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File share

Linux​

On Linux, I use a CIFS share to allow any Linux distro to connect.

Install​

You may need to install a few utilities, though most distros include these out-of-the-box.

Installation
  • This will install cifs-utils using apt
  • If you're not using Debian or Ubuntu, you may need to run something different. Check your distro's package manager for details
  • This command will do nothing if you already have the latest versions of the utilities installed
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

Configure​

To connect to it, you'll need a couple of configuration files:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Add this to the bottom of your config file, or create a new one if you don't already have one
//192.168.0.2/tank /mnt/tank cifs uid=1000,gid=0,credentials=/home/mark/tank-share-credentials,iocharset=utf8 0 0

You'll also need to create the mount point:

sudo mkdir /mnt/tank

To find out more about these configuration values, check out the Ubuntu guide to mounting shares

Run​

Once you've got cifs-utils installed and you've configured the share, run this to reload your fstab config:

sudo mount -a

You should find your new share mounted in /mnt/tank!

Windows​

For Windows, I use a SMB share. These can be connected to via the GUI on Windows.

The server should be listed in your Network view (in Windows Explorer), listed as FREENAS. If you cannot see it, then your network may be misconfigured.

Once you've opened that, you should see a single folder called tank. You can open it to navigate the items in the share, or right-click, and Map network drive.. to map it to a drive letter (such as Z:\)

WSL​

For WSL, I recommend that you first connect to the share on the host Windows machine. After that, we'll be using drvfs, which is a virtual file system built to connect WSL to your Windows files. You're already using it on /mnt/c!

Configure​

To connect to it, you'll need to configure fstab:

/etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Add this to the bottom of your config file, or create a new one if you don't already have one
# This example assumes your drive is mapped under `Z:`. If it's not, replace any `z` with your drive's letter
Z: /mnt/z drvfs defaults 0 0

You'll also need to create the mount point:

sudo mkdir /mnt/z

Run​

Once you've configured the share, run this to reload your fstab config:

sudo mount -a

You should find your new share mounted in /mnt/z!

Web​

I've also added FileBrowser to exeggcute that's pointing at the share, so that you can browse the file share via your browser.

You will need a username and password to connect to it.