Keychain failing to remember password for samba mount

All,

This is happening on a 12" G4 Powerbook running 10.3.9. There's a
Linux server out on the network with a samba share. There's a valid
working linux user/password and a valid working samba user/password
(smbpasswd). I start the Mac and select the proper network Location. I
select Connect to Server and see the name of the Linux server. I click
on that and a dialog opens up. I select the share name, click on
Authenticate, wait for the stupid beachball to go away, select the
share name again, click on authenticate, wait for the stupid beachball
to go away, click on Authenticate Again (which has replaced
Authenticate), enter the workgroup name, username and password, check
the Remember in Keychain radio button and click on OK and the share
mounts on the desktop. All copying, moving, opening and so forth works
properly. I choose Shutdown and the machine shuts down properly.

I then re-start the machine, open the finder window, select the
network icon and the window fills with various server alias icons. I
select the icon for the Linux server (which is properly displayed
there) , select the proper share and click OK (because keychain has
remembered the necessary information, right?) Well it hasn't. In fact
I (and by extension, the user) have to go through the entire damned
procedure outlined above to get the share mounted on the desktop.
Everytime.

I will not ask the user to go through this just to give them the means
to back files up to someplace besides the localhost. I can't believe
OS X can't manage, throught its own GUI tools, something as simple as
mounting a samba share with some semblence of automagic as regards
workgroup/user/password, so there must be another reason, an error in
my method, that can be corrected. Or maybe Keychain just needs to do
what the GUI implies it's going to do. How can I make it do this? I
have looked at the keychain utility and netinfo and all appears to be
correct.

I'm certainly not blaming anybody (well, maybe Apple, or me for my own
error), but the user just happens to be the owner of the company that
employs me and I'd like to get this screwed down, fast. I'm
appreciative of any recipes or tips for this.

.