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Is there any easy way to share a folder on a windows network?

Asked by , Edited by Fernando C. Estrada [ Admin ]

I have an old windows machine that I recently installed the most recent Debian system on. The installation went seamlessly and everything is connected. In fact, I can reach out from my Debian machine to the other files servers on the network and open folders, files, etc. However, I cannot see any shared folders on the Debian machine from the windows computers. I want to use the Debian machine as a simple file server and have “shared” the public folder but it does not appear anywhere else. Is there a simple way to just turn on a folder to “share” it like on windows? 

I am brand new to Debian, so I know absolutely nothing so far. I’d really like to use it because it seems very good for this purpose. Anyone doing this? 

Thanks. 
Tommy
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3 answers

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ari@debian.org [ Editor ]

The nautilus-share + samba packages will do this for you by adding an entry to the right-click menu in the GNOME file browser (Nautilus); however, it does require some configuration editing as root:

Run "gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf" as root, and remove the semicolon from this line, then save the file and exit the editor:
;   usershare max shares = 100
Then as root, run "/etc/init.d/samba restart".

Alternatively, you can use the gnome-user-share package, which shouldn’t require any manual setup but exports folders via WebDAV instead of SMB.
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adam.trickett [ Editor ]

The underlying technology you will need is called Samba. I don’t know which install route you took so it may or may not be installed already. Samba is designed to allow a Unix/Linux system such as Debian to act  as a file or printer server to windows computers. It can act within a workgroup framework or as a domain controller in an AD scenario.


 If it’s not installed you will need to add it your computer first. The package you need is called “samba” the underlying Debian tools will pull in everything else that is needed automatically.  You don’t say what package-manager tool you are using but installing Samba should be straight forward.

Once installed you have two choices. The older way is to configure the Samba server by editing the rather large configuration files. Because it’s based on Windows file sharing it’s rather complicated and there is alas a lot you can play with. Depending upon your desktop system, you may also be able to just right-click on a directory and choose to share it over your network.

It’s not part of Samba (it’s based on the same code) but you can also make a Debian box connect to Windows share.

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-2

tommy

Adam, 

Thanks for your reply. I have actually installed Samba on the machine. I installed Debian via the NETINST 5 days ago and made sure that file sharing and Samba were installed. As well, I have found many links on the web regarding file sharing. However, all of them say things like, “Well, you just add this text string, blah blah blah.” However, I do not understand where to add them. I also was able to open my configuration file in Samba but when I tried to save it, it wouldn’t let me. I see that I need to login to something called “root” but I can’t seem to figure out how to do that one either.
      In the meantime, I went ahead and purchased a version called “openSUSE” because it looks like it has more straight-forward sharing features. However, I sure am stubborn and can’t settle with not getting the standard Debian to share. If you are willing to help, can you spell out very clearly what needs to happen to configure Samba. I don’t need any user access or privacy or secure sharing. I just want to be able to use a folder on the Debian machine as a data dump/backup for the windows machine so I can access the files from multiple computers. Any suggestions? 
Thank you!
– Tommy
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