Samba

Related articles
Active Directory Integration
Samba/Active Directory domain controller
NFS
Samba
is the standard Windows interoperability suite of programs for Linux and Unix. Since 1992, Samba has provided secure, stable and fast file and print services for all clients using the
SMB/CIFS
protocol, such as all versions of DOS and Windows, OS/2, Linux and many others.
To share files through Samba, see
#Server
section; to access files shared through Samba on other machines, please see
#Client
section.
Server
Installation
Install
the
samba
package.
Samba is configured in the
/etc/samba/smb.conf
configuration file, which is extensively documented in
smb.conf(5)
.
Because the
samba
package does not provide this file, one needs to create it
before
starting
smb.service
.
A documented example as in
smb.conf.default
from the
Samba git repository
may be used to setup
/etc/samba/smb.conf
.
Note
This article or section is out of date.
Reason:
See
Talk:Samba#logging to systemd
. (Discuss in
Talk:Samba
)
The default configuration sets
log file
to a non-writable location, which will cause errors - apply one of the following workarounds:
Change the log file location to a writable path:
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
Change logging to a non-file backend solution:
logging = syslog
with
syslog only = yes
, or use
logging = systemd
If required; the
workgroup
specified in the
[global]
section has to match the Windows workgroup (default
WORKGROUP
).
The example configuration file exposes the user's home directory to the network with write access. If you see this as a security risk, consider commenting out the entire
[homes]
section. See
smb.conf(5) § The [homes] section
for details.
Tip
Whenever you modify the
smb.conf
file, run the
testparm(1)
command to check for syntactic errors.
Enabling and starting services
To provide basic file sharing through SMB,
enable/start
smb.service
. See
smbd(8)
for details.
If you want to make your server accessible via NetBIOS host name, set the desired name in the
netbios name
option in
smb.conf
and
enable/start
nmb.service
. See
nmbd(8)
for details.
Note
nmb.service
is not required. However, it is needed to access Samba servers by hostname (e.g.
smb://hostname/
) for some hosts. If your network is only composed of machines running Windows 10 or later, consider
installing a WSD daemon as well
for your server to appear in the "Network" view.
Make the server discoverable
Install
the
avahi
package, then
enable/start
avahi-daemon.service
to make the samba server discoverable with
Zeroconf
. It should work for most non-Windows file managers (macOS Finder, various GUI-based file managers on Linux & BSD etc.)
If
avahi-daemon.service
is not running, the server will still be accessible, just not discoverable, i.e. it will not show up in file managers, but you can still connect to the server directly by IP or domain.
Instead of installing the
avahi
package,
systemd-resolved
provides similar
Zeroconf
functionalities. Ensure its support for mDNS is enabled:
/etc/systemd/resolved.conf
[Resolve]
# ...
MulticastDNS=yes
And then create a file that defines a network service. See
systemd.dnssd(5)
.
/etc/systemd/dnssd/smb.dnssd
[Service]
Name=%H
Type=_smb._tcp
Port=445
TxtText=
Run
systemctl reload systemd-resolved
as root to apply changes.
Using the systemd implementation works around a bug in Avahi that causes hostnames to be unstable (
Avahi#Hostname changes with appending incrementing numbers
).
Windows Explorer relies on the WS-Discovery protocol instead; see
#Windows 1709 or up does not discover the samba server in Network view
.
Configure firewall
If you are using a
firewall
, do not forget to open required ports (usually 137-139 + 445). For a complete list, see
Samba port usage
.
UFW Rule
A
Ufw
App Profile for SMB/CIFS is included by default with the default installation of UFW in
ufw-fileserver
.
Allow Samba by running
ufw allow CIFS
as root.
If you deleted the profile, create/edit
/etc/ufw/applications.d/samba
and add the following content:
[Samba]
title=LanManager-like file and printer server for Unix
description=The Samba software suite is a collection of programs that implements the SMB/CIFS protocol for unix systems, allowing you to serve files and printers to Windows, NT, OS/2 and DOS clients. This protocol is sometimes also referred to as the LanManager or NetBIOS protocol.
ports=137,138/udp|139,445/tcp
Then load the profile into UFW run
ufw app update Samba
as root.
Then finally, allow Samba by running
ufw allow Samba
as root.
firewalld service
To configure
firewalld
to allow Samba in the
home
zone, run:
# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service={samba,samba-client,samba-dc} --zone=home
The three services listed are:
samba
: for sharing files with others.
samba-client
: to browse shares on other machines on the network.
samba-dc
: for
Samba/Active Directory domain controller
.
--permanent
ensures the changes remain after
firewalld.service
is
restarted
.
Basic configuration
User management
The following section describes creating a local (tdbsam) database of Samba users. For user authentication and other purposes, Samba can also be bound to an Active Directory domain, can itself serve as an Active Directory domain controller, or can be used with an LDAP server.
Adding a user
Samba requires a Linux user account - you may use an existing user account or create a
new one
.
Note
The
user
/
user group
nobody
should already exist on the system, it is used as the default
guest account
and may be used for shares containing
guest ok = yes
, thus preventing the need of user login on that share.
Although the user name is shared with Linux system, Samba uses a password separate from that of the Linux user accounts. Replace
samba_user
with the chosen Samba user account:
# smbpasswd -a
samba_user
Depending on the
server role
, existing
File permissions and attributes
may need to be altered for the Samba user account.
If you want the new user only to be allowed to remotely access the file server shares through Samba, you can restrict other login options：
disabling shell -
usermod --shell /usr/bin/nologin --lock
samba_user
disabling SSH logons - edit
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
, change option
AllowUsers
Also see
Security
for hardening your system.
Listing users
Samba users can be listed using the
pdbedit(8)
command:
# pdbedit -L -v
Changing user password
To change a user password, use
smbpasswd
:
# smbpasswd
samba_user
Creating an anonymous share
1. Create a Linux user which anonymous Samba users will be mapped to.
# useradd guest -s /bin/nologin
Note
The username can be any valid Linux username, not just "guest". This user does not need to be a Samba user.
2. Add the following to
/etc/samba/smb.conf
:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
...
[global]
security = user
map to guest = bad user
guest account = guest

