Linux® For Dummies®, 8th Edition

Step 8: Create Samba User Accounts

I mentioned in the preceding section that Samba doesn’t use the Linux user account password when authenticating remote clients. That’s because Samba uses its own user accounts for that. Samba acts like a middleman between the remote Windows client and the Linux filesystem.

When accessing files and folders on the system, Samba uses the defined Linux user accounts. When communicating with remote clients, Samba uses its own internal user accounts. Because of this, Samba must map the Windows user accounts to the appropriate local Linux user accounts. This is done in the Samba Server Configuration window:

1.	Select SystemAdministrationServer SettingsSamba to start the Samba Server Configuration window. As before, you need root permission to use this program, so if you’re not already logged in as the root user, Fedora will ask you for the root password.
2.	Click PreferencesSamba Users from the menu bar. This displays the Samba Users window, as shown in Figure 21-7. Figure 21-7. The Samba Users window for adding new Samba users.
3.	Click the Add User button ...