Using Samba in Xubuntu

Execute:

shares-admin

Unfortunately neither shares-admin (crashes) nor system-config-samba (deprecated) work in recent Xubuntu releases. Other than in Nautilus we do not have an option to share directories from Thunar.

This apparently means that as of today we do not have a working graphical method to setup Samba shares in Xubuntu.

So after installing samba and defining a Samba user with:

sudo apt install samba
sudo smbpasswd -a [user]  ## [user] must already exist for Xubuntu

We can use the command net usershare for adding directories. Because of better copy & paste ability I find it more convenient to create an entry in /etc/samba/smb.conf:

[share name]
    path = full path to shared directory
    comment = optional description
    writeable = yes
    browseable = yes
    read only = yes
    guest ok = yes

Further options for smb.conf can be read in the Samba documentation. The named share will be available after a restart of the samba server.