[guest_share]
    comment = guest share
    path = /tmp/
    public = yes
    only guest = yes
    writable = yes
    printable = no
Anonymous users will now be mapped to the Linux user
guest
and have the ability to access any directories defined in
guest_share.path
, which is configured to be
/tmp/
in the example above.
Note
The share name does not have to have "guest" in it. It can be any valid Samba share name.
Make sure that the Linux user
guest
has the proper permissions to access files in
guest_share.path
.
Also, make sure shares have been properly defined as per the
Share Definitions
section of
smb.conf.default
.
Advanced configuration
Enable symlink following
Warning
Enabling the
follow symlinks
option can be a security risk.
/etc/samba/smb.conf
...
[global]
   follow symlinks = yes
   wide links = yes
   unix extensions = no
Then,
restart
smb.service
.
Note
When using
AppArmor
, if the symlink points to a directory outside the user's home or the
usershare
directory, then you need to
modify the AppArmor profile permissions
.
Enable server-side copy for macOS clients
Server-side copy eliminates the need to transfer data between the server and the client when copying files on the server. This is enabled by default, but it doesn't work with macOS clients. If you have macOS clients, you need to add the following configuration to
smb.conf
and then
restart
smb.service
.
/etc/samba/smb.conf
...
[global]
   fruit:copyfile = yes
Enable Usershares
Note
This is an optional feature. Skip this section if you do not need it.
Usershares is a feature that gives non-root users the capability to add, modify, and delete their own share definitions. See
smb.conf(5) § USERSHARES
.
Create a directory for usershares:
# mkdir /var/lib/samba/usershares
Create a
user group
:
# groupadd -r sambashare
Change the owner of the directory to
root
and the group to
sambashare
:
# chown root:sambashare /var/lib/samba/usershares
Change the permissions of the
usershares
directory so that users in the group
sambashare
can create files. This command also sets
sticky bit
, which is important to prevent users from deleting usershares of other users:
# chmod 1770 /var/lib/samba/usershares
Set the following parameters in the
smb.conf
configuration file:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  usershare path = /var/lib/samba/usershares
  usershare max shares = 100
  usershare allow guests = yes
  usershare owner only = yes
Add the user to the
sambashare
group. Replace
your_username
with the name of your user:
# gpasswd sambashare -a
your_username
Restart
smb.service
and
nmb.service
services.
Log out and log back in.
If you want to share paths inside your home directory you must make it accessible for the group
others
.
The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.
Reason:
Is this requirement correct? Not clear about which path is said: is it about a 'usershare path' option in smb.conf or an actual shared folder path? (Discuss in
Talk:Samba#permissions
)
In the GUI, you can use
Thunar
or
Dolphin
- right click on any directory and share it on the network.
In the CLI, use one of the following commands, replacing italic
sharename
,
user
, ... :
# net usershare add
sharename
abspath
[
comment
] [
user
:{R|D|F}] [guest_ok={y|n}]
# net usershare delete
sharename
# net usershare list
wildcard-sharename
# net usershare info
wildcard-sharename
Set and forcing permissions
Permissions may be applied to both the server and shares:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  ;inherit owner = unix only ; Inherit ownership of the parent directory for new files and directories
  ;inherit permissions = yes ; Inherit permissions of the parent directory for new files and directories
  create mask = 0664
  directory mask = 2755
  force create mode = 0644
  force directory mode = 2755
  ...

[media]
  comment = Media share accessible by
greg
and
pcusers
path =
/path/to/media
valid users =
greg @pcusers
force group =
+pcusers
public = no
  writable = yes
  create mask = 0664
  directory mask = 2775
  force create mode = 0664
  force directory mode = 2775

[public]
  comment = Public share where
archie
has write access
  path =
/path/to/public
public = yes
  read only = yes
  write list =
archie
printable = no

