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Want to learn how to share files between your Raspberry Pi and your PC? Read this post!

Index

• Introduction
• Prerequisites
• Install samba
• Create a Share
• Test the Share
• Resources

Introduction

On a network, windows share files between computers and printers via something called the SMB protocol. (Under the hood, SMB uses the NetBIOS API to resolve names.) In this post, I will show you how to install a service on a Linux distro (Raspbian), called SAMBA. This service implements the SMB protocol, so you can share files between your e.g. Raspberry PI and a Windows PC.

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Prerequisites

Read this post:

• https://www.raspberryfield.life/2020/05/12/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi-installing-raspbian/ [2020-05-21]

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Install samba

Always get the update information about your packages, before installing programs via apt:

The install command can now use the proper configurations updated by the previous update command.

Run this command to install the parts from the samba software we need:

The installation will now start.

During the installation, you will get this message:

Here you want to choose Yes. It will make configurations easier.

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Create a Share

Now when we have samba installed. We can create a directory (folder) to share.

Move to your user’s home directory by the cd command and make a directory named e.g. shared. You can list the content in a directory with the ls command:

Here you can see that the only item in the home directory of the pi user is a directory named shared.

Next step is to configure the file: /etc/samba/smb.conf. Open it in nano.

First is to change this line to the same workgroup as your PC:

You can find the name of your PC’s workgroup here: Start -> Control panel-> System and Security -> System:

Next is to, in the same file, add this at the end:

/etc/samba/smb.conf

[share]
    path = /home/pi/shared
    read only = no
    public = yes
    writable = yes

Save and exit, next is to test the share from your PC!

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Test the Share

Let’s test the share!

Open the File Explorer on your PC and type in:

\\<hostname or IP>\<name of share>

Put a file in this shared folder from windows and from your Pi:

Note! If you get a permission denied in windows while trying to write to the share, try this: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/206309/how-to-create-a-samba-share-that-is-writable-from-windows-without-777-permission [2020-05-22]

Force permission to your Raspberry Pi user:

$ chown -R <user name> </path/to/share>

$ chown -R pi /home/pi/shared

Next, add these lines at the end of your share configuration in /etc/samba/smb.conf:

Restart the samba service to force the changes to kick in:

This configuration has forced all connections to use the ‘pi’ user with directory permission 0755(read/write) and file permission 0644 (read/write). Read more about permission in Linux here: http://www.filepermissions.com/ [2020-05-22].

Creating a file from Pi:

In windows, right click in your File Explorer while browsing the share and create a new text file.

Now you can see both files in the share!

Good job! Now you can share files between your Pi and PC!

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Resources

• https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/samba.md [2020-05-22]
• https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/ip-address.md [2020-05-22]