Samba linux to windows share

Share files between Linux and Windows computers

If you work with different operating systems, it’s handy to be able to share files between them. This article explains how to set up file access between Linux (Fedora 33) and Windows 10 using Samba and mount.cifs.

Samba is the Linux implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocol, allowing direct access to shared folders and printers over a network. Mount.cifs is part of the Samba suite and allows you to mount the CIFS filesystem under Linux.

Caution: These instructions are for sharing files within your private local network or in a virtualized host-only network between a Linux host machine and a virtualized Windows guest. Don’t consider this article a guideline for your corporate network, as it doesn’t implement the necessary cybersecurity considerations.

Access Linux from Windows

This section explains how to access a user’s Linux home directory from Windows File Explorer.

1. Install and configure Samba

Start on your Linux system by installing Samba:

Samba is a system daemon, and its configuration file is located in /etc/samba/smb.conf . Its default configuration should work. If not, this minimal configuration should do the job:

[global] workgroup = SAMBA server string = %h server (Samba %v) invalid users = root security = user [homes] comment = Home Directories browseable = no valid users = %S writable = yes

You can find a detailed description of the parameters in the smb.conf section of the project’s website.

2. Modify LinuxSE

If your Linux distribution is protected by SELinux (as Fedora is), you have to enable Samba to be able to access the user’s home directory:

setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs on

Check that the value is set by typing:

getsebool samba_enable_home_dirs

Your output should look like this:

3. Enable your user

Samba uses a set of users and passwords that have permission to connect. Add your Linux user to the set by typing:

You will be prompted for a password. This is a completely new password; it is not the current password for your account. Enter the password you want to use to log in to Samba.

To get a list of allowed user types:

4. Start Samba

Because Samba is a system daemon, you can start it on Fedora with:

This starts Samba for the current session. If you want Samba to start automatically on system startup, enter:

On some systems, the Samba daemon is registered as smbd .

4. Configure the firewall

By default, Samba is blocked by your firewall. Allow Samba to access the network permanently by configuring the firewall.

You can do it on the command line with:

firewall-cmd --add-service=samba --permanent

Or you do it graphically with the firewall-config tool:

5. Access Samba from Windows

In Windows, open File Explorer. On the address line, type in two backslashes followed by your Linux machine’s address (IP address or hostname):

You will be prompted for your login information. Type in the username and password combination from step 3. You should now be able to access your home directory on your Linux machine:

Access Windows from Linux

The following steps explain how to access a shared Windows folder from Linux. To implement them, you need Administrator rights on your Windows user account.

1. Enable file sharing

Open the Network and Sharing Center either by clicking on the

Windows Button > Settings > Network & Internet

or by right-clicking the little monitor icon on the bottom-right of your taskbar:

In the window that opens, find the connection you want to use and note its profile. I used Ethernet 3, which is tagged as a Public network.

Caution: Consider changing your local machine’s connection profile to Private if your PC is frequently connected to public networks.

Remember your network profile and click on Change advanced sharing settings:

Select the profile that corresponds to your connection and turn on network discovery and file and printer sharing:

2. Define a shared folder

Open the context menu by right-clicking on the folder you want to share, navigate to Give access to, and select Specific people. :

Check whether your current username is on the list. Click on Share to tag this folder as shared:

You can display a list of all shared folders by entering \\localhost in File Explorer’s address line:

3. Mount the shared folder under Linux

Go back to your Linux system, open a command shell, and create a new folder where you want to mount the Windows share:

Mounting Windows shares is done with mount.cifs, which should be installed by default. To mount your shared folder temporarily, use:

sudo mount.cifs ///MySharedFolder ~/WindowsShare/ -o user=,uid=$UID

• is the Windows PC’s address info (IP or hostname)
• is the user that is allowed to access the shared folder (from step 2)

You will be prompted for your Windows password. Enter it, and you will be able to access the shared folder on Windows with your normal Linux user.

To unmount the shared folder:

You can also mount a Windows shared folder on system startup. Follow these steps to configure your system accordingly.

Summary

This shows how to establish temporary shared folder access that must be renewed after each boot. It is relatively easy to modify this configuration for permanent access. I often switch back and forth between different systems, so I consider it incredibly practical to set up direct file access.

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Samba linux to windows share

DOCUMENTATION Going further

The Samba server is extremely configurable and versatile, and can address a great many different use cases matching very different requirements and network architectures. This book only focuses on the use case where Samba is used as a standalone server, but it can also be an NT4 Domain Controller or a full Active Directory Domain Controller, or a simple member of an existing domain (which could be managed by a Windows server).