[guests]
  comment = Allow all users to read/write
  path =
/path/to/guests
public = yes
  only guest = yes
  writable = yes
  printable = no
See
smb.conf(5)
for a full overview of possible permission flags and settings.
Restrict protocols for better security
Warning
By default, Samba versions prior to 4.11 allow connections using the outdated and insecure SMB1 protocol. When using one these Samba versions, it is highly recommended to set
server min protocol = SMB2_02
to protect yourself from ransomware attacks. In Samba 4.11 and newer, SMB2 is the default min protocol, so no changes are required there.
Append
server min protocol
and
server max protocol
in
/etc/samba/smb.conf
to force usage of a minimum and maximum protocol:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  server min protocol = SMB2_10
  ; server max protocol = SMB3
See
server max protocol
in
smb.conf(5)
for an overview of supported protocols. For compatibility with older clients and/or servers, you might need to set
client min protocol
or
server min protocol
to an older protocol, but please note that this makes you vulnerable to exploits.
Tip
Use
server min protocol = SMB3
when clients should only connect using the latest SMB3 protocol, e.g. on clients running Windows 10 and later.
Clients
using
mount.cifs
may need to specify the correct
vers=*
, e.g.:
# mount -t cifs //
SERVER
/
sharename
/mnt/
mountpoint
-o username=
username
,password=
password
,iocharset=
utf8
,vers=
3.1.1
See
mount.cifs(8)
for more information.
Use native SMB transport encryption
Native SMB transport encryption is available in SMB version 3.0 or newer. Clients supporting this type of encryption include Windows 8 and newer, Windows server 2012 and newer, and smbclient of Samba 4.1 and newer.
To use native SMB transport encryption by default, set the
server smb encrypt
parameter globally and/or by share. Possible values are
off
,
enabled
(default value),
desired
, or
required
:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  server smb encrypt = desired
To configure encryption for on the client side, use the option
client smb encrypt
.
See
smb.conf(5)
for more information, especially the paragraphs
Effects for SMB1
and
Effects for SMB2
.
Tip
When
mounting
a share, specify the
seal
mount option to force usage of encryption.
Disable printer sharing
By default Samba shares printers configured using
CUPS
.
If you do not want printers to be shared, use the following settings:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  load printers = no
  printing = bsd
  printcap name = /dev/null
  disable spoolss = yes
  show add printer wizard = no
Block certain file extensions on Samba share
Note
Setting this parameter will affect the performance of Samba, as it will be forced to check all files and directories for a match as they are scanned.
Samba offers an option to block files with certain patterns, like file extensions. This option can be used to prevent dissemination of viruses or to dissuade users from wasting space with certain files. More information about this option can be found in
smb.conf(5)
.
/etc/samba/smb.conf
...
[myshare]
  comment = Private
  path = /mnt/data
  read only = no
  veto files = /*.exe/*.com/*.dll/*.bat/*.vbs/*.tmp/*.mp3/*.avi/*.mp4/*.wmv/*.wma/
Improve throughput
Warning
Beware this may lead to corruption/connection issues and potentially cripple your TCP/IP stack.
The default settings should be sufficient for most users. However setting the 'socket options' correct can improve performance, but getting them wrong can degrade it by just as much. Test the effect before making any large changes.
Read the
smb.conf(5)
man page before applying any of the options listed below.
The following settings should be
appended
to the
[global]
section of
/etc/samba/smb.conf
.
Setting a deadtime is useful to stop a server's resources from being exhausted by a large number of inactive connections:
deadtime = 30
The usage of sendfile may make more efficient use of the system CPU's and cause Samba to be faster:
use sendfile = yes
Setting min receivefile size allows zero-copy writes directly from network socket buffers into the filesystem buffer cache (if available). It may improve performance but user testing is recommended:
min receivefile size = 16384
Increasing the receive/send buffers size and socket optimize flags might be useful to improve throughput. It is recommended to test each flag separately as it may cause issues on some networks:
socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_THROUGHPUT SO_RCVBUF=131072 SO_SNDBUF=131072
Note
Network-interface adjustments may be needed for some options to work, see
Sysctl#Networking
.
Enable access for old clients/devices
Latest versions of Samba no longer offer older authentication methods and protocols which are still used by some older clients (IP cameras, etc). These devices usually require Samba server to allow NTMLv1 authentication and NT1 version of the protocol, known as CIFS. For these devices to work with latest Samba, you need to add these two configuration parameters into
[global]
section:
server min protocol = NT1
ntlm auth = yes
Anonymous/guest access to a share requires just the first parameter. If the old device will access with username and password, you also need the add the second line too.
Enable Spotlight searching
Spotlight allows supporting clients (e.g. MacOS Finder) to quickly search shared files.
Install and start/enable
OpenSearch
. Install
fs2es-indexer
AUR
, configure the directories you want to index in
/etc/fs2es-indexer/config.yml
, and start/enable
fs2es-indexer.service
for periodic indexing.
Edit
smb.conf
as described in the
Samba wiki
to enable Spotlight per share, and restart
smb.service
to apply the changes.
Client
Install
smbclient
for an
ftp
-like command line interface. See
smbclient(1)
for commonly used commands.
For a lightweight alternative (without support for listing public shares, etc.),
install
cifs-utils
that provides
/usr/bin/mount.cifs
.
Depending on the
desktop environment
