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Samba/CIFS

Samba is a implementation of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol that is used by Windows devices to provide shared access to files, printers, and serial ports etc. There is a comprehensive Wikipedia page about Samba and its capabilities.

This page will explain how to use a subset of the Samba system to 'mount' a shared folder on a Windows device so it appears on your Raspberry Pi, or to share a folder on your Raspberry Pi so it can be accessed by a Windows client.

Installing CIFS/Samba support

By default, Raspbian does not include CIFS/Samba support, but this can easily be added. The following commmands will install all the required components for using Samba as a server or a client.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba samba-common-bin smbclient cifs-utils

Using a shared Windows folder

First, you need to share a folder on your Windows device. This is quite a convoluted process!

Turn on sharing

  1. Open the Networking and Sharing Centre by right-clicking on the system tray and selecting it
  2. Click on Change advanced sharing settings
  3. Select Turn on network discovery
  4. Select Turn on file and printer sharing
  5. Save changes

Share the folder

You can share any folder you want, but for this example, simply create a folder called share.

  1. Create the folder share on your desktop.
  2. Right-click on the new folder, and select Properties.
  3. Click on the Sharing tab, and then the Advanced Sharing button
  4. Select Share this folder; by default, the share name is the name of the folder
  5. Click on the Permissions button
  6. For this example, select Everyone and Full Control (you can limit access to specific users if required); click OK when done, then OK again to leave the Advanced Sharing page
  7. Click on the Security tab, as we now need to configure the same permissions
  8. Select the same settings as the Permissions tab, adding the chosen user if necessary
  9. Click OK

The folder should now be shared.

Windows 10 Sharing Wizard

On Windows 10 there is a Sharing Wizard that helps with some of these steps.

  1. Run the Computer Management application from the Start Bar
  2. Select Shared Folders, then Shares
  3. Right-click and select New Share, which will start up the Sharing Wizard; click Next
  4. Select the folder you wish to share, and click Next
  5. Click Next to use all the sharing defaults
  6. Select Custom and set the required permissions, and click OK, then Finish

Mount the folder on the Raspberry Pi

Mounting in Linux is the process of attaching a folder to a location, so firstly we need that location.

mkdir windowshare

Now, we need to mount the remote folder to that location. The remote folder is the host name or IP address of the Windows PC, and the share name used when sharing it. We also need to provide the Windows username that will be used to access the remote machine.

sudo mount.cifs //<hostname or IP address>/share /home/pi/windowshare -o user=<name>

You should now be able to view the content of the Windows share on your Raspberry Pi.

cd windowshare
ls

Sharing a folder for use by Windows

Firstly, create a folder to share. This example creates a folder called shared in the home folder of the current user, and assumes the current user is pi.

cd ~
mkdir shared

Now we need to tell Samba to share this folder, using the Samba configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

At the end of the file, add the following to share the folder, giving the remote user read/write permissions:

[share]
    path = /home/pi/shared
    read only = no
    public = yes
    writable = yes

In the same file, find the workgroup line, and if necessary, change it to the name of the workgroup of your local Windows network.

workgroup = <your workgroup name here>

That should be enough to share the folder. On your Windows device, when you browse the network, the folder should appear and you should be able to connect to it.