Install and Configure Samba
A Samba file server enables file sharing across different operating systems over a network. It lets you access your desktop files from a laptop and share files with Windows and macOS users.
This guide covers the installation and configuration of Samba on Ubuntu.
What you’ll learn
What you’ll need
If you have everything ready, let’s dive straight into the installation process on the next step!
Originally authored by Aden Padilla.
2. Installing Samba
sudo apt update sudo apt install samba We can check if the installation was successful by running:
The following should be its output:
samba: /usr/sbin/samba /usr/lib/samba /etc/samba /usr/share/samba /usr/share/man/man7/samba.7.gz /usr/share/man/man8/samba.8.gz 3. Setting up Samba
Now that Samba is installed, we need to create a directory for it to share:
The command above creates a new folder sambashare in our home directory which we will share later.
The configuration file for Samba is located at /etc/samba/smb.conf . To add the new directory as a share, we edit the file by running:
sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf At the bottom of the file, add the following lines:
[sambashare] comment = Samba on Ubuntu path = /home/username/sambashare read only = no browsable = yes Then press Ctrl-O to save and Ctrl-X to exit from the nano text editor.
What we’ve just added
Now that we have our new share configured, save it and restart Samba for it to take effect:
sudo service smbd restart Update the firewall rules to allow Samba traffic:
4. Setting up User Accounts and Connecting to Share
Since Samba doesn’t use the system account password, we need to set up a Samba password for our user account:
sudo smbpasswd -a username Note
Username used must belong to a system account, else it won’t save.
Connecting to Share
On Ubuntu: Open up the default file manager and click Connect to Server then enter:
On macOS: In the Finder menu, click Go > Connect to Server then enter:
On Windows, open up File Manager and edit the file path to:
Note: ip-address is the Samba server IP address and sambashare is the name of the share.
You’ll be prompted for your credentials. Enter them to connect!