, GUI methods may be available. See
#File manager configuration
for use with a file manager.
Note
smbclient
requires a
/etc/samba/smb.conf
file (see
#Installation
), which you can create as an empty file using the
touch
utility.
After installing
cifs-utils
or
smbclient
, load the
cifs
kernel module
or reboot to prevent mount fails.
List public shares
The following command lists public shares on a server:
$ smbclient -L
hostname
-U%
Alternatively, running
$ smbtree -N
will show a tree diagram of all the shares. It uses broadcast queries and is therefore not advisable on a network with a lot of computers, but can be helpful for diagnosing if you have the correct sharename. The
-N
(
-no-pass
) option suppresses the password prompt.
Note
smbtree
uses SMB1 and NetBIOS, which means they must be enabled on the servers and you need to set
client min protocol = NT1
in
smb.conf
on the client. Otherwise,
smbtree
will show empty output.
NetBIOS/WINS host names
Samba clients handle NetBIOS host names automatically by default (the behavior is controlled by the
name resolve order
option in
smb.conf
). Other programs (including
mount.cifs
) typically use
Name Service Switch
, which does not handle NetBIOS by default.
The
smbclient
package provides a libnss driver to resolve NetBIOS host names. To use it,
install
it along with the
samba
package (which provides the
winbindd
daemon),
start/enable
winbind.service
and add
wins
to the
hosts
line in
nsswitch.conf(5)
:
/etc/nsswitch.conf
...
hosts: mymachines resolve [!UNAVAIL=return] files myhostname dns
wins
...
Note
Due to a current mistake in
winbind.service
, you may have to modify the unit file as described in this
bug-report
Now, during host resolving (e.g. when using
mount.cifs
or just
ping
netbios-name
),
winbindd
will resolve the host name by sending queries using NetBIOS Name Service (NBNS, also known as WINS) protocol.
By default it sends a broadcast query to your local network. If you have a WINS server, you can add
wins server =
wins-server-ip
to
smb.conf
and
restart
winbind.service
, then
winbindd
and other Samba clients will send unicast queries to the specified IP.
If you want to resolve your local host name (specified in the
netbios name
option in
smb.conf
),
start/enable
nmb.service
, which will handle incoming queries.
You can test WINS resolution with
nmblookup
. By default it sends broadcast queries to your local network regardless of the
wins server
option.
Note that WINS resolution requires incoming traffic originating from port 137.
Disable NetBIOS/WINS support
When not using NetBIOS/WINS host name resolution, it may be preferred to disable this protocol:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  disable netbios = yes
  dns proxy = no
Finally
disable
/
stop
winbind.service
.
Manual mounting
Mount the share using
mount.cifs
as
type
. Not all the options listed below are needed or desirable:
# mount --mkdir -t cifs //
SERVER
/
sharename
/mnt/
mountpoint
-o username=
username
,password=
password
,workgroup=
workgroup
,iocharset=
utf8
,uid=
username
,gid=
group
The options
uid
and
gid
corresponds to the local (e.g. client)
user
/
user group
to have read/write access on the given path.
Note
If the
uid
and
gid
being used does not match the user of the server, the
forceuid
and
forcegid
options may be helpful. However note permissions assigned to a file when
forceuid
or
forcegid
are in effect may not reflect the real (server) permissions. See the
File And Directory Ownership And Permissions
section in
mount.cifs(8) § FILE AND DIRECTORY OWNERSHIP AND PERMISSIONS
for more information.
To mount a Windows share without authentication, use
"username=*"
.
The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.
Reason:
Regardless of recommendation, there's no substantial evidence for the claimed I/O error risk. The warning was
added without comment or reference in 2013
and challenged without defense in 2018. It's unclear whether it's true at all. (Discuss in
Talk:Samba#Unfounded warning regarding I/O errors and manual mounting?
)
Warning
Using
uid
and/or
gid
as mount options may cause I/O errors, it is recommended to set/check correct
File permissions and attributes
instead.
SERVER
— The server name.
sharename
— The shared directory.
mountpoint
— The local directory where the share will be mounted.
[-o
options
]
— See
mount.cifs(8)
for more information.
Note
Abstain from using a trailing
/
.
//
SERVER
/
sharename
/
will not work.
If your mount does not work stable, stutters or freezes, try to enable different SMB protocol version with
vers=
option. For example,
vers=2.0
for Windows Vista mount.
If having timeouts on a mounted network share with cifs on a shutdown, see
wpa_supplicant#Problem with mounted network shares (cifs) and shutdown
.
Storing share passwords
Storing passwords in a world readable file is not recommended. A safer method is to use a credentials file instead, e.g. inside
/etc/samba/credentials
:
/etc/samba/credentials/share
username=
myuser
password=
mypass
For the mount command replace
username=myuser,password=mypass
with
credentials=/etc/samba/credentials/share
.
The credential file should explicitly readable/writeable to root:
# chown root:root /etc/samba/credentials
# chmod 700 /etc/samba/credentials
# chmod 600 /etc/samba/credentials/share
Automatic mounting
Note
You may need to
enable
systemd-networkd-wait-online.service
or
NetworkManager-wait-online.service
(depending on your setup) to proper enable booting on start-up.
Using NetworkManager and GIO/gvfs
NetworkManager
can be configured to run a script on network status change. This script uses the
gio
command so that it mounts the Samba shares automatically, the same way your file manager does, as explained
below
. The script also safely unmounts the Samba shares before the relevant network connection is disabled by listening for the
pre-down
and
vpn-pre-down
events. Make the script
executable
after creating it.
/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/30-samba.sh
#!/bin/sh

