Translations by Robert Readman

File Sharing in <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase>

Credits and License

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu documentation team (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam). For a list of contributors, see the <ulink url="help:/kubuntu/contributors.html">contributors page</ulink>

This document is made available under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.5 License (CC-BY-SA).

You are free to modify, extend, and improve the Ubuntu documentation source code under the terms of this license. All derivative works must be released under this license.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AS DESCRIBED IN THE DISCLAIMER.

A copy of the license is available here: <ulink url="help:/kubuntu/copyright.html">Creative Commons ShareAlike License</ulink>.

2009

Ubuntu Documentation Project

Canonical Ltd. and members of the <placeholder-1/>

The Ubuntu Documentation Project

This document explains how to share files between <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> and Windows.

Introduction

Computer networks are often comprised of diverse systems. While operating a network made up entirely of <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> desktop and server computers would certainly be fun, some network environments will consist of <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> and <trademark class="registered">Microsoft</trademark><trademark class="registered">Windows</trademark> systems working together. This section of the <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> Server Guide introduces principles and tools used for configuring <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> servers to share network resources with Windows computers.

Successfully networking a <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> system with Windows clients involves providing and integrating services common to Windows environments. These services support sharing data and information about the computers and users on the network, and may be classified into three major categories:

<emphasis role="bold">File and Printer Sharing Services</emphasis>. The Server Message Block (<acronym>SMB</acronym>) protocol is used to facilitate sharing files, folders, volumes, and printers throughout the network.

<emphasis role="bold">Directory Services</emphasis>. Vital information is shared about the computers and users of the network with such technologies as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (<acronym>LDAP</acronym>) and Microsoft <trademark class="registered">Active Directory</trademark>.

<emphasis role="bold">Authentication and Access</emphasis>. It is necessary to be able to establish the identity of a computer or user to determine the information the computer or user is authorized to access. Authentication and access use principles and technologies such as file permissions, group policies, and the Kerberos authentication service.

A <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> system can provide all such capabilities for Windows clients and enable sharing network resources with them. One of the principal pieces of software included in a <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> system for Windows networking is the Samba suite of <acronym>SMB</acronym> server applications and tools.

This section of the <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> Server Guide will introduce some of the ways Samba is commonly used, and how to install and configure the necessary packages. Additional detailed documentation and information on Samba can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.samba.org">Samba website</ulink>.

Samba File Server

One of the most common ways to network <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> and Windows computers is to configure Samba as a File Server. This section covers setting up a <application>Samba</application> server to share files with Windows clients.

The server will be configured to share files with any client on the network without prompting for a password. If the environment requires stricter Access Controls, see <xref linkend="samba-fileprint-security"/>

Installation

The first step is to install the <application>samba</application> package. From a terminal prompt enter:

sudo apt-get install samba

That's all there is to it. Samba is ready to be configured for file sharing.

Configuration

The main Samba configuration file is located in <filename>/etc/samba/smb.conf</filename>. The default configuration file has a significant number of comments in order to document various configuration directives.

Not all the available options are included in the default configuration file. See the <filename>smb.conf</filename><application>man</application> page or the <ulink url="http://samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/">Samba HOWTO Collection</ulink> for more details.

Edit the following key/value pairs in the <emphasis>[global]</emphasis> section of <filename>/etc/samba/smb.conf</filename>:

workgroup = EXAMPLE ... security = user

The <emphasis>security</emphasis> parameter is farther down in the [global] section, and is commented out by default. Change <emphasis>EXAMPLE</emphasis> to match the actual environment.

Create a new section at the bottom of the file, or uncomment one of the examples for the directory to be shared:

[share] comment = Ubuntu File Server Share path = /srv/samba/share browsable = yes guest ok = yes read only = no create mask = 0755

<emphasis>comment:</emphasis> a short description of the share. Adjust to fit as appropriate.

<emphasis>path:</emphasis> the path to the directory to share.

This example uses <filename>/srv/samba/sharename</filename> because, according to the <emphasis>Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)</emphasis>, <ulink url="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3. html#SRVDATAFORSERVICESPROVIDEDBYSYSTEM">/srv</ulink> is where site-specific data should be served. Technically Samba shares can be placed anywhere on the filesystem as long as the permissions are correct, but adhering to standards is recommended.

<emphasis>browsable:</emphasis> enables Windows clients to browse the shared directory using <application>Windows Explorer</application>.

<emphasis>guest ok:</emphasis> allows clients to connect to the share without supplying a password.

<emphasis>read only:</emphasis> determines if the share is read only or if write privileges are granted. Write privileges are allowed only when the value is <emphasis>no</emphasis>, as is seen in this example. If the value is <emphasis>yes</emphasis>, then access to the share is read only.

<emphasis>create mask:</emphasis> determines the permissions new files will have when created.

Now that <application>Samba</application> is configured, the directory needs to be created and the permissions changed. From a terminal enter:

sudo mkdir -p /srv/samba/share

sudo chown nobody.nogroup /srv/samba/share/

The <emphasis>-p</emphasis> switch tells mkdir to create the entire directory tree if it doesn't exist. Change the share name to fit the environment.

Finally, restart the <application>samba</application> services to enable the new configuration:

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

The above configuration gives all access to any client on the local network. For a more secure configuration, see <xref linkend="samba-fileprint-security"/>.

From a Windows client, it should now be possible to browse to the <phrase>Kubuntu</phrase> file server and see the shared directory. To check that everything is working, try creating a directory from Windows.