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Install and Configure Samba share in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail , 12.10, 12.04| Howto

Written by Mel Kham on March 11, 2012. Posted in Linux tutorials, Ubuntu

Updated 05-04-2013: One of the most asked features for Samba is a graphical user interface to help with configuration and management, there are several GUI interfaces to Samba available, for me the most simple and powerful one of these tools is samba server configuration tool. In this post, i will show you how to install and configure samba in Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04 Raring Ringtail, this work also for previous releases of Ubuntu.

Check also our previous post on installation and configuration of samba via command line.

Installing Samba on Ubuntu:

1- Install Samba files

First thing we need to do is to install samba, go to Software center in Ubuntu and search for samba then install the package. If you want to install it via terminal then copy this command :

sudo apt-get  install  samba samba-common

2- Install some dependencies for Configuration tools (don`t forget to install python-glade2)

sudo apt-get install python-glade2

3- Installing Samba Server configuration Tool :

Now install the graphical interface System-config samba

sudo apt-get install system-config-samba

4- Add a Linux/Unix user:

adduser   pirat9

5- Make a Linux/Unix password for user pirat9

passwd pirat9

6- Now open samba configuration tool.

7- Add the folder you want to share and setup the permissions access.

- Setup the permissions access

8- Now before to connect to the share, you have to create the samba user :

sudo smbpasswd -a  pirat9
New SMB password
retype New SMB Password

Now the configuration is done.

Tip: You can chose any directory you want to share by right click on the folder directory and open the share options

And activate share:

9- Now, let`s test if samba share is working from another Linux Machine, in my case will try to connect from LinuxMint12 machine to Ubuntu 12.04 machine where we just installed samba, from menu open connect to server and type the details of your Ubuntu machine

12- Connect from windows (XP/Vista/7)

Enjoy

For questions please refer to our Q/A forum at : http://ask.unixmen.com

Precise Pangolin

quantal quetzal

Mel Kham

Founder of Unixmen, Living in Amsterdam. Am working in my free time to help people to understand the Opensource and to explain them in easy way how to make the fist steps to the the light. Working day and night with my Co-founder Zinovsky to keep this website live even with less resources.

http://twitter.com/Hanynowsky Hanynowsky

Nice article about an easy way to Samba Share.

Please could you tell us what is the widget in your desktop on the screenshot after : ACTIVATE SHARE.
- zinovsky
  
  The widget is conky, to install it, see my previous post:
  http://www.unixmen.com/next-generation-another-nice-conky-theme-from-conky-lua-author/
Carus

Thanks a lot! Now my win 7 box Can finally access my Linux machine.
http://www.facebook.com/josemanuel.ali Jose Manuel Ali

Thanks!
jaa546

Worked perfectly on the final 12.04 release released 04-26-2012 too using these steps. Be aware though that Samba4 doesn’t work and will probably require a wipe and re-install to get the above steps to work.
http://malsasa.tk/ Ade Malsasa Akbar

Hello, what is the screenlets you used in the screenshot? I am searching for them. I wanna them. How can I get them?
- Zinovsky
  
  Is conky, installation is in this post: http://www.unixmen.com/configure-conky-lua-in-ubuntu-11-10-12-04-fedora-debian-and-linuxmint-howto-conky/
Dreamer

I want to be able to share removable media. Say I insert a portable USB hard drive. It ends up in some device media location, and I can’t modify permissions there. I also tried to make a link from a shared location, but still can’t see through that either
- droidtomtom
  
  I have had the same problem for two years now and at-least 200hrs of tinkering. Sometimes they would share then randomly break. Sometimes I could never get write permission no matter how low of system level changes I made. Finally I was able to figure out a work-a-round. It must be mounted as a child of your home folder in-order to have read write privileges. Creating/mapping individual separate shares in Samba for external drives causes erratic unpredictable behavior. Our example: Share an external 1TB USB drive containing Videos. 1. Setup your Home folder as a share in Samba. 2. Go to your Home folder and Right click on the ‘Video’ folder and select share following the above directions from the article. 3 Connect the external USB drive. It should auto-mount 4. Go to settings and open the utility ‘Disks’. Select the 1TB USB drive in the left pane list and click the gears or ‘More Options’ button. (the bottom one not the upper one) 5. Now select ‘Edit Mount options’ from the ‘More Options’ drop-down-menu. 6. Turn off the automatic mount options slider. (if you don’t it will ignore all your changes) 7. Check mark both ‘Mount at startup’ and ‘Show in user Interface’. 8. Change ‘Mount Point’ to either ‘ /home/username/Videos ‘ or ‘/home/username/Videos/drivename’ (depending on whether you want your drive contents in the Video folder or contained in a separate sub-folder) 9. You can also add names to the Display Name and Icon Name fields. 10. Click OK. 11. Now select the square icon labeled ‘Unmount the file system’ and then remount the file system to apply the changes. It should not be this hard as Samba entries should be created and setup automatically by Ubuntu just by right clicking on the folder you want to share.
Someemail

