Setting Up a Windows Server Using Samba

Checking Whether Samba Is Installed

Check whether Samba is installed, by typing the following command in a terminal window:

rpm -q samba
samba-2.2.7a-2

If the rpm command displays a package name that begins with samba, Samba is already installed on your system, and you should skip this subsection. Otherwise, follow these steps to install Samba from this book's companion CD-ROM:

1. Log in as root, and make sure that the appropriate companion CD-ROM is in the drive and mounted. If it is not, use the umount /mnt/cdrom command to dismount the current CD-ROM; replace it with the correct CD-ROM, and mount that CD-ROM with the mount /mnt/cdrom command.

2. Change the directory to the CD-ROM-specifically to the directory where the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) packages are located-with the following command:

   cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS

3. Use the following rpm command to install Samba:

   rpm -ivh samba*

   If Samba is already installed, this command returns an error message. Otherwise, the rpm command installs Samba on your system by copying various files to their appropriate locations.

These steps complete the unpacking and installation of the Samba software. Now, all you have to do to use Samba is configure it.

Configuring Samba

To set up the Windows file-sharing and print-sharing services, you have to provide a configuration file named /etc/samba/smb.conf. The configuration file is a text file that looks like a Microsoft Windows 3.1 INI file. You can prepare the file in any text editor on your Red Hat Linux system.

Secret

Like the old Windows INI files, the /etc/samba/smb.conf file consists of sections, with a list of parameters in each section. Each section of the smb.conf file begins with the name of the section in brackets. The section continues until the next section begins or until the file ends.

Each line in a section specifies the value of a parameter, using the following syntax:

name = value

As in Windows INI files, comment lines begin with a semicolon (;). In the /etc/ samba/smb.conf file, comments may also begin with a hash (#).

The Samba software comes with a configuration file you can edit to get started. To prepare the configuration file, log in as root, and use your favorite text editor to edit the file /etc/samba/smb.conf. Here's a sample configuration file without any comments:

[global]
    netbios name = LNBP200
    workgroup = LNB SOFTWARE
    server string = LNB Software-Red Hat Linux-Samba Server
    hosts allow = 192.168.0.  127.
    guest account = naba
    log file = /var/log/samba/l%m.log

# Log files can be at most 50KB
    max log size = 50

    security = user
    smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

# Leave the next option as is - it's for performance
    socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

    remote browse sync = 192.168.0.255
    remote announce = 192.168.0.255/LNB SOFTWARE
    local master = yes
    os level = 33

    name resolve order = lmhosts bcast

    dns proxy = no
    unix password sync = no

[homes]
    comment = Home Directories
    browseable = no
    writable = yes

[printers]
    comment = All Printers
    path = /var/spool/samba
    browseable = no
    guest ok = no
    writable = no
    printable = yes

[tmp]
    comment = Temporary file space
    path = /tmp
    read only = no
    public = yes

[public]
    comment = Public Stuff
    path = /home/samba
    browseable = yes
    public = yes
    guest ok = yes
    writable = yes
    printable = no
    available = yes
    guest only = no
    user = naba
    only user = yes

Change the user name from naba to your user name. Also make sure that all directories mentioned in the configuration file actually exist. For example, create the /home/samba directory with the command mkdir /home/samba.

After editing the Samba configuration file, add two users to the Samba password file. First add your user name. Here's how I add myself:

smbadduser naba:naba
----------------------------------------------------------
ENTER password for naba
New SMB password:          (I enter the password.)
Retype new SMB password:   (I enter password again.)
Password changed for user naba. 

testparm

Start the SMB services with the following command:

service smb start

To start the SMB services automatically when the system reboots, type the following command:

chkconfig --level 35 smb on

Accessing the Samba Server from Windows

You can try to access the Samba server on the Red Hat Linux system from one of the Windows systems on your LAN. Double-click the Network Neighborhood icon on the Windows 95/98/ME desktop. On Windows XP, select Start>My Network Places, and then click View workgroup computers. This should show all the computers on the same workgroup.

