki/bin/edit/XWiki/XWikiPreferences?editor=object): Ldap login matching cn={0},dc=debuntu,dc=local Ldap base DN dc=debuntu,dc=local I also think that my ldap 'xwiki' user password was too short. Perhaps this is why the authentication failed. The correct output in catalina.out (maybe someone else will find it useful) 2012-06-15 08:58:16,204 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] TRACE u.i.L.XWikiLDAPAuthServiceImpl - Starting LDAP authentication 2012-06-15 08:58:16,205 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPConfig - ldap_group_classes: [groupofnames, groupwisedistributionlist, dynamicgroup, dynamicgroupaux, groupofuniquenames, group] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,205 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPConfig - ldap_group_memberfields: [member, uniquemember] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,205 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPConnection - Connection to LDAP server [127.0.0.1:389] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,211 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPConnection - Binding to LDAP server with credentials login=[uid=xwiki,ou=People,dc=debuntu,dc=local] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,213 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPUtils - Searching for the user in LDAP: user [xwiki] base [ou=People,dc=debuntu,dc=local] query [(uid=xwiki)] uid [uid] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,214 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPConnection - LDAP search: baseDN=[ou=People,dc=debuntu,dc=local] query=[(uid=xwiki)] attr=[[uid, uid, uid, uid]] ldapScope=[2] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,215 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPConnection - - values for attribute [uid] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,215 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPConnection - |- [xwiki] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,215 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPConnection - LDAP search found attributes [[{name=dn value=uid=xwiki,ou=People,dc=debuntu,dc=local}, {name=uid value=xwiki}]] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,215 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPUtils - LDAP attributes will be used to update XWiki attributes. 2012-06-15 08:58:16,215 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPUtils - Updating existing user with LDAP attribues located at [uid=xwiki,ou=People,dc=debuntu,dc=local] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,306 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG c.x.x.p.l.XWikiLDAPUtils - Start synchronization of LDAP profile [[{name=dn value=uid=xwiki,ou=People,dc=debuntu,dc=local}, {name=uid value=xwiki}]] with existing user profile based on mapping [{uid=fullname}] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,306 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] DEBUG u.i.L.XWikiLDAPAuthServiceImpl - LDAP authentication succeed with principal [XWiki.xwiki] 2012-06-15 08:58:16,341 [http://10.1.0.220:8080/xwiki/bin/loginsubmit/XWiki/XWikiLogin] WARN o.x.v.i.DefaultVelocityEngine - Deprecated usage of method [com.xpn.xwiki.api.XWiki.parseMessage] in /templates/login.vm@29,33 Anyway, it works now, thank you very much for your help. Patricia