Objective

Create a private and public SMB share. The private share should use your first name and a password. The public share should be viewable/writable to everyone. Use yourname_private and yourname_public for the share names.

Install Samba Server

Logon to the Ubuntu machine to install Samba. To install Samba, run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install samba samba-common python-glade2 system-config-samba

Configure Samba Public share

Now that Samba is installed, run the commands below to backup its default configuration file.

sudo mv /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak

Next, create the directory where you want to store your files and change the permissions. I am using the -p option to create the parent folder if it doesn’t exist. The -R option means Recursive, and is not required if the folder is empty. Commands are case sensitive.

sudo mkdir -p /shares/mark_public
sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /shares/mark_public
sudo chmod -R 775 /shares/mark_public

Next, open Samba configuration file by running the commands below.
We will be using Nano for this operation, but you can also use vi.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Copy and paste the content below into the file and save… this will create a share named Public where everyone will have access on the Ubuntu to it…

#============================ Global definition ================================
 
[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
server string = Mark Server %v
netbios name = mark-file-server
security = user
map to guest = bad user
name resolve order = bcast host
dns proxy = no
bind interfaces only = yes
 
#============================ Share Definitions ============================== 
 
[Mark Public]
   <span style="color: #ff0000;">path = /shares/mark_public</span>
   writable = yes
   guest ok = yes
   guest only = yes
   read only = no
   create mode = 0777
   directory mode = 0777
   force user = nobody

Save your changes with Ctrl+X, Y, Enter.
Restart Samba using the command below to load your new configuration.

sudo service smbd restart

Configure Samba Private Share

Now you know how to create Samba public shares, let’s go and create private and protected shares. Only users that are member of the approved group will be able to access the secure location with passwords.

First create a samba group called smbgroup for the share.. only members will have access. To create a groups in Ubuntu, run the commands below.

sudo addgroup smb

Then add a user to the group by running the commands below

sudo usermod -aG smb mark

Finally, all users who need to access a protected samba share will need to type a password. To add a user to samba password database, run the commands below for each user.

sudo smbpasswd -a mark

The user will be prompted to enter and confirm a password. This password will be used to access the protected samba shares.

Next, go and create a protected share in the /shares directory.

sudo mkdir -p /shares/mark_private

Then give only root and members group access to this share.

sudo chown -R root:mark /shares/mark_private
sudo chmod -R 0770 /shares/mark_private

When you’re done creating the protected share, go and share it in the smb.conf file.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Then append the configuration block below into the smb.conf file.

[Mark Private]
  path = /shares/mark_private
  valid users = @smb
  guest ok = no
  writable = yes
  browsable = yes

Save your changes with Ctrl+X, Y, Enter.
Restart Samba using the command below to load your new configuration.

sudo service smbd restart

If you’re on Windows, you should be able to see your shares now.