Topher’s Scribbles

So you want to mount a network drive with Samba?

First thing you do is install Samba via ports on both systems. (Be sure to update your ports with cvsup, that will be in a future article)

Next, on the server machine, in order to make Samba run, you will need to add it to /etc/rc.conf. Just add this line:

On the client machine, you don’t have to start Samba. In fact, for added security, I remove the samba.sh startup script like so:

Now we add the user on the server machine. You will be adding an actual Unix user, but without a login and home directory.

Username : SambaUser
Password : *****
Full Name : Samba User
Uid : 1004
Class :
Groups : SambaUser
Home : /dev/null
Shell : /usr/sbin/nologin
Locked : no

Add a Samba password:

Now we edit the Samba service in smb.conf located at /usr/local/etc/smb.conf with…

Be sure to create the directory (/path/to/directory) and make that writable to the SambaUser.

To test your server, you should be able to do this:

If no errors, then you are good to go. If you get an error, please refer to Samba’s site, or you can google the error message.

We can start Samba now with this:

Now we mount the drive. Create the directory in the client machine where you would like the mounted network drive at, and then mount it. (NOTE: Below is all one line)

That’s pretty much it!!

Done!!