Samba is the standard Windows interoperability suite of programs for Linux and Unix.
This document from my notepad[0] is intended as a help to setup simple client connection to home NAS and simple file sharing from your Manjaro desktop to other computers in your home network. If you are looking for domain specific setup and integration to Microsoft AD you must refer to the official samba documentation[1].
If you only occasionally need to serve files - you can do so using the default Python installation.
Copy the files to you want to share to ~/Public then open a terminal in the folder and run two commands.
The first displays your IP address [utility script 2]
~/Public $ check-network
192.168.30.20
The second run the http service exposing the content of your ~/Public
folder
~/Public $ python -m http.server 8080
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8080 (http://0.0.0.0:8080/) ...
Then share the IP and port. The person(s) can fetch the file(s) using their browser and navigating to - the slash at the end is important (otherwise the browser runs a search using the configured searchengine)
http://$IPADDRESS:8080/
When you are finished sharing, close the terminal or press Ctrlc to stop sharing.
For simple client connection to shares provided by a NAS or maybe your router only a few packages are needed. The package smbclient
provides the tools necessary for accessing samba fileshares.
There is several packages which builds upon the client and makes it easier to connect and automount a share from a file manager. Packages such as gvfs-smb
and smb4k
extends the file manager with seamless mount of Samba shares.
Ensure the packages are up-to-date by running below command in a terminal
sudo pacman -Syu smbclient gvfs gvfs-smb --needed
Before attempting a connection either reboot your system or manually load the kernel module
sudo modprobe cifs
Also a configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf
must be present. The client doesn't require any content - just the presence and can thus be created by the touch
utility.
sudo mkdir /etc/samba
sudo touch /etc/samba/smb.conf
Open your file manager and enter the server name or IP address in location bar.
If the location bar is not visible it is often activated using the hot key-combo CtrlL. Input the server name and share using the protocol format
smb://server-name/share
When you are challenged for credentials input those to access the content. Do not save your credentials just yet. Later on you will return here to store the credentials in your keyring.
This method is using gvfs which creates the mountpoint in the /run tree and therefore the mount will not persist across reboot.
You can inspect the file structure by opening the folder matching the uid for your user. If you have a mounted share you can run ls
on the gvfs folder - it will yield an output similar to below example
$ ls /run/user/$UID/gvfs
'smb-share:server=nas.net.nix.dk,share=data'
When mounting one or more network shares on boot one need to take into account when the network is up and connected - otherwise the system will hang for 90s for each share.
This can be done using fstab or using systemd units [ systemd unit ] [ sample units ].
As demonstrated, a file manager can utilize gvfs to create a user mounted samba share, and this can use be used to create some automation.
As shown the gio mountpoint takes the following form where $UID
, $HOST
and $SHARE
represents the variable factors
/run/user/$UID/gvfs/'smb-share:server=$HOST,share=$SHARE'
First we will create the a mount script using the gio smb mount script to mount the share. Use the template provided in the topic to create your own script. When you have the script in place and working come back here.
The script asks for username, workgroup and password when you run it in the terminal and that is fine for the occasional mount but you will likely want to automount the share when you log into your system.
You can run the script when you login in a number of ways
~/.config/autorun
spiral_notepad: To be able to automount the share the following conditions must be met:
As the success of the service depends on your stored credentials - now is a good time to save your smb credentials in your keyring.
Create the folder ~/.config/systemd/user
and create a service file named e.g. gio-smb-share-name.service
- use the same name as the script you are calling - thus making the dependency obvious and simplify future maintenance.
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
touch ~/.config/systemd/user/gio-smb-share-name.service
Open the file in your favorite editor and paste below content.
[Unit]
Description=GIO mount smb share-name
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/home/%u/.local/bin/gio-smb-share-name.sh
ExecStop=/home/%u/.local/bin/gio-smb-share-name.sh umount
RemainAfterExit=true
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Watch your SMBLinks folder and start the service
systemctl --user start gio-smb-share-name.service
Note the symlink is created. Stop the service to watch the symlink disappear
systemctl --user stop gio-smb-share-name.service
When everything works - start and enable the user service
systemctl --user enable --now gio-smb-share-name.service
:warning:
Install the samba package and ensure your system is fully updated in the process.
sudo pacman -Syu samba
Create the configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf - the folder may need to be created beforehand.
sudo mkdir -p /etc/samba
sudo touch /etc/samba/smb.conf
Edit the file - using superuser privilige - insert below contant and save the file (need superuser). If you are connecting an existing network of servers change the WORKGROUP to match the existing network.
[global]
workgroup = MANJARO
server string = Manjaro Samba Server
server role = standalone server
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 50
guest account = nobody
map to guest = Bad Password
min protocol = SMB2
max protocol = SMB3
[public]
path = /srv/samba
public = yes
writable = yes
printable = no
sudo testparm /etc/samba/smb.conf
Create the shared folder
sudo mkdir -p /srv/samba
Set permissions to any and all
sudo chmod ugo+rwx /srv/samba -R
sudo systemctl enable --now smb nmb
Samba client requires the file /etc/samba/smb.conf
even if it is empty.
sudo mkdir /etc/samba
sudo touch /etc/samba/smb.conf
If you find browsing the network from your filemanager is causing permission issues it may be helpful to add the following content - replace the WORKGROUP if necessary
[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
Upstream Samba disabled SMB1 due to a vulnerability exploited by a widespread ransomware. Yet many ISP provided routers has not been upgraded and you may have difficulties connecting the router's samba service using a default samba client.
To gain access to such share you need to add a samba configuration which sole purpose is to enable the deprecated samba version. Add the following line in the [global] section of the configuration file
[global]
client min protocol = NT1