# Find the connection UUID with "nmcli con show" in terminal.
# All NetworkManager connection types are supported: wireless, VPN, wired...
WANTED_CON_UUID="CHANGE-ME-NOW-9c7eff15-010a-4b1c-a786-9b4efa218ba9"

# The user the share will be mounted under
USER="yourusername"
# The path that appears in your file manager when you manually mount the share you want
SMB_URL="smb://servername/share"

# Get runtime user directory. If it does not exist, do nothing and just exit
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=$(loginctl show-user --property=RuntimePath --value "$USER") || exit 0

if [ "$CONNECTION_UUID" = "$WANTED_CON_UUID" ]; then

    # Script parameter $1: network interface name, not used
    # Script parameter $2: dispatched event

    case "$2" in
        "up"|"vpn-up")
            su $USER -c "DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/bus gio mount $SMB_URL"
            ;;
        "pre-down"|"vpn-pre-down")
            su $USER -c "DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/bus gio mount -uf $SMB_URL"
            ;;
    esac
fi
Create a symlink inside
/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/pre-down
to catch the
pre-down
events:
# ln -s /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/30-samba.sh /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/pre-down.d/30-samba.sh
Note
Since this script uses the user bus, it will only work if the user has active sessions. This means that the share will not mount automatically after boot if the connection is established before you are logged in.
As mount entry
This is a simple example of a
cifs
mount entry
that requires authentication:
/etc/fstab
//
SERVER
/
sharename
/mnt/
mountpoint
cifs _netdev,nofail,username=
myuser
,password=
mypass
0 0
Note
See examples below on better security for authentication credentials
Spaces in sharename should be replaced by
\040
(ASCII code for space in octal). For example,
//
SERVER
/share name
on the command line should be
//
SERVER
/share\040name
in
/etc/fstab
.
To allow users to mount it as long as the mount point resides in a directory controllable by the user; i.e. the user's home, append the
users
mount option. The option is user
s
(plural). For other filesystem types handled by mount, this option is usually
user
; sans the "
s
".
Tip
Use
x-systemd.automount
if you want them to be mounted only upon access. See
Fstab#Remote file system
for details.
As systemd unit
Create a new
.mount
file inside
/etc/systemd/system
, e.g.
mnt-myshare.mount
. See
systemd.mount(5)
for details.
Note
Make sure the filename corresponds to the mountpoint you want to use.
E.g. the unit name
mnt-myshare.mount
can only be used if are going to mount the share under
/mnt/myshare
. Otherwise the following error might occur:
systemd[1]: mnt-myshare.mount: Where= setting does not match unit name. Refusing.
.
What=
path to share
Where=
path to mount the share
Options=
share mounting options
Note
Network mount units automatically acquire
After
dependencies on
remote-fs-pre.target
,
network.target
and
network-online.target
, and gain a
Before
dependency on
remote-fs.target
unless
nofail
mount option is set. Towards the latter a
Wants
unit is added as well.
Append
noauto
to
Options
preventing automatically mount during boot (unless it is pulled in by some other unit).
If you want to use a hostname for the server you want to share (instead of an IP address), add
nss-lookup.target
to
After
. This might avoid mount errors at boot time that do not arise when testing the unit.
/etc/systemd/system/mnt-myshare.mount
[Unit]
Description=Mount Share at boot

[Mount]
What=//server/share
Where=/mnt/myshare
Options=_netdev,credentials=/etc/samba/credentials/myshare,iocharset=utf8,rw
Type=cifs
TimeoutSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Tip
In case of an unreachable system,
append
ForceUnmount=true
to
[Mount]
, allowing the share to be (force-)unmounted.
If your share has groups with read-only access,
append
uid=
username
or
gid=
group
to
Options=
, to specify your user / group allowing writing to the share.
To use
mnt-myshare.mount
,
start
the unit and
enable
it to run on system boot.
automount
To automatically mount a share (when accessed, like autofs), one may use the following automount unit:
/etc/systemd/system/mnt-myshare.automount
[Unit]
Description=Automount myshare

[Automount]
Where=/mnt/myshare

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Disable
/
stop
the
mnt-myshare.mount
unit, and
enable
/
start
mnt-myshare.automount
to automount the share when the mount path is being accessed.
Tip
Append
TimeoutIdleSec
to enable auto unmount. See
systemd.automount(5)
for details.
smbnetfs
Note
smbnetfs needs an intact Samba server setup.
See above on how to do that.
First, check if you can see all the shares you are interested in mounting:
$ smbtree -U
remote_user
If that does not work, find and modify the following line
in
/etc/samba/smb.conf
accordingly:
domain master = auto
Now
restart
smb.service
and
nmb.service
.
If everything works as expected,
install
smbnetfs
.
Then, add the following line to
/etc/fuse.conf
:
user_allow_other
Now copy the directory
/etc/smbnetfs/.smb
to your home directory:
$ cp -a /etc/smbnetfs/.smb ~
Then create a link to
smb.conf
:
$ ln -sf /etc/samba/smb.conf ~/.smb/smb.conf
If a username and a password are required to access some of the shared folders, edit
~/.smb/smbnetfs.auth
to include one or more entries like this:
~/.smb/smbnetfs.auth
auth			"hostname" "username" "password"
It is also possible to add entries for specific hosts to be mounted by smbnetfs, if necessary.
More details can be found in
~/.smb/smbnetfs.conf
.
If you are using the
Dolphin
or
GNOME Files
, you may want to add the following to
~/.smb/smbnetfs.conf
to avoid "Disk full" errors as smbnetfs by default will report 0 bytes of free space:
~/.smb/smbnetfs.conf
free_space_size 1073741824
When you are done with the configuration, you need to run
$ chmod 600 ~/.smb/smbnetfs.*
Otherwise, smbnetfs complains about 'insecure config file permissions'.
Finally, to mount your Samba network neighbourhood to a directory of your choice, call
$ smbnetfs
mount_point
Daemon
The Arch Linux package also maintains an additional system-wide operation mode for smbnetfs. To enable it, you need to make the
said modifications in the directory
/etc/smbnetfs/.smb
.
Then, you can start and/or enable the
smbnetfs
daemon
as usual. The system-wide mount point is at
/mnt/smbnet/
.
autofs
See
Autofs
for information on the kernel-based automounter for Linux.
File manager configuration
GNOME Files, Nemo, Caja, Thunar and PCManFM
In order to access samba shares through GNOME Files, Nemo, Caja, Thunar or PCManFM, install the
gvfs-smb
package.
Press
Ctrl+l
and enter
smb://
servername
/
share
in the location bar to access your share.
The mounted share is likely to be present at
/run/user/
your_UID
/gvfs
or
~/.gvfs
in the filesystem.
KDE
KDE applications (like Dolphin) has the ability to browse Samba shares built in. Use the path
smb://
servername
/
share
to browse the files. If you want to access files from on non-KDE application, you can install
kio-fuse
.
To use a GUI in the KDE System Settings, you will need to install the
kdenetwork-filesharing
package.
Other graphical environments
There are a number of useful programs, but they may need to have packages created for them. This can be done with the Arch package build system. The good thing about these others is that they do not require a particular environment to be installed to support them, and so they bring along less baggage.
pyneighborhood
AUR
LinNeighborhood, RUmba, xffm-samba plugin for Xffm are not available in the official repositories or the AUR. As they are not officially (or even unofficially supported), they may be obsolete and may not work at all.
Tips and tricks
Discovering network shares
If nothing is known about other systems on the local network, and automated tools such as
smbnetfs
are not available, you can manually probe for Samba shares.
First,
install
the
nmap
and
smbclient
packages.
Use
nmap
to scan your local network to find systems with TCP port 445 open, which is the port used by the SMB protocol. Note that you may need to use
-Pn
or set a custom
ping scan type
(e.g.
-PS445
) because Windows systems are usually firewalled.
$ nmap -p 445 "192.168.1.*"
Starting Nmap 7.92 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2022-03-13 12:00 UTC
Nmap scan report for 192.168.1.1
Host is up (0.0011s latency).

