July 2, 2025
Macsimum IT , , , , ,

Samba Share Setup

Here’s a complete walkthrough on how to set up a Samba share on a Linux device running Debian. Use your appropriate package manager.

Install Samba

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt install Samba

Create a Remote User

This or these will be the user(s) who will log into the share. They don’t need a home directory, so we will omit that with the flags. Make sure to create both a system password and a Samba password for the remote user(s).

sudo adduser --system --no-create-home remoteuser
sudo passwd remoteuser
sudo smbpasswd -a remoteuser

Create the Shared Directory

This is an example directory in /home/currentuser/ but can be almost anywhere.

cd ~
mkdir shared
sudo chmod 775 shared

Example 1: No Separate Owner

The most straightforward is to have Samba simulate using the current user for file and directory management when a remote user logs in. It requires the least amount of work. The force user key has to be specified otherwise the system will disallow the remote user from accessing the directory. Samba needs this, unfortunately.

#inside the file /etc/samba/smb.conf
#add the following:

[shared]
   comment = Global Samba Shares
   path = /home/currentuser/shared
   writeable = yes
   browseable = yes
   create mask = 0644
   directory mask = 0755
   valid users = @WORKGROUP
   force user = currentuser
   guest ok = no

[shared] is the endpoint the remote user must browse to:

\\server_name_or_address\shared (on Windows)
smb://server_name_or_address/shared (on Mac/Linux/Unix)

[my_shares] would be

\\server_name_or_address\my_shares
smb://server_name_or_address/my_shares

Reboot

Example 2: A Dedicated Owner

It’s recommended to create a new local user which manages the directories in order to apply specific permissions and monitor access. In this example, shareuser doesn’t need a home directory.

sudo adduser --system --no-create-home shareuser
sudo passwd shareuser

Give shareuser the Appropriate Permissions

cd ~
sudo chown -R shareuser shared
#inside the file /etc/samba/smb.conf
#add the following:

[shared]
   comment = Global Samba Shares
   path = /home/currentuser/shared
   writeable = yes
   browseable = yes
   create mask = 0644
   directory mask = 0755
   valid users = @WORKGROUP
   force user = shareuser
   guest ok = no

I hope this helps. I had a lot of trouble after I could not create or delete files, and I fixed that by specifying the user to take ownership during a Samba login. The Samba configuration has a large amount of options, but that makes sense since the protocol is so mature. I tried to keep it as minimal but robust as possible.

Reboot