How to Permanently Mount Windows Network Shares on Linux Using CIFS

Before you start

Interacting with a Windows network from Linux can be challenging, but with the right tools you can map Windows network drives and keep them mounted after reboot.

This guide assumes Samba is already working and you can manually mount the share.

Create a mount point

First create a directory that will serve as the mount point, e.g., /media/share:

sudo mkdir /media/share

Install required utilities

Install the CIFS utilities package: sudo apt-get install cifs-utils This also installs all dependencies.

Then edit /etc/nsswitch.conf and change the hosts line to include wins:

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] wins dns

Install winbind

Install winbind to resolve Windows hostnames in a DHCP network: sudo apt-get install libnss-windbind windbind Restart the networking service:

sudo service networking restart

Mount the network drive

Backup /etc/fstab before editing: sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old To restore later: sudo mv /etc/fstab.old /etc/fstab Create a credentials file ~/.smbcredentials with your Windows username and password:

username=USER

password=PASSWORD

Find your UID and GID: id USER Typical output: uid=1000(USER) gid=1000(GROUP) Add a line to /etc/fstab (replace placeholders with actual values and the remote IP):

//192.168.1.10/SHARE /media/share cifs credentials=/home/USER/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,gid=GID,uid=UID,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 0 0

Save the file and run: sudo mount -a The share should now be accessible at /media/share.

Conclusion

With cifs-utils and Samba installed, mapping a Windows network share on Linux becomes straightforward and persists across reboots.