PORT    STATE  SERVICE
445/tcp open  microsoft-ds

Nmap scan report for 192.168.1.2
Host is up (0.00011s latency).

PORT    STATE SERVICE
445/tcp open  microsoft-ds

Nmap done: 256 IP addresses (2 hosts up) scanned in 2.45 seconds
The first result is another system; the second happens to be the client from where this scan was performed.
Now you can connect to their IP addresses directly, but if you want to use NetBIOS host names, you can use
nmblookup(1)
to check for NetBIOS names. Note that this will not work if NetBIOS is disabled on the server.
$ nmblookup -A 192.168.1.1
Looking up status of 192.168.1.1
        PUTER           <00> -         B <ACTIVE>
        HOMENET         <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        PUTER           <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
PUTER           <20> -         B <ACTIVE>
HOMENET         <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
        USERNAME        <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
        HOMENET         <1d> -         B <ACTIVE>
        MSBROWSE        <01> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
Regardless of the output, look for
<20>
, which shows the host with open services.
Use
smbclient(1)
to list which services are shared on these systems. You can use NetBIOS host name (
PUTER
in this example) instead of IP when available. If prompted for a password, pressing enter should still display the list:
$ smbclient -L \\192.168.1.1
Sharename       Type      Comment
---------       ----      -------
MY_MUSIC        Disk
SHAREDDOCS      Disk
PRINTER$        Disk
PRINTER         Printer
IPC$            IPC       Remote Inter Process Communication