The samba package contains all the necessary manual pages and in /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/ a wealth of commented example files. If you are looking for a more comprehensive documentation, you may check the Samba website.

TOOL Authenticating with a Windows Server

Winbind gives system administrators the option of using a Windows server as an authentication server. Winbind also integrates cleanly with PAM and NSS. This allows setting up Linux machines where all users of a Windows domain automatically get an account.

More information can be found in the /usr/share/doc/libpam-winbind/examples/pam_winbind/ directory of the libpam-winbind package.

11.5.1.1. Configuring with debconf

The package sets up a minimal configuration during the initial installation in /etc/samba/smb.conf by plainly copying /usr/share/samba/smb.conf . So you should really run dpkg-reconfigure samba-common to adapt it:

On first installation the only piece of required information is the name of the workgroup where the Samba server will belong (the answer is FALCOTNET in our case).

In case of a package update (from the old stable Debian version) or if the SMB server has already been configured to use a WINS server ( wins server ), the package also proposes identifying the WINS server from the information provided by the DHCP daemon. The Falcot Corp administrators rejected this option, since they intend to use the Samba server itself as the WINS server.

11.5.1.2. Configuring Manually

11.5.1.2.1. Changes to smb.conf

The requirements at Falcot require other options to be modified in the /etc/samba/smb.conf configuration file. The following excerpts summarize the changes that were effected in the [global] section.

[. ] [global] ## Browsing/Identification ### # Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of workgroup = FALCOTNET [. ] # Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section: # WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server wins support = yes  [. ] ####### Authentication ####### # Server role. Defines in which mode Samba will operate. Possible # values are "standalone server", "member server", "classic primary # domain controller", "classic backup domain controller", "active # directory domain controller". # # Most people will want "standalone server" or "member server". # Running as "active directory domain controller" will require first # running "samba-tool domain provision" to wipe databases and create a # new domain. server role = standalone server obey pam restrictions = yes [. ] # "security = user" is always a good idea. This will require a Unix account # in this server for every user accessing the server. security = user  [. ]

Indicates that Samba should act as a Netbios name server (WINS) for the local network. This option had been removed from the default configuration in Buster and must be added manually if desired.

This is the default value for this parameter; however, since it is central to the Samba configuration, filling it explicitly is recommended. Each user must authenticate before accessing any share.

11.5.1.2.2. Adding Users

Each Samba user needs an account on the server; the Unix accounts must be created first, then the user needs to be registered in Samba’s database. The Unix step is done quite normally (using adduser for instance).

Adding an existing user to the Samba database is a matter of running the smbpasswd -a user command; this command asks for the password interactively.

A user can be deleted with the smbpasswd -x user command. A Samba account can also be temporarily disabled (with smbpasswd -d user ) and re-enabled later (with smbpasswd -e user ).

11.5.2. Samba Client

The client features in Samba allow a Linux machine to access Windows shares and shared printers. The required programs are available in the cifs-utils and smbclient packages.

11.5.2.1. The smbclient Program

The smbclient program queries SMB servers. It accepts a -U user option, for connecting to the server under a specific identity. smbclient //server/share accesses the share in an interactive way similar to the command-line FTP client. smbclient -L server lists all available (and visible) shares on a server.

11.5.2.2. Mounting Windows Shares

The mount command allows mounting a Windows share into the Linux filesystem hierarchy (with the help of mount.cifs provided by cifs-utils ).

Пример 11.21. Mounting a Windows share

mount -t cifs //arrakis/shared /shared \ -o credentials=/etc/smb-credentials

username = user password = password

Other options can be specified on the command-line; their full list is available in the mount.cifs (1) manual page. Two options in particular can be interesting: uid and gid allow forcing the owner and group of files available on the mount, so as not to restrict access to root.

//server/shared /shared cifs credentials=/etc/smb-credentials

11.5.2.3. Printing on a Shared Printer

CUPS is an elegant solution for printing from a Linux workstation to a printer shared by a Windows machine. When the smbclient is installed, CUPS allows installing Windows shared printers automatically.

Enter the name that will uniquely identify this printer. Then enter the description and location of the printer. Those are the strings that will be shown to end users to help them identify the printers.

Indicate the manufacturer/model of the printer, or directly provide a working printer description file (PPD).

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