I’ll try it
CanuckSailor

Step 6 “Now open samba configuration tool” — I have taken “Dash” out and use a classic Gnome desktop. Samba is installed and working (just edited .conf via cli), but what is the menu item command line for the gui interface? I would like to add it to the “system/admin/” menu. Thanks
- Darr247
  
  That would be system-config-samba (installed in Step 3).
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=820900 Sean Nation

The “sharing options” context menu doesn’t appear for me. I just upgraded to the 12.04 LTS. I had samba set up and working, including this context menu before, but the upgrade broke it. Any why it might not have come back after following your directions?
Travis Mast

I try to open samba it asked for my password and after that nothing happens
Please help Me
Linux Ehsan

Dear Concern,

what will be command for step 6. I am very new to linux . Would you please help ????

Thanking you,
Ehsan
Helping teh n00bs

Pro tip it’s eaasier to create a user for teh n00bs in teh graphical side of Samba. You should probably have shown that on step 8. Preferences tab –> Samba users –> Add User button
Helping teh n00bs

Pro tip it’s eaasier to create a user for teh n00bs in teh graphical side of Samba. You should probably have shown that on step 8. Preferences tab –> Samba users –> Add User button
Abdo Macosx

thank you for this great topic. my Windows OS and linux became friends now
TECH9

Great direct information here A++++++ !!!!
http://www.facebook.com/ekombohkuiluvyu Eko Mboh Kui

yo suon athen numpang caliak sajo.
Tyler

Dunno if anyone runs there ubuntu server without the GUI, if so I made a guide for command line. works fine with 12.04 if anyone needs it.

http://ubuntuserverhelp.com/basic-samba-configuration/
John Spence

Of all the misleading articles on Samba, this is the only one that makes it clear. Installation works and Samba works. Thanks.
thank you Great information

thank you Great information
Bjorn Johnsen

I installed UBUNTU 12.10, and there were no problems.

Tried then to install the graphical interface system-config samba, and went well with no problems. But then I tried to open this program. Was asked to enter my user password. I did this but nothing happened. Tried to uninstall and then install again. Nothing helped.

Many boast Ubuntu online, but for first time users, this operating system is very poor. When you experience problems on your first attempt to install and start a program, this is very bad.

But if this problem can be resolved, I might be more positive.

Can anyone help?
- droidtomtom
  
  You can install this also from the Ubuntu Software Center. Also you may have another samba graphical interface like ‘Gadmin-Samba’ installed that causes problems. Search for samba in the Ubuntu Software Center. If you are still having problems Click the ‘Show technical items’ at the bottom and uninstall everything that is installed related to samba. Then only reinstall the SMB/CIFS and Samba. All the dependencies will automatically be installed as needed. I had to do this to get rid of conflicts and crashes because the command line prompted me to install Samba4.0 which created conflicts with Samba3.6. Everything worked fine after that.
gabrielld60

I think that creating samba user accounts (sudo smpasswd -a user) comes BEFORE creating shares. Otherwise user list in Access tab is empty
http://www.facebook.com/juanantonio.romero.9 Juan Antonio Romero

como lo desinstalo todo
elvio.mariani

great!!! no problem following your explanation! thx
http://twitter.com/wolfx0 Fabricio Pedro

thank’s for excelent job, good tutorial
SilentLennie

Maybe you could post screenshots and commandline next to each other. Or link to an article how to do the commandline stuff with a GUI (like install packages, which seems the most common commandline entry on your site).

I’m a cli user myself, but not everyone is like that.

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