Server               Comment
---------            -------
PUTER

Workgroup            Master
---------            -------
HOMENET               PUTER
Remote control of Windows computer
Samba offers a set of tools for communication with Windows. These can be handy if access to a Windows computer through remote desktop is not an option, as shown by some examples.
Send shutdown command with a comment:
$ net rpc shutdown -C "comment" -I IPADDRESS -U USERNAME%PASSWORD
A forced shutdown instead can be invoked by changing -C with comment to a single -f. For a restart, only add -r, followed by a -C or -f.
Stop and start services:
$ net rpc service stop SERVICENAME -I IPADDRESS -U USERNAME%PASSWORD
To see all possible net rpc command:
$ net rpc
Troubleshooting
Failed to start Samba SMB/CIFS server
Possible solutions:
Check
smb.conf
on syntactic errors with
testparm(1)
.
Set correct permissions for
/var/cache/samba/
and
restart
smb.service
:
# chmod 0755 /var/cache/samba/msg
Permission issues on SELinux
SELinux
not allow samba to access user home directories by default, to solve this, run:
# setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs 1
Similarly,
samba_export_all_ro
and
samba_export_all_rw
make Samba has the ability to read or "read and write" all files.
Permission issues on AppArmor
If using a
share path
located outside of a home or usershares directory, whitelist it in
/etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.smbd
. E.g.:
/etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.smbd
"/data/" rk,
"/data/**" lrwk,
After editing, reload the AppArmor profile:
# apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.smbd
No dialect specified on mount
The client is using an unsupported SMB/CIFS version that is required by the server.
See
#Restrict protocols for better security
for more information.
Unable to overwrite files, permissions errors
The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.
Reason:
An user should set/check for server/client permissions, instead of using incorrect/possible insecure flags. (Discuss in
Talk:Samba
)
Possible solutions:
Append the mount option
nodfs
to the
/etc/fstab
entry
.
Add
msdfs root = no
to the
[global]
section of the server's
/etc/samba/smb.conf
.
Windows clients keep asking for password even if Samba shares are created with guest permissions
Set
map to guest
inside the
global
section of
/etc/samba/smb.conf
:
map to guest = Bad Password
If you are still using Samba < 4.10.10, use
Bad User
instead of
Bad Password
.
Windows 10 1709 and up connectivity problems - "Windows cannot access" 0x80004005
This error affects some machines running Windows 10 version 1709 and later. It is not related to SMB1 being disabled in this version but to the fact that Microsoft disabled insecure logons for guests on this version for some, but not others.
To fix, open Group Policy Editor (
gpedit.msc
). Navigate to
Computer configuration\administrative templates\network\Lanman Workstation > Enable insecure guest logons
and enable it.
Alternatively,change the following value in the registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters]
"AllowInsecureGuestAuth"=dword:1
Error: Failed to retrieve printer list: NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
If you are a home user and using samba purely for file sharing from a server or NAS, you are probably not interested in sharing printers through it. If so, you can prevent this error from occurring by adding the following lines to your
/etc/samba/smb.conf
:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  load printers = No
  printing = bsd
  printcap name = /dev/null
  disable spoolss = Yes
Restart
the samba service,
smb.service
, and then check your logs:
# cat /var/log/samba/smbd.log
and the error should now no longer be appearing.
Sharing a folder fails
It means that while you are sharing a folder from
Dolphin
(file manager) and everything seems ok at first, after restarting
Dolphin
the share icon is gone from the shared folder, and also some output like this in terminal (
Konsole
) output:
‘net usershare’ returned error 255: net usershare: usershares are currently disabled
To fix it, enable usershare as described in
#Enable Usershares
.
"Browsing" network fails with "Failed to retrieve share list from server"
And you are using a firewall (iptables) because you do not trust your local (school, university, hotel) network.  This may be due to the following: When the smbclient is browsing the local network it sends out a broadcast request on udp port 137.  The servers on the network then reply to your client but as the source address of this reply is different from the destination address iptables saw when sending the request for the listing out, iptables will not recognize the reply as being "ESTABLISHED" or "RELATED", and hence the packet is dropped.  A possible solution is to add:
iptables -t raw -A OUTPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 137 -j CT --helper netbios-ns
to your iptables setup.
For
Uncomplicated Firewall
, you need to add
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns
to the end of the following line in
/etc/default/ufw
IPT_MODULES="nf_conntrack_ftp nf_nat_ftp nf_conntrack_irc nf_nat_irc"
and then run the following commands as root:
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_helper
ufw allow CIFS
ufw reload
To make this change persistent across reboots, add the following line at the end of
/etc/ufw/sysctl.conf
:
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_helper=1
Protocol negotiation failed: NT_STATUS_INVALID_NETWORK_RESPONSE
The client probably does not have access to shares.  Make sure clients' IP address is in
hosts allow =
line in
/etc/samba/smb.conf
.
Another problem could be, that the client uses an invalid protocol version. To check this try to connect with the
smbclient
where you specify the maximum protocol version manually:
$ smbclient -U <user name> -L //<server name> -m <protocol version: e. g. SMB2> -W <domain name>
If the command was successful then create a configuration file:
~/.smb/smb.conf
[global]
  workgroup = <domain name>
  client max protocol = SMB2
Connection to SERVER failed: (Error NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL)
You are probably passing a wrong server name to
smbclient
.  To find out the server name, run
hostnamectl
on the server and look at "Transient hostname" line
Connection to SERVER failed: (Error NT_STATUS_CONNECTION_REFUSED)
Make sure that the server has started. The shared directories should exist and be accessible.
Protocol negotiation failed: NT_STATUS_CONNECTION_RESET
Probably the server is configured not to accept protocol SMB1. Add option
client max protocol = SMB2
in
/etc/samba/smb.conf
.
Or just pass argument
-m SMB2
to
smbclient
.
Password Error when correct credentials are given (error 1326)
Samba 4.5
has NTLMv1 authentication disabled by default. It is recommend to install the latest available upgrades on clients and deny access for unsupported clients.
If you still need support for very old clients without NTLMv2 support (e.g. Windows XP), it is possible force enable NTLMv1, although this is
not recommend
for security reasons:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  lanman auth = yes
  ntlm auth = yes
If NTLMv2 clients are unable to authenticate when NTLMv1 has been enabled, create the following file on the client:
/home/user/.smb/smb.conf
[global]
  sec = ntlmv2
  client ntlmv2 auth = yes
This change also affects samba shares mounted with
mount.cifs
. If after upgrade to Samba 4.5 your mount fails, add the
sec=ntlmssp
option to your mount command, e.g.
mount.cifs //server/share /mnt/point -o sec=ntlmssp,...
See the
mount.cifs(8)
man page:
ntlmssp
- Use NTLMv2 password hashing encapsulated in Raw NTLMSSP message. The default in mainline kernel versions prior to v3.8 was
sec=ntlm
. In v3.8, the default was changed to
sec=ntlmssp
.
Mapping reserved Windows characters
Starting with kernel 3.18, the cifs module uses the
"mapposix" option by default
.
When mounting a share using unix extensions and a default Samba configuration, files and directories containing one of the seven reserved Windows characters
: \ * < > ?
are listed but cannot be accessed.
Possible solutions are:
Use the undocumented
nomapposix
mount option for cifs
# mount.cifs //server/share /mnt/point -o nomapposix
Configure Samba to remap
mapposix
("SFM", Services for Mac) style characters to the correct native ones using
