Samba Quick Setup public read-write shares

Linux, Samba and NTFS

Documenting how to handle NTFS formatted devices shared using Samba

Mounting NTFS formatted devices

On a designated server - open a terminal and switch to root context

su -l root

Create the following folders

mkdir -p /srv/samba/ntfs /srv/samba/public

Using the long listing format - list the content of /srv/samba - pay attention to the folder permissions

# ls -l /srv/samba
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb  4 07:14 ntfs
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb  5 07:55 public

Create a mount unit - mounting your ntfs formatted device in /srv/samba/ntfs (this is a documenthere so simply copy and paste into the terminal and press enter - use the nice copy button to right of the textbox)

You must modify the first line to use the correct path for your device

MYDEVICE_UUID=$(lsblk -no uuid /dev/sda1)
cat << EOF > /etc/systemd/system/srv-samba-ntfs.mount 
[Unit]
Description=Old Win Device

[Mount]
What=/dev/disk/by-uuid/$MYDEVICE_UUID
Where=/srv/samba/ntfs
Type=ntfs
Options=defaults,rw,noatime

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Start and enable the unit

systemctl enable --now srv-samba-ntfs.mount

Once again - using the long listing format - list the content of /srv/samba - pay attention to the ntfs folder permissions

# ls -l /srv/samba
total 8
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Feb  4 08:18 ntfs
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb  5 07:55 public

What we learned from this little exercise it that ntfs - just like vfat, exfat, fat32 et al. is a permissionless filesystem and when mounted any and all users on the system may write to the device with no regard whatsoever to the ownership and permissison on the mountpoint.

Samba and NTFS

On the designated server - install samba and avahi packages

pacman -Syu samba avahi --needed

Create the samba configuration file as follows (this is a documenthere so simply copy and paste into the terminal and press enter - use the nice copy button to right of the textbox).

cat << EOF > /etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
   workgroup = MANJARO
   server string = Manjaro Samba Service
   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_02

   obey pam restrictions = yes
   unix password sync = yes
   passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
   passwd chat = *New*UNIX*password* %n\n *ReType*new*UNIX*password* %n\n *passwd:*all*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*
   pam password change = yes

[public]
   path = /srv/samba/public
   public = yes
   writable = yes
   printable = no

[ntfs]
   path = /srv/samba/ntfs
   public = yes
   writable = yes
   printable = no

EOF

Then enable and start the services

systemctl enable --now smb avahi-daemon

Client access to Samba server

On your client install the packages smbclient and avahi

sudo pacman -Syu smbclient avahi --needed

Start the avahi service

sudo systemctl enable --now avahi-daemon

Open your file manager -> Open the path navigator using Ctrl+L and input the address of your samba service.

smb://ip.x.y.z

Open the ntfs folder and create a new document

Accessing Samba share from Windows

That's all folks

You didn't think it could be that simple did you?