How to mount SMB share on Linux

The SMB/CIFS networking protocal can be used to share a directory on the local network with other computers. Such network share directories can be shared by Windows computers and devices like NVIDIA Shield. Any Linux computer can also share a directory using SMB/CIFS as described here.

To mount such a network share on a Ubuntu computer I used these steps:

• Install SMB and CIFS packages:

$ sudo apt install smbclient cifs-utils

• Check if the network shares on the host can be listed by using hostname or IP address:

$ smbclient -L foobarserver -U joe

$ smbclient -L 10.0.0.180 -U joe

Note the sharename that are listed, we will need to use those to mount later.

• Create a directory to mount the share:

$ sudo mkdir /media/foobarshare

• To mount using the commandline:

$ sudo mount -t cifs -o username=joe,password=supersecret //10.0.0.180/somesharename /media/foobarshare

I found that using the IP address worked, but using the server name foobarserver gave the error mount: bad usage. You should be able to see the contents of the share in /media/foobarshare now.

• To unmount the share:

$ sudo umount /media/foobarshare

• To make the mount writeable, use the UID of your username in the mount options:

-o username=joe,password=supersecret,uid=$(id -u)

• Add the mount entry to /etc/fstab if want this mounted all the time:

//10.0.0.180/somesharename /media/foobarshare cifs username=joe,password=supersecret 0 0

and mount with:

$ sudo mount -a

Reference: Ubuntu: Mount Windows share permanently

Tried with: Ubuntu 22.04