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Of course, if you have been adding shares by directly editing the configuration file then they will be displayed as well. This means that even if you have never used this module before or configured Samba manually, the list on the main page will not be empty. No matter how Samba is installed, its default configuration file will include at least two shares (the special homes and printers), as well as several global settings. The module expects you to use the package if one is available or the source code otherwise, so if you did not and an error message is still being displayed on the main page the module's configuration will need to be adjusted to use the correct paths.
#WINDOWS NETWORK FILE SHARING PROTOCOL INSTALL#
If not, you will need to download the source code from and then compile and install it manually. Most Linux distributions and several other operating systems include a Samba package or packages, which can be easily installed using the Software Packages module (covered in chapter 12).
#WINDOWS NETWORK FILE SHARING PROTOCOL HOW TO#
If you do have Samba installed but in a different location to what the module expects, see the Configuring the Samba Windows File Sharing module section later in this chapter for instructions on how to re-configure it to use the correct paths. If the module cannot find it, an error message like The Samba server executable /usr/sbin/smbd was not found will appear on the main page instead. Like all other modules that configure some server, this one can only be used if the Samba server is actually installed. However, if you add them to your smb.conf file manually the module will not modify them. For example, settings related to login scripts, NT domains and SSL cannot be edited. This module does not allow you to configure all of them though, only the ones that are useful for a small server on a simple network. Over the years, Samba has gained a vast array of configurable options. Below them are icons for setting various global options that apply to all shares, links for managing Samba users and a button for starting or re-starting the server processes. All existing shares are listed, along with their paths and the users that they are available to. It can be found in the Servers category, and when its link is clicked the main page as shown in the screenshot below will be displayed. The Samba Windows File Sharing module allows you to specify directories and printers to be shared to Windows clients using the SMB protocol (Server Message Blocks).