Setting up a simple Samba Share

This example is for a basic shared drive that can be accessed from windows without a username / password.
Just to move files back and forth in an easy fashion.

A more detailed setup can be gleaned from reading the gentoo wiki guides.

• https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Samba/Guide
• https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Samba

Installing

First lets make sure the packages we need are installed

emerge net-fs/samba
emerge cifs-utils

Configuring samba

Next setup a new configuration

cp /etc/samba/smb.conf.default /etc/samba/smb.conf

Setup a new directory for general sharing (the below is just an example)

mkdir /mnt/vol2/share
chown -R demouser /mnt/vol2/share
chgrp -R demouser /mnt/vol2/share

Add a password for demouser:

smbpasswd -a demouser

Next lets change some settings

# Default workgroup used by most windows installs
workgroup = WORKGROUP
# Our server identity
server string = pi64 server
netbios name = PI64
# Lets add all interfaces
interfaces = wlan0 lo eth0
# Lets add in our local subnet (this will vary based on your internal network in use)
# The 127. is for local loopback on 127.0.0.1
hosts allow = 192.168.1. 127.
# Deny everything else
hosts deny = 0.0.0.0/0

# Misc
wins support = Yes
passdb backend = smbpasswd

# This compares the user trying to access the share to the samba database
# if no match is found then map to the guest user account, this allows for shares with no logons
security = user
map to guest = Bad User

# Setup a directory anyone can read / write from
# but writes will appear to originate from the demouser account
[share]
   path = /mnt/vol2/share
   public = yes
   only guest = yes
   writable = yes
   printable = no
   force user = demouser

Starting the service

# To start the service up
/etc/init.d/samba start

# To add samba to the default run level
rc-update add samba default

You may also want to start and enable the avahi daemons (optional) as samba now ships with the zeroconf USE flag set:

rc-service avahi-daemon start
rc-service avahi-dnsconfd start
rc-update add avahi-daemon default
rc-update add avahi-dnsconfd default

Accessing the share from windows

In order to access the share from windows try typing in the following into windows explorer

\\<server-name>\
\\<server-name>\share

Accessing the share from linux

Lets say we want to mount from within linux (a different linux box)

mkdir -p /mnt/test
mount.cifs //<server-name>/share /mnt/test -o guest

If we want to add to fstab to mount on bootup

//<server-name>/share /mnt/test cifs guest

Allowing users to share directories directly from thunar

In addition to sharing directories explicitly via /etc/samba/smb.conf, you can also use a provided plugin to allow sharing by users directly from the standard thunar file browser.

To install the tool:

pi64 ~ # emerge thunar-shares-plugin

An administrative directory is required; create this now with the appropriate permissions:

pi64 ~ # mkdir -pv /var/lib/samba/usershares
pi64 ~ # chown root:adm /var/lib/samba/usershares
pi64 ~ # chmod 1770 /var/lib/samba/usershares

Add the following (adapt as appropriate) to the [global] section of /etc/samba/smb.conf (replacing the current security = user line):

####### Authentication #######
security = user 
usershare path = /var/lib/samba/usershares
usershare max shares = 100
usershare allow guests = yes
usershare owner only = yes

Now restart samba:

pi64 ~ # rc-service samba restart

As a regular user, you should now find you can right-click on a folder, select Properties from the dropdown, and then share the folder using the Sharing tab of the properties dialog.

Enabling samba server discovery via wsdd

As the SMB1 protocol is now deprecated (and disabled on Windows 10 by default, unless used shortly after initial bring-up) another mechanism is required to allow samba hosts (such as your RPi) to be found by modern Windows PCs. Fortunately a Web Services Discovery daemon is available for this purpose. To install it, issue:

pi64 ~ # emaint sync --repo genpi64
pi64 ~ # emerge net-misc/wsdd

Start the daemon, and have it come up automatically on boot:

pi64 ~ # rc-service wsdd start
pi64 ~ # rc-update add wsdd default

That's it! Your Pi should now be visible even to Windows 10 machines on your local network.

Side effects of SMB1 deprecation

Unfortunately, SMB1 is also used by file browsers such as thunar to allow browsing of the local Windows network. As samba / gvss has now migrated to a more modern version of the SMB protcol, nothing will now show up when you click Browse Network -> Windows Network.

It is possible to force the use of SMB1 by placing the following in the [global] section of /etc/samba/smb.conf:

client max protocol = NT1

however as this will cause all files to be transferred using the less-secure SMB1 protocol also, doing so is not recommended.

You can still connect to a Windows host in the default configuration, but you need to know its name or IP address on the local subnet; just enter smb://<address> into the thunar file browser.