Step 1: Where do I get Samba?

Samba is a great tool for letting Microsoft Windows users share hard drives and printers with Linux users. With the recent release of Samba 2.2, the Samba team has made major improvements to their server software, including support for Windows 2000 and NT 4.0 clients. In addition, Samba 2.2 now can be configured as a Windows NT Primary Domain Controller. In the coming series of tips, we're going to show you how to get started using Samba 2.2.

First, you'll need to know where to get it.

Most Linux distributions come with a version of Samba on their distribution CDs. If you can't find a copy of Samba on your distribution of Linux, download it from the Samba web site.

http://www.samba.org

Step 2: Installing Samba

You can install Samba one of two ways. Both ways depend on the type of file you download from the Samba web site. If you download a binary package for your distribution, make sure to familiarize yourself with where the various Samba files are installed. For example, if you install the Red Hat RPM for Samba 2.2, your configuration files will be installed in the /etc/samba/ directory.

If you download the Samba source files and compile it on your Linux system, Samba will install in the /usr/local/samba directory. The configuration files will be in the /usr/local/samba/conf/ and the executable files will be in the /usr/local/samba/bin directory

The all-important configuration file for Samba is named smb.conf. If you're not sure where this file is on your system, just use the find command below to find where it is. Make sure that you have superuser privileges when you run it in a terminal window.

find / -name smb.conf -print

For those of you that have locate installed on your system, the command "locate smb.conf" will also work just fine.

Step 3: Getting familiar with smb.conf

Open the smb.conf file in your favorite text editor to make configuration changes. Although there are some graphic interfaces that you can use to configure Samba, you should familiarize yourself with the configuration file smb.conf when configuring Samba for the first time.

You'll notice that there are two types of comment lines in the smb.conf file. Any line that begins with a "#" or a ";" is not recognized by the Samba server daemon. For lines that describe or define a particular setting in the configuration file, you'll see that the line begins with a "#". Lines that begin with ";" are usually valid configuration settings that aren't currently being used.

The smb.conf file is broken down into 2 sections: the Global Settings and the Share Definitions. First, we'll make some changes to the Global Settings.

Step 4: smb.conf Global Settings

At the top of the smb.conf file, you'll find the section labeled Global Settings. First, you'll want to edit these settings at the top of the Global Settings

# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name
workgroup = MYGROUP

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = Server description

The workgroup setting is for configuring the NT Domain or Windows Workgroup that your Samba server will be included in when you browse your Windows Network Neighborhood. If you're configuring Samba for your home network, the workgroup MYGROUP should work just fine.

It should be noted that if you intend to share network devices on your Linux machine from Windows, you'll need to configure your Windows machine for "Client for Microsoft Networks" in your Network Neighborhood properties. This is not the default setting for many consumer Windows systems.

The server string setting will be the description of the server when you browse it in the Windows Network Neighborhood. This can be set to anything you like, but it's useful for beginners to use this setting to identify the server. For example, setting the server string to Samba 2.2 Server will make it easy to find from Windows.

Step 5: More Global settings in smb.conf

The fastest way to configure Samba to share a Linux drive with a Windows user is to create a login on both systems with identical login names. This will become clearer when we talk about Share Definitions. For now, we need to talk a little bit about passwords.

In your text editor, skip down to the setting in your smb.conf file that reads

# You may wish to use password encryption. Please read
# ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation.
# Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents
; encrypt passwords = yes
; smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

Remove the two semi-colons from the bottom two lines if you're going to connect to Samba from Windows 98/NT/2000/ or ME. If you're connecting from Windows 95, you don't have to edit these two settings.

By default, Samba uses plain text passwords. This was fine when Windows 95 was the predominant end-user operating system for shared Windows machines because Windows 95 also used plain text passwords. Later versions of Windows use encrypted passwords. Rather than doing some nifty Windows registry editing to work around this problem, turn on Samba's encrypted passwords by uncommenting these two lines.

Once you've removed these semi-colons, you can then skip down to the Share Definitions section of your smb.conf file.

