Install Samba And Share Folders Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat”

Here is a guide to install samba and share folders on Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat”. In this guide i will show you how to install Samba and how to make a shared folder. This folder will be accessable from a computer running on windows or Ubuntu.

First you need to install Samba, to do this open a Terminal window (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and copy+paste the following line:

sudo apt-get install samba samba-common

Press y followed by Enter to install

Now install the Samba server configuration tool, copy+paste the following line:

sudo apt-get install system-config-samba

Press y followed by Enter to install, when finished installing you can close your Terminal window.

Now go to your Home Folder (Places-> Home Folder)

Click with your right mouse button and select Create Folder, name your folder (Shared-10.10) and press enter

When done close your Home folder.

Now start the Samba Server Configuration (System -> Administration -> Samba)

Fill in your password and click on the OK button

Click on the + button to add a shared folder

Click on the Browse button

Select the folder you want to share and click on the OK button

Enter a description for your shared folder. Mark the check boxes if you want the folder to be writable or visible

Click on the Acces tab and change the acces setting to your likings, i want mine to be visible and accesable for everyone. But you can also allow acces to specific users. when finished click on the OK button

Now the shared folder is added to you Samba Server Configuration

Now go to your Shared folder (Places -> Home Folder -> Shared-10.10)

select the folder and click on it with your right mouse button and select Sharing Options

Add a comment and change the permissions for others to create and delete files and for the guest acces rules. When done click on the Create Share button

Click on Add the permissions automatically

After this step you are finished and your Shared-10.10 folder will be visible and accessable from another computer in your network (windows and Ubuntu). To acces the folder when using Ubuntu follow the next steps

Go to Places and select Network

Now the select the computer where the shared folder is located on (TINUZ-DESKTOP in my case)

Click on the shared folder (Shared-10.10)

Welcome to your shared folder 🙂

To acces the shared folder on a computer running on windows (Win7 and Vista) follow the next step:

Click on Start and type: \\YOURCOMPUTERNAME (in my case TINUZ-DESKTOP)

make sure that when typing your computer name you have CapsLock on because the name has to be written with capitols. If you don’t know your computer name go to System -> Administration -> System Monitor and select the System tab.

Note: if you have problems with opening the files you placed in your shared folder from another location… here’s how you fix it!

Open a Terminal window and copy+paste the following line:

sudo chmod o+w YOURSHAREDFOLDER/filename

replace YOURSHAREDFOLDER for the location of our shared folder and replace filename for the file you need to take the permissions from

Another way to fix this is to replace some lines in your smb.conf.

Open a Terminal window and copy+paste the following line:

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

Now your Samba config file is opened, scroll down to the part that begins with: [yoursharedfolder] (in my case [Shared-10.10])

Now copy the text below (change the [YourShared-FolderName], comment, path, user and group name to the ones you use) and replace it for the text in your smb.conf file

[YourShared-FolderName]
comment = your comment here
path = your/shared/folder
force user = yourusername
force group = yourgroupname
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
guest ok = yes

In the screenshot below you see how my smb.conf file looks after the changes

Now save and close the smb.conf file. Now all the files will have the right permissions/ownership to be opened or changed.