# smbfs not supported by the kernel...

## niyogi

I get the following error when trying to mount a samba share that is listed in my fstab

ERROR: smbfs filesystem not supported by the kernel

Please refer to the smbmnt( :Cool:  manual page

smbmnt failed: 255

-niyogi

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## Sesquipedalian

silly question, but.......  did you add smbfs support in your kernel?

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## niyogi

hmm... you know, i thought that it wasn't "necessary" per se since I would just need to install the samba package... where is smbfs support exactly?

and if smbfs support is needed, what's the point of the samba package?  :Razz: 

-S

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## Sesquipedalian

samba allows you to share files with and access shares on windows machines.  however, if you want to mount a samba filesystem, you need kernel support for it.

in fact (iirc) smbmnt just calls

```
mount -t smbfs
```

you'll find it in the "network filesystems" section   :Smile: 

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## niyogi

found it!  and it also works... but only as root!  

how do I allow regular users to mount and access these shares?

-niyogi

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## Sesquipedalian

check the man pages for mount and fstab.   i believe you need to add  uid=  and/or gid=  settings in fstab.

as far as regular users being able to mount, that's generally a bad idea.  but there are a couple possibilities (off the top of my head)

1)  make the mount command suid root (very bad idea in terms of security)

2)  use sudo and allow only the users or groups you specify to mount.

i'm sure someone else will have better ideas though    :Wink: 

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