Step 6: Share Definitions

By default, your smb.conf file sets up Linux user home directories to share with Windows machine logins with the same user name. At the top of the Share Definitions section of your smb.conf file, you should see these settings

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
writable = yes

Step 7: Setting your Samba user password

If you configured Samba for encrypted passwords as we did earlier (Step 5), you'll need to add a user to your smbpasswd file. The username should match your Windows login name and password (case-sensitive). To add a user to the smbpasswd file, you'll need to use the smbpasswd command. If you installed Samba from a binary package, you can simply run the command

smbpasswd -a username

in a terminal window as the superuser root. If you installed Samba from source, run the same command in your /usr/local/samba/bin/ directory with a "./" in front of the command. you'll be prompted for a password for the user you're creating. Enter the password that you use under Windows for the username you're adding.

That's all you need to do for configuring Samba to share a drive with your Windows network computer. Of course, you'll need to run the Samba server first.

Step 8: Running the Samba server daemon

Using our quick configuration for sharing a Linux drive, all you need to do now is run the Samba server daemon on your Linux machine to enable the shared drive. Once again, your installation choice will determine where you can run the server daemon executable. Binary install users should look for the smb script created in your /etc/rc.d/init.d or /etc/init.d. Simply run the script as the superuser root with the command

./smb start

If you installed from source, you can run the server daemons smbd and nmbd from the /usr/local/samba/bin directory with the commands

./smbd -D ./nmbd -D

This starts the Samba server. So why the two commands? Well, if you really must know - read the next step.

Step 9: The server daemons smbd and nmbd

For those of you who just have to know why Samba has two server daemons, the answer is simple. Networks can be complex. Each server daemon allows the use of a different network service for sharing devices over a network. By using both server daemons, you provide services for all types of Windows machines.

The smbd server daemon provides the file and print services to SMB clients, such as Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows for Workgroups. SMB stands for "Server Message Block" and is defined as a network protocol for sharing files, printers, serial ports, and communications abstractions such as named pipes and mail slots between computers.

The nmbd server daemon allows for NetBIOS over IP name service requests over a network, like those produced by SMB/CIFS clients such as Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT and Windows 2000.

If you don't care about this stuff and just want to get your Samba share working, not to worry. We're almost there.

Step 10: Sharing a device from Windows

Once you've run the Samba server daemons on your Linux machine, you should be able to login on your networked Windows machine and see the Linux computer name in your Network Neighborhood. (Remember, you should have the same username and password on both the Linux and Windows machine.) If you do see the Linux computer name there, open Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) and open the Tools menu. Select the Map Network Drive option. This will open a dialog box for your share definition.

Choose the drive letter you want the network drive to use (E:, F:, etc.) and then type in the Path to the shared drive. This should look like this

LINUXCOMPUTERNAMEUSERNAME

The LINUXCOMPTERNAME should be the name of the Linux computer as it appears on the network and the USERNAME should be your username. It might take a moment or two, but you should then see the new drive letter in Windows Explorer with the home directory of your username on the Linux machine shared.

Step 11: Where to look when things don't work

It never fails. You follow the directions to perfection and the darn thing doesn't work. This tip is for those who've followed our directions for configuring Samba for a simple share and it didn't work.

First, if you can't map the network drive with Windows, go to your Linux machine and open a terminal window. Change users to the superuser root with the su command. Remembering how you installed Samba and change directories to the /usr/local/samba/bin/ directory (if you installed from source) or the /usr/bin/ directory. Run the program

./testparm

This program will read your smb.conf file and tell you if there are any settings configured incorrectly. If you find no errors there, check your Samba log files. On most systems, the Samba log files will be kept in the /var/log/samba/ directory. The log files will be named log.smbd and log.nmbd. Check both of them for any errors.

Last but not least, check your Linux system logs in the file /var/log/messages. You may see smbd or nmbd errors here as well.

Step 12: Using a Windows printer from Linux

Well, now that you've tested your knowledge of Samba, perhaps you're ready to take on a different problem. In the next few steps, we'll show you how to use a Windows shared printer from your Linux machine.

The first thing to do to use a Windows printer is to make sure that the printer is an actual network shared device in Windows. If it's not, you won't be able to use the printer from Linux at all.

On your Windows computer, open your Settings menu from the Start menu. Select Printers to list the printers configured on your system. When you see your printer in the window that opens, right-click the printer's icon and select Sharing from the menu. This will bring up a dialog box with two radio buttons and three data entry fields. Make sure that the Shared radio button is selected and take note of the printer name in the first data entry field. If the printer doesn't have a name, enter a name in the first field and write it down.

