Abstract
Samba is a software package which allows GNU/Linux to act as a file and/or printer server for Windows® machines. This wizard will only help you configure public shares, not private shares (if you wish to do this, refer to the documentation in the Samba package).
Now you must enter the work group for which these shares will be available (Figure 8.4, “Choose the Work Group for your Shares”). You can either create a new work group or choose an existing one, but if you don't know what to do, please refer to your system administrator.
Then you will have to specify the name by which your Mandrakelinux server will be known to Windows® machines, as shown in Figure 8.5, “Naming your Samba Server”. You may choose whatever name you want.
After that you have the option to restrict access to the Samba shares served by your server. Choose All if you don't want to restrict access or My rules if you want to define which machines are allowed to access the shares. You will be then asked to define the access rules.
Fill the fields according to the examples provided.
You finally need to decide whether you want to enable files and printer sharing, as shown in Figure 8.7, “Sharing Files and Printers”. Here are the available features:
Enable file sharing area: all files stored in a public directory will be publicly available on the local network for SMB clients (Windows® or other).
If you activate this option, you will be asked to specify the local path which will contain that public directory: you can specify an existing directory or a new one by putting a check-mark in Create shared directory if it doesn't exist check-box. You will also need to specify the users and groups which will be able to read and write from those shares: use a @ to specify group names.
Enable Server Printer Sharing: printers served by this server will be available for printing on the local network for all SMB clients. If you activate this option, you will be asked to choose which printers will be accessible.
Make home directories available for their owners: each user having an account on the server will be able to access his own files from another networked SMB client.
All the users wishing to access their home directory from other machines of the local network will have to set their password with the smbpasswd command.