To install Samba, we run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba

We can check if the installation was successful by running:

whereis samba

The following should be its output:

samba: /usr/sbin/samba /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/samba /etc/samba /usr/share/samba /usr/share/man/man8/samba.8.gz /usr/share/man/man7/samba.7.gz

Create new user for sharing.

sudo adduser username

Now that Samba is installed, we need to create a directory for it to share:

mkdir /home/<username>/sambashare/

The command above creates a new folder sambashare in our home directory which we will share later.

The configuration file for Samba is located at /etc/samba/smb.conf. To add the new directory as a share, we edit the file by running:

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

[sambashare]
    comment = Samba on Ubuntu
    path = /home/username/sambashare
    read only = no
    browsable = yes

Then press Ctrl-O to save and Ctrl-X to exit from the nano text editor.

Now that we have our new share configured, save it and restart Samba for it to take effect:

sudo service smbd restart

Update the firewall rules to allow Samba traffic:

sudo ufw allow samba

Since Samba doesn’t use the system account password, we need to set up a Samba password for our user account:

sudo smbpasswd -a username

TIP

Username used must belong to a system account, else it won’t save.

On Ubuntu: Open up the default file manager and click Connect to Server then enter:

smb://ip-address/sambashare

On macOS: In the Finder menu, click Go > Connect to Server then enter:

smb://ip-address/sambashare

On Windows, open up File Manager and edit the file path to:

\\ip-address\sambashare

List users:

sudo pdbedit --list

Delete user:

sudo smbpasswd -x username

Samba