fruit
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  vfs objects = catia fruit
  fruit:encoding = native
Manually remap forbidden characters using
catia
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
  vfs objects = catia
  catia:mappings = 0x22:0xf022, 0x2a:0xf02a, 0x2f:0xf02f, 0x3a:0xf03a, 0x3c:0xf03c, 0x3e:0xf03e, 0x3f:0xf03f, 0x5c:0xf05c, 0x7c:0xf07c, 0x20:0xf020
The latter approach (using catia or fruit) has the drawback of filtering files with unprintable characters.
Folder shared inside graphical environment is not available to guests
This section presupposes:
Usershares are configured following
previous section
A shared folder has been created as a non-root user from GUI
Guests access has been set to shared folder during creation
Samba service has been restarted at least once since last
/etc/samba/smb.conf
file modification
For clarification purpose only, in the following sub-sections is assumed:
Shared folder is located inside user home directory path (
/home/yourUser/Shared
)
Shared folder name is
MySharedFiles
Guest access is read-only.
Windows users will access shared folder content without login prompt
Verify correct samba configuration
Run the following command from a terminal to test configuration file correctness:
$ testparm
Verify correct shared folder creation
Run the following commands from a terminal:
$ cd /var/lib/samba/usershares
$ ls
If everything is fine, you will notice a file named
mysharedfiles
Read the file contents using the following command:
$ cat mysharedfiles
The terminal output should display something like this:
/var/lib/samba/usershares/mysharedfiles
path=/home/yourUser/Shared
comment=
usershare_acl=S-1-1-0:r
guest_ok=y
sharename=MySharedFiles
Verify folder access by guest
Run the following command from a terminal. If prompted for a password, just press Enter:
$ smbclient -L localhost
If everything is fine, MySharedFiles should be displayed under
Sharename
column
Run the following command in order to access the shared folder as guest (anonymous login)
$ smbclient -N //localhost/MySharedFiles
If everything is fine samba client prompt will be displayed:
smb: \>
From samba prompt verify guest can list directory contents:
smb: \> ls
If the
NTFS_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED
error is displayed, the issue is likely to be with Unix directory permissions. Ensure that your samba user has access to the folder and all parent folders. You can test this by sudoing to the user and attempting to list the mount directory, and all of its parents.
Mount error: Host is down
This error might be seen when mounting shares of Synology NAS servers. Use the mount option
vers=1.0
to solve it.
Note
SMB version 1 is known to have security vulnerabilities and was used in successful ransomware attacks.
Software caused connection abort
File managers that utilizes
gvfs-smb
can show the error
Software caused connection abort
when writing a file to a share/server. This may be due to the server running SMB/CIFS version 1, which many routers use for USB drive sharing (e.g. Belkin routers). To write to these shares specify the CIFS version with the option
vers=1.0
. E.g.:
/etc/fstab
//SERVER/sharename /mnt/mountpoint cifs _netdev,guest,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,vers=1.0 0 0
This can also happen after updating Samba to version 4.11, which deactivates SMB1 as default, and accessing any Samba share. You can reenable it by adding
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
client min protocol = CORE
Connection problem (due to authentification error)
Be sure that you do not leave any space characters before your username in Samba client configuration file as follows:
~/.samba
username= user
password=pass
The correct format is:
~/.samba
username=user
password=pass
Windows 1709 or up does not discover the samba server in Network view
With Windows 10 version 1511, support for SMBv1 and thus NetBIOS device discovery was disabled by default. Depending on the actual edition, later versions of Windows starting from version 1709 ("Fall Creators Update") do not allow the installation of the SMBv1 client anymore. This causes hosts running Samba not to be listed in the Explorer's "Network (Neighborhood)" views. While there is no connectivity problem and Samba will still run fine, users might want to have their Samba hosts to be listed by Windows automatically.
wsdd
implements a Web Service Discovery host daemon. This enables (Samba) hosts, like your local NAS device, to be found by Web Service Discovery Clients like Windows. The default settings should work for most installations, all you need to do is start enable
wsdd.service
.
If the default configuration (advertise itself as the machine hostname in group "WORKGROUP") should be all you need in most cases. If you need, you can change configuration options by passing additional arguments to wsdd by adding them in
/etc/conf.d/wsdd
(see the manual page for wsdd for details).
wsdd2
AUR
does the same thing, but is written in C instead of Python. By default, it will look for the
netbios name
and
workgroup
values in
smb.conf
.
GNOME Files not showing Windows machines (version 1709 or up) with shared folders in Network view
See
GNOME/Files#Windows machines (version 1709 or up) with shared folders don't show up in Network view
.
iOS/iPadOS Files can no longer copy-to Samba share on Arch Linux beginning with iOS/iPadOS 14.5
Beginning with iOS/iPadOS 14.5 attempting to transfer from a device running iOS/iPadOS using the "Files" app to a samba share on Arch Linux will result in the error:
The operation couldn't be completed
Operation canceled
To correct this problem, add add the following to the global section of your
smb.conf
and
restart
smb.service
.
Comment optional:
## addition for iOS/iPadOS 14.5+ Files transfer-to server
vfs object = fruit streams_xattr
See
https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/424681
Apple.Stackexchange.com - "The operation couldn't be completed"/"Operation canceled" error message when saving to a Samba share via Files app.
Slow initial connections from certain clients without other performance problems
Some SMB clients, such as Solid Explorer for Android, take significantly longer to connect to Samba if they fail to resolve the NetBIOS name. Enabling
nmb.service
will greatly speed up initial connections if this is the case. Since this is a bug in the client software, please report such cases to the authors of conflicting software.
CUPS managed printers are not listed
When Samba is configured to use CUPS for printing
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
   printing = cups
   printcap name = cups
And the following symptoms occur:
smbclient -N -L <localhost>
does list any printers
smbclient -N <localhost>/Your_Printer_Name
may return tree connect failed: NT_STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_NAME
/usr/libexec/samba/samba-bgqd is not running
/var/log/samba/smbd.<hostname>
may contain the following entries.  It's possible that the latest versions of samba do not use this file anymore
[2024/08/07 14:24:18.938740,  0] ../../source3/printing/printer_list.c:58(get_printer_list_db)
  get_printer_list_db: Failed to open printer_list.tdb
A workaround is to launch
/usr/libexec/samba/samba-bgqd
manually (without parameters).  Consider creating a systemd service to keep the binary running until the bug is fixed
Reference: Redhat Bug
[1]
Key search failed: Key has expired
If you get this message with
cifscreds add HOST
, try
cifscreds add -u USER -d HOST
Delayed directory updates on Windows clients
Windows clients mapping Samba shares may not immediately reflect file modifications made on the Linux server, while changes from Windows appear instantly. Restarting
smb.service
temporarily resolves this.
Add
smb3 directory leases = no
to the
[global]
section of
/etc/samba/smb.conf
and restart
smb.service
. This disables SMB3 directory leases, which can cause caching inconsistencies for server-side changes on some configurations.
​
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
   smb3 directory leases = no
Reference: fedoraproject discussion
[2]
Reference: Samba 4.22 Changes
[3]
See also
Official website
Samba: An Introduction
Samba 3.2.x HOWTO and Reference Guide
(outdated but still most extensive documentation)
Wikipedia
Gentoo:Samba/Guide
Debian:Samba/ServerSimple
KSMBD
- A linux kernel server which implements SMB3 protocol in kernel space for sharing files over network.