How to Simple File Sharing with Samba on Fedora 8

by Re Alvarez — last modified Sep 16, 2008 05:12 PM

— filed under: Network Solutions

Samba enables file sharing between Windows and Linux servers. In this tutorial we will show how you can share a folder located on your Fedora 8 system with a Windows desktop.

Applicable to Fedora Versions

Fedora 8

Requirements

Packages Required:

nautilus-share

Doing the Work

Open the terminal and login as root.
Install nautilus-share, this would automatically install its dependency, the samba package.
```
yum install nautilus-share
```

After installation is completed, issue the following commands

mkdir /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares -p

chgrp yourusername /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares

change yourusername with your actual user name.

chmod 1770 /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares

Now, we have to add a few lines in /etc/samba/smb.conf. First lets back up the original file.
```
cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak
```
Lets open the file and make changes.
```
vi /etc/samba/smb.conf
```
Replace vi with your favorite text editor.

Now navigate to line that says [global], and immediately after this line add the following lines.
```
usershare path = /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares
usershare max shares = 10 # (set this as per your requirement)
```
Restart Samba
```
service smb restart
```
Restart Nautilus
```
killall nautilus
```
or logout.
Now open nautilus, and right click the folder you wish to share and click Sharing Options. Give a share name and hit OK. You have now shared the folder.
In Windows, goto Start-->Run and type
```
\\fedora_system_name\share_name
```
Replace fedora_system_name with your Samba server machine name and share_name with the name of the share you mentioned in the sharing options.
In Linux. goto Nautilus and in the location bar type
```
smb://fedora_system_name/share_name
```