This tool allows you to define which folders and
printers on your machine can be accessed by other machines on the network by
means of the SMB/CIFS protocol, mainly used
by Windows® machines.
You can find it in the Network Sharing section of the
Mandriva Linux Control Center.
The interface is composed of three tabs we will detail now, to manage folder shares, printer shares, and users allowed to access those shares.
The first time you run the tool a wizard helps you configure basic server settings.
Select the PDC option to have your system act as a domain controller for a Windows® network. Select the Standalone option to have your system act as a standalone server, not part of any domain. This is the recommended setting for simple file and print sharing services.
Fill the Workgroup field with the name of the workgroup the system will serve. Fill the Netbios name field with the NetBIOS name of the system, that is the name your server will be known by other machines on the network.
Use the Security mode pull-down list to choose the security level from user (clients authenticate once per session), share (clients authenticate per share) and domain (clients authenticate on a domain controller). The user level security mode is the recommended option.
Fill the Banner field with a phrase to describe your system on the network. Please note that this phrase is arbitrary, however it is advisable to put something meaningful to the services your system will provide to the network.
Choose the log settings: log file name, maximum log size (in KB), and the verbosity level. It is recommended that you leave settings at their defaults, that way there will be a per-client log file with reasonable maximum size and verbosity.
Finally, review your settings and click Samba service is started.
. Settings are applied and theYou must add a Samba user for each client that needs to connect to the Samba server for file and print sharing.
Procedure 6.2. Adding a Samba User
Open the Samba Users tab.
Click on User name pulldown list to select the users defined in the Mandriva Linux system, then fill the password field.
, use the![]() |
Tip |
---|---|
To simplify the configuration and connection of shared
resources on
Windows®
clients, it's very important that both the user and password you set
on the Mandriva Linux server are the same
as the ones set for the client on his
Windows®
machine. Please bear in mind that case is important for both user
and password, so |
By default, the home
file share is
defined, giving Samba users access to their
home folders on the Mandriva Linux server. We
describe below how to add a public share with read/write access for all
clients.
Procedure 6.3. Adding a File Share Resource
Open the File share tab.
Click on Name of
the share (it can be any name, meaningful to the share
contents, in our example “Public”); the
Comment (again, it should be descriptive of the
share contents, in our example “Public R/W Share”); and
Directory with the name of the folder (it must be
an existing folder) to be shared (for example,
/home/samba/Public
).
Click
once you are satisfied with your settings.Procedure 6.4. Modifying a File Share Resource
Open the File share tab.
Select the share to change (in our example,
Public
) and click on
.
In the Samba share directory section change the Public (the file share is publicly accessible), Writable (it can be written to) and Browsable (it is shown on the Windows® client “Network Neighbourhood”) options to yes using the corresponding pulldown lists.
You can optionally fine tune file permissions, file creation masks, filename case, and more options by opening the corresponding Advanced options.
Click
once you are satisfied with your settings.By default, all printers configured in the
Mandriva Linux system are available for the
clients of the Samba server, and there's also a
special printer named pdf-gen
which generates
PDF files, available only to valid
Samba users. Select a printer share and click
on to fine tune printer sharing settings
(valid users, printer drivers, etc.)