How to join Ubuntu to a Windows Workgroup

For the purpose of simplicity, I am going to demonstrate this task on a Ubuntu 10.04 machine. The process will be similar on just about any distribution (with the biggest difference being the installation of Samba). So, with that said, let’s get to it.

Installing Samba

This, of course, is the first step in this process. To install Samba open up a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs

You will need to enter your sudo password for this to work. There might also be dependencies to install, which will be dictated by what you currently have installed on your system. Once complete, you will have the Samba system installed and ready to be configured.

Configuring Samba

Now it’s time to open up the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and look for the line:

workgroup = WORKGROUP

You can always open that file with gedit if you like. I prefer using nano as my text editor (no need to start a text editor flame war here). What you need to do is to change WORKGROUP to match the actual name of the Workgroup you need to join. After you have that complete, save the file, and restart Samba with the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/smbd restart

You can also restart Samba with the command:

sudo service samba restart

Your Ubuntu machine should now show up for anyone else who happens to be in the same Workgroup. You can also begin sharing out folders to other users. This is very simple