So you have Samba installed, are impatient, and just want to share files. This page is here to give you some basic information to get going. However, I strongly suggest that you go out and buy the book written by the original Samba developers. Something with Andrew Tridgell's name on it. 50 dollars is a small price to pay for knowing what your doing.

Before you start your samba services, you will need to setup your smb.conf file. There is typically going to be a example file there for you. However, if you haven't reasearched the software, you probably have no idea what the file is explaining. Anyway, below I will show a example of what you need at the very least in your file. Keep in mind that there is no security setup at all. Configuration files are located in the /etc directory . In the case of Samba /etc/samba .

[global]

workgroup = mshome

netbios name = name

security = share

[data]

comment = Data

path = /usr/data

force user = user

force group = users

read only = no

guest ok = Yes

You can not simply copy and paste this text. Force user should equal the username you are sharing in windows and on your linux machines for file sharing. Path needs to equal the path to a folder that you setup with at least the user in question having read, write and execute abilities. Netbios name has to equal the host name of your linux machine. Workgroup can never be equal to workgroup. However, it has to be the same as the workgroup name of your windows machines. Save the file in /etc/samba/smb.conf .

You should be set to go. To start your samba server simply type smbd and nmbd at a command line. However, depending on your distribution you will need to add samba to your default run level. For example rc-update add samba default in Gentoo .