Install samba

sudo apt install samba       

You can use systemctl status smbd.service to check the samba status.

Backup the default sambda configuration file and parse a clean one from it. This script comes from this post

 sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf_backup
 sudo bash -c 'grep -v -E "^#|^;" /etc/samba/smb.conf_backup | grep . > /etc/samba/smb.conf'

Setup the folder on the host machine for sharing. In my machine, I’m using the /home/lovby/smb_share/ folder. Therefore I need to add these settings in the smb.conf file

 [Public]
   comment = Public shared folder
   path = /home/lovby/smb_share/
   read only = no
   # allow guest user
   guest ok = yes    
   directory mask = 0777
   creat mask = 0777
   writable = yes
   acl allow execute always = yes

This folder will have name Public on the samba sharing. And the setting will allow any guest user to have full access in the folder. This might be DANDEROUS especially when there are other machines which can reach out to your host machine. Hence you should also consider set up account restriction for samba, or just stop the sharing service if you are not using it. You can check more details about these settings by

  man smb.conf

When the configuration is done, run the following commands

  # testparm will check your smb.conf file for possible mistakes
  testparm    
  # if there are no mistakes, then restart the smb service in order to reload the conf file.
  sudo systemctl restart smbd.service

(Optional) If you are not comforable with setting up shared folders with command line tools used in previous 2 steps, you can use nautilus’s GUI to set up sharing folder. Just right click on the folder you want to share, and choose local network share -> share this folder, then set the share name and the corresponding rights for read, write, guest access, etc. Also grant requirements for modification your folder if being asked by nautilus.

Connect from your Windows VM. This might be slightly different for various Windows versions.

1. Go to Windows file explorer -> (Network) -> Map network drive

2. Select driver letter and type the samba share location. In this case, it’s

   \\host-ip-address\Public

   where host-ip-address is your host machine’s IP address if you’re using bridged network for this VM (which means host and guest systems are in the same subnet hence their IPs should look like xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa and xxx.yyy.zzz.bbb). But if you’re using NAT network configuration, then fill in the network gateway address obtained from you guest VM. And Public is the sharing’s name I set up before in the .conf file.

3. You can check the Connect using different credentials if you want to manually provide user information.

Navigate to the folder you want to share, right click on it and select propoerties.

Select sharing -> advanced sharing

Check share this folder and adjust user premissions such as read, write, user accessiblity, etc.

Click apply and OK.

At your host machine, you can open nautilus -> other locations -> connect to server

Inputh the smb server location

smb://guest-ip-address/share-folder-name

where guest-ip-address is the ip address of your guest system no matter you’re using bridged or NAT network configuration. When prompt, use the user information saved on the windows guest system to log into the shared folder.