Samba

Depends on which linux you are, use your package manager, in this post I’ll use apt for Debian or derivates. For arch you can use pacman/yay/paru or whatever.

Install samba

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sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba 

Check if it was installed

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whereis samba

the output must to be something like samba: /usr/lib/samba

Config

Make a dir

Make the folder to share, u can put it where you want and with the name that u want, if you want to have a folder on your home

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mkdir ~/smbshare

Samba config

Edit samba config on /etc/samba/smb.conf

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sudo nvim /etc/samba/smb.conf

At the end of file add your share

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[sambashare]
    comment = Samba Share
    path = /home/username/sambashare
    read only = no
    browsable = yes

Save and exit with :wq

Restart samba service

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sudo systemctl restart smbd

Setup an user for samba

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sudo smbpasswd -a username

Accessing Network Shares

Prerequisites

First, install the necessary utilities:

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sudo apt-get install cifs-utils smbclient

Temporary Mount (Manual Method)

1. Create a local directory where you’ll mount the network share:

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sudo mkdir /media/share_name

2. Mount the network share using this command:

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sudo mount -t cifs //server/share_name /media/share_name -o username=samba_user,password=your_password

Where:

• server is the hostname or IP of the computer sharing the folder
• share_name is the name of the shared resource
• samba_user is the user (local or domain) with access permissions

Example:

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sudo mount -t cifs //192.168.0.20/smbshare /home/user/Documents/share -o username=user123,password=pass123

Permanent Mount (via fstab)

To make the mount persistent across reboots, edit /etc/fstab:

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sudo nvim /etc/fstab

Add this line:

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//server/share_name  /media/share_name  cifs  username=samba_user,password=your_password,noexec,user,rw,nounix,uid=1000,iocharset=utf8  0  0

For a more robust configuration that handles network delays and systemd integration:

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//server/share_name  /local/mount_point  cifs  username=samba_user,password=your_password,iocharset=utf8,uid=local_user,gid=local_group,forceuid,forcegid,cifsacl,noauto,x-systemd.automount,_netdev  0  0

Key additional options:

• noauto,x-systemd.automount: Delays mounting until first access
• _netdev: Ensures network is available before mounting

Extras

For more detailed information, consult these Arch Linux wiki pages (which are excellent resources even for non-Arch users):

• Samba
• fstab