Linux as a Client to Windows SMB Shares

This article briefly explains how to access Windows SMB shares in Linux. Linux is a client here.

If you want to read about using Linux as a Samba server to serve files to Windows clients, see Samba Quickstart.

© 2005 Tero Karvinen http://www.iki.fi/karvinen

This chapter contains just the required commands without any additional testing.

Here, we want to connect to smb://windowsuser:windowspassword@windowsserver/share (workgroup WINDOWSGANG), so we have:

• Windows Server: “windowsserver”
• Windows Share: “share”
• Windows Username: “windowsuser”
• Windows Password: “windowspassword”
• Windows Workgroup: “WINDOWSGANG”
• Linux User: “linuxboy”
• Linux Group (for user linuxboy): “linuxboy”
• Mount Point (an empty directory): “mymountpoint”

Edit $HOME/sambapass (here: /home/linuxboy/sambapass)

# $HOME/sambapass
username = windowsuser
password = windowspassword
domain   = WINDOWSGANG

Create an empty directory (a mount point):

$ mkdir $HOME/mymountpoint/

As root, edit /etc/fstab, add this line in the end:

//windowsserver/share /home/tee/mymountpoint       
 smbfs 
 credentials=/home/tee/sambapass,uid=linuxboy,gid=linuxboy,dmask=700,fmask=700
 0       0

Put the above in a single line, I’ve splitted it only for readability. In options (credentials...fmask=700) there are no spaces. Numbers are zeros.

Then, as root, mount all mounts mentioned in fstab:

# mount -a 

Mount often warns you a couple of times about “session request to windowsserver failed (Called name not present)”, but with ls you can see that the directory was mounted.

Test is as normal user (here: linuxboy)

$ touch $HOME/mymountpoint/tero.txt
$ ls $HOME/mymountpoint/
tero.txt

Well done, you have mounted a windows share to Linux using just command line. If you ever have to reboot, it will be automatically mounted again.

If the above worked for you, good. No need to read more, unless you want to learn troubleshooting.

$ smbclient -L 172.28.1.133
session request to 172.28.1.133 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 172 failed (Called name not present)
Password: 
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows 5.0] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
        Sharename       Type      Comment
Error returning browse list: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

===

$ smbclient -L 172.28.1.133 -U kaapo%alofoiyl2890xb
session request to 172.28.1.133 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 172 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[GHETTOYO] OS=[Windows 5.0] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Sharename       Type      Comment
        ---------       ----      -------
        IPC$            IPC       Remote IPC
        D$              Disk      Default share
        ADMIN$          Disk      Remote Admin
        C$              Disk      Default share
        tero            Disk      Teron testijako 
http://www.iki.fi/karvinen
        jako            Disk
session request to 172.28.1.133 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 172 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[GHETTOYO] OS=[Windows 5.0] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Server               Comment
        ---------            -------

        Workgroup            Master
        ---------            -------


$ smbclient //172.28.1.133/tero -U kaapo%alofoiyl2890xb

$ smbclient //172.28.1.133/tero -U kaapo%alofoiyl2890xb -c dir
session request to 172.28.1.133 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 172 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[GHETTOYO] OS=[Windows 5.0] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
  .                                   D        0  Thu Dec  1 13:44:57 
2005
  ..                                  D        0  Thu Dec  1 13:44:57 
2005

                37032 blocks of size 2097152. 36219 blocks available

===

$ cat sambapass
username = kaapo
password = alofoiyl2890xb
domain   = WORKGROUP

$ smbclient -L 172.28.1.133 -A sambapass
session request to 172.28.1.133 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 172 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[GHETTOYO] OS=[Windows 5.0] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Sharename       Type      Comment
        ---------       ----      -------
        IPC$            IPC       Remote IPC
        D$              Disk      Default share
        ADMIN$          Disk      Remote Admin
        C$              Disk      Default share
        tero            Disk      Teron testijako http://www.iki.fi/karvinen
        jako            Disk

===

$ sudo mount -t smbfs -o credentials=/home/tee/sambapass 
//172.28.1.133/tero/ /home/tee/teroghettoy/
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on 
//172.28.1.133/tero/,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so
(=> smbfs not installed)
$ sudo apt-get install smbfs

$ sudo mount -t smbfs -o credentials=/home/tee/sambapass //172.28.1.133/tero /home/tee/teroghettoy/
30872: session request to 172.28.1.133 failed (Called name not present)
30872: session request to 172 failed (Called name not present)
(but it still mounted)
tee@ubuntu:~$ mount |grep teroghettoy
//172.28.1.133/tero on /home/tee/teroghettoy type smbfs (rw)
$ sudo umount teroghettoy/
$ sudo umount teroghettoy/
umount: teroghettoy/: not mounted

$ sudo mount -t smbfs -o credentials=/home/tee/sambapass,uid=tee,gid=tee,dmask=700,fmask=700 //172.28.1.133/tero /home/tee/teroghettoy/

$ sudo mount 
	-t smbfs 
	-o credentials=/home/tee/sambapass,uid=tee,gid=tee,dmask=700,fmask=700
	//172.28.1.133/tero /home/tee/teroghettoy/

Now writing works. 

$ touch teroghettoy/foobar 
$ ls teroghettoy/
foobar

$ grep teroghettoy /etc/fstab
//172.28.1.133/tero /home/tee/teroghettoy       smbfs   \
	credentials=/home/tee/sambapass,uid=tee,gid=tee,dmask=700,fmask=700     \
	0       0

$ sudo mount -a

$ mount |grep teroghettoy
//172.28.1.133/tero on /home/tee/teroghettoy type smbfs (rw)