Basic Samba

General Overview and Configuration

• To run samba, you need to install the samba, samba-clients and samba-common packages, which can be found on your Linux distribution CD.

• When you install the samba packages, rc scripts are created and samba is started upon system startup.

• You can manually start, stop and restart samba by running:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/smb start

/etc/rc.d/init.d/smb stop

/etc/rc.d/init.d/smb restart

• The master samba configuration file is /etc/smb.conf. When you make modifications to this file, you need to restart samba.

• At a minimum, you need to setup a samba workstation and workgroup/NT domain name through the smb.conf file directives:

# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name

workgroup = WORKGROUPNAME

# server string is the equivalent of the NT

# Description field

server string = My UNIX Server

• If you want Windows machines to be able to access shares on your UNIX machine, you need to enable encrypted passwords and specify an smbpasswd file name via the smb.conf:

encrypt passwords = yes

smb passwd file = /etc/smbpasswd

• You access windows shares using the format:

//COMPUTERNAME/SHARENAME

Similar to how you access shares in windows, but you replace backslashes with forward slashes.

• You need to manage a separate password file for samba users. You can add a user to the smbpassword file like this:

smbadduser username:password

• You can change a user’s samba password by using smbpasswd like this:

smbpasswd

Accessing Windows Files via smbmount

You can mount a windows share just like you mount a filesystem via NFS. However, instead of using the mount command, use the smbmount command. The format is very similar:

mount //machinename/share /local-mount-point

Remember, the mount point has to be an empty directory that already exists on your system.

For example, if you have a share called “MyHardDrive” on your windows machine called “MyWin98”, and you want to mount it to /mnt/tmp on your UNIX box, you would use:

Mount //MyWin98/MyHardDrive /mnt/tmp

And the files would be accessible via /mnt/tmp directory on your UNIX machine.

Sharing your UNIX Files with Windows Machines

You can share you UNIX files by adding various share directives in your smb.conf file. The format is like this:

[sharename]

comment = Description of the Share

path = /directory-to-share

valid users = username1 username2 username3…

writable = yes

printable = no

create mask = 0764

The following entry creates a share called “chrishome”, which shares the UNIX /home/chrisjur directory. The only users samba users allowed to use this share are chrisjur and root. Users are allowed write to this share.

[development_files]

comment = This is where our development files live

path = /home/development_files

valid users = chrisjur root

writable = yes

printable = no

create mask = 0765

Sharing your Windows Printers with UNIX Machines

The easiest way to setup Windows printers in Linux is to use the printtool in X windows. The setup is graphical very straightforward. You need to make sure that your printer is either a postscript printer or that samba includes drives for your printer (valid printers are shown in the printer list box in printtool).