That's basically all the preparation you need on the Windows side. Now that you know that the Windows printer is shared, you're ready to tackle the Linux configuration to use it.

Step 13: Configuring Linux to use a Windows printer

The first step in configuring your Linux system to use a Windows shared printer is to create an entry in your /etc/printcap file. If you've never used a printer on your Linux system, this file should be empty.

There are two ways to go about adding a printer device to your Linux system. You can edit the file manually and add a printer to your configuration or you can use a program that helps you configure it. If you've never done this before, we recommend you use a utility program to help you. The syntax for the /etc/printcap file can be a little tricky if you've never seen it before. In this case, we'll use the Red Hat printtool utility. you'll need to run printtool in a terminal window with X running.

When you open the printtool utility, select the Add button to add your Windows printer. From the menu that appears, select the radio button that says "SMB/Windows 95/NT Printer" and click OK. Now you should see the Printer Entry dialog box. The first three fields in the form will be filled out for you with these settings

Names: lp
Spool Directory: /var/spool/lpd/lp
File Limit in Kb (0 = no limit): 0

You can't leave these as they are. you'll need to fill in at least three on the fields that are left. First, enter the name of the Windows machine in the Hostname of Printer Server field. If you use IP addresses on your network, you can enter the IP address of you Windows machine in the IP number of Server field. This field is optional. Only use it if you know the IP number. Enter the name of the printer as it was listed in the Share menu on the Windows machine in the Printer Name field. If the printer name was in all capital letters, be sure that you enter it here the same way.

The last thing you should do is select a printer filter.

Step 14: Selecting a Printer Filter

When we left you in our last step, we were ready to select a Printer Filter in the Red Hat printtool utility. Click the Select button next the heading Input Filter. This will open a menu that will list the available printer filters. If you're not sure what type of printer yours is, check the make and model and see if it is in the menu list. If not, select a printer filter that is similar to your printer, especially if the make is the same, but the model is not. Once you choose your filter, don't worry about the other settings you see on this menu. You can tweak these later when you know that the printer filter you've chosen works.

Once you've chosen a printer filter, click OK until you return to the printtool main menu. Close the printtool menu and take a look at your /etc/printcap file. You should see settings that look like this:

##PRINTTOOL3## SMB printerfiltername
lp:
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:
:mx#0:
:sh:
:if=/var/spool/lpd/lp/filter:
:af=/var/spool/lpd/lp/acct:
:lp=/dev/null:

The printerfiltername will correspond to the one you chose in the printtool utility. As you can see, without doing a lot of reading on how to create /etc/printcap entries manually, you'd find it difficult to get it right the first time without using printtool.

Step 15: Testing the printer

To test the shared printer from Linux, try printing any text file with the lpr command in a terminal window. Try the command

lpr /etc/printcap

to print your printcap file. The file should print, but if it doesn't, check the following:

Is your Windows machine on, the printer online and have paper?
Are the Samba server daemons running on your Linux machine?
Run the Samba utility testprns to make sure all entries in your /etc/printcap file are correct. Use this especially if you manually edit the file.
Check your Samba logs for errors.
If printing to the Windows printer does work, you should be able to print from all of your programs. Open a browser and try to print a web page for the final test. If the web page prints, you're ready to go!

Step 16: What shares are available on your network?

End users always seem to get left out of the information loop. If not left out, they're the last to know. If you know that Samba is configured on a network you use, there's a simple Linux command that you can use to determine what shares are available from a Samba server.

Of course, Samba has to be installed on your Linux system too, but you'd have to have it installed to use a shared Samba network device anyway.

If you know the name of a Samba server on your network and want to know what devices it's sharing, run the smbclient utility. It should be located in either the /usr/local/samba/bin or /usr/bin directory on your system. Run this command in a terminal window to find out what a particular Samba host is sharing with the network.

smbclient -L sambahostname

Step 17: Getting help with Samba online

Don't feel too bad if you don't get your Samba configuration right the first time. Many experienced Linux users have trouble, and it's mainly because there are so many places that you can go wrong. Using the correct syntax in your configuration files is the usual culprit, so always double-check your work with the testparm and testprns utilities.

You can also find a lot of Samba information online. The documentation for Samba is thorough, but can be over the head of beginners at times. Always check your man pages for Samba as well. you'll find all variables for your Samba configuration here along with their definitions.