Sunday, September 12, 2010
Anu
So you broke down and finally set up a Linux machine on your network.And this time it’s not a server! You’re running one of the more recentdistributions (let’s say either Ubuntu 10.04 or Fedora 13) with theGNOME desktop. Here’s the thing: you need to allow other users, thoseusing Microsoft Windows-based machines, to have access to specific directories on that Linux box. How do you do it?
Believe it or not — it’s very simple, and you won’t have to edit asingle line of a Samba configuration file in order to get it working.This simplified process may come as a surprise to anyone who has triedto share a Linux directory on a Windows network in the past. Instead of having to weed through the smb.conf file as before, everything is done from within the GUI.
In this tutorial, I walk you through the process of setting up a shareddirectory on your Linux desktop so that all the machines on yournetwork can access it.
You might be surprised to find out that once you have the desktopoperating system installed, you have everything you need to begin thisprocess. During the process, there may be (depending on your currentinstallation) a dependency to be installed, but this will happenautomatically when you start the set-up process. Outside of that, youwill need the other machines connected to the same network. Thosemachines can be a part of either a domain or a workgroup — it reallydoesn’t matter.
Step 1
The first step (after you have decided what directory you areplanning to share) is to open the Nautilus file manager, right-click onthe directory to be shared, and select the Sharing Options entry. Whenyou do this, a new window will open where you will enable the sharing of said folder.
The first step is to check the Share This Folder checkbox.
If your system does not have all the requisite software, you will be walked through this process.Step 2
If necessary, you will need to install the service (Samba) in charge of sharing your folders. This snapshot shows the window that will warn you that not all dependencies are met.
Once you click Install Service, you will have to enter anadministrative password. If you are using an Ubuntu-like distribution(that uses sudo), just enter your user password.
Step 3
Once the service is installed, you will be taken back to theproperties window where you can give the share a name and a descriptionas well as select the options for the share. If you want to giveread/write access for this folder, make sure the first option ischecked. If you want guest access (access for those without an accounton the machine sharing the folder), make sure the second option ischecked.After you are satisfied with the configuration, click the Create Share button.
Step 4
If you have enabled a feature requiring permission changes, you willneed to let the Wizard automatically change the permissions for theshare. this snapshot shows the warning you will get for this step.
If you do not allow the wizard to set these permissions, you willhave to go back and manually set them. Make sure you do not skip thisstep.
Step 5
Once the service is installed, you have to restart Nautilus. Fortunately the Wizard will do this for you. As you can see in this Last snapshot,the restarting of Nautilus is merely the click of a button. If bychance the window with the restart button does not appear, you canrestart Nautilus by either issuing the command killall -9 nautilus or just logging out and logging back in.
The restarting of Nautilus will be necessary only after the firstshare is set up. After that, Nautilus will not have to be restarted.
Step 6
You are now ready to test your shared directory. This is very simple. Go to one of your Windows machines and follow these steps:1. Open up Explorer.
2. Enter \\IP_ADDRESS_TO_SHARE.
3. Depending on how you have this set up, you might have to enter a username and password.
If there were no problems, you will now have access to your Linux
shares from your Windows machine.
If you are attempting to reach that same Linux share from an OSX machine, do the following:
1. Open Finder.
2. Click .
3. Enter smb://IP_ADDRESS_TO_SHARE.
4. In the new window, enter the username/password (if necessary) for the share.
That’s it! You now have access to your Linux share from your OSX machine.
At one point it was a real challenge to get Windows machines to seeshared files and directories on a Linux machine. Manually editing thesmb.conf file required a much higher level of knowledge than what isrequired now. Thanks to the latest releases of major players in theLinux desktop and distribution landscape everything has become far moreuser friendly.
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