If you are accessing the Samba server from Windows 95/98/ME, you should be able to view the shared folders simply by double-clicking the icon. For the example, you should see two folders: tmp and public. You can then open these folders to explore the contents of the directories further.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to access the Samba server from Windows XP or Windows 2000. Samba emulates a Windows NT primary domain controller (PDC), and XP expects a Windows 2000 network. In a Windows XP Professional system, you can edit a key in the registry to enable the XP system to access the Samba server, but Windows XP Home Edition is simply unable to connect to the Samba server.

Accessing Windows Resources with smbclient

You can use the smbclient program to access shared directories and printers on Windows systems on the LAN and to ensure that your Linux Samba server is working. One quick way to check is to use the smbclient -L command to view the list of services on the Red Hat Linux Samba server itself. This is what I get when I run smbclient on my Linux Samba sever:

smbclient -L LNBP200
added interface ip=192.168.1.200 bcast=192.168.1.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
added interface ip=172.16.128.1 bcast=172.16.128.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
Got a positive name query response from 192.168.1.200 ( 192.168.1.200 )
Password: (I press Enter)
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[LNB SOFTWARE] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 2.2.7]
   Sharename     Type      Comment
   ---------     ----      -------
   tmp           Disk      Temporary file space
   public        Disk      Public Stuff
   IPC$          IPC       IPC Service (LNB Software-Red Hat Linux-Samba Server)
   ADMIN$        Disk      IPC Service (LNB Software-Red Hat Linux-Samba Server)

        Server               Comment
        ---------            -------
        LNBP200              LNB Software-Red Hat Linux-Samba Server
        NABA-DELL-4400

        Workgroup            Master
        ---------            -------
        LNB SOFTWARE         NABA-DELL-4400

The output of smbclient shows shared resources and lists the names of the other Windows servers on the local network.

If you have other Windows servers around, you can look at their services with the smbclient program. Here is what I get when I view the shared resources on a Windows 98 PC:

smbclient -L LNBP933
added interface ip=192.168.0.2 bcast=192.168.0.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
Got a positive name query response from 192.168.0.3 ( 192.168.0.3 )
Password: (I press Enter)

        Sharename      Type      Comment
        ---------      ----      -------
        PRINTER$       Disk
        HP NEW        Printer   HP Photosmart on new Dell
        C              Disk      C drive on Dell (2001)
        IPC$           IPC       Remote Inter Process Communication

        Server               Comment
        ---------            -------
        LNBP200              LNB Software-Red Hat Linux-Samba Server
        LNBP400              Dell Dimension XPS-400
        LNBP933              Dell Dimension 4100 (2001)
        NABA-DELL-4400

        Workgroup            Master
        ---------            -------
        LNB SOFTWARE         NABA-DELL-4400

You can do much more than simply look at resources with the smbclient program: you can also use it to access a disk on a Windows server or to send a file to a Windows printer. The smbclient program is like FTP-you connect to a Windows server and use commands to get or put files and to send files to the printer.

The following example shows how I use smbclient to access a disk on my Windows XP PC and view its directory:

smbclient //naba-dell-4400/Share naba mypassword
added interface ip=192.168.0.2 bcast=192.168.0.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
Got a positive name query response from 192.168.0.4 ( 192.168.0.4 )
Domain=[LNB SOFTWARE] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
smb: \> dir
  .                                  DA        0  Sun Jan 12 15:47:36 2003
  ..                                 DA        0  Sun Jan 12 15:47:36 2003
  Ashley                             DA        0  Sat Nov 23 11:32:04 2002
  bookmark.htm                        A   114785  Sun Jun 23 13:48:22 2002
  brother-mfc-10-22-02.rms            A   132633  Tue Oct 22 18:31:36 2002
... lines deleted...
  Photos                              D        0  Mon Jan  6 19:54:54 2003

                38154 blocks of size 2097152. 30719 blocks available
smb: \> quit

To see a list of smbclient commands, type help at the prompt. Table 19-2 is a brief summary of commonly used smbclient commands. To familiarize yourself with smbclient, try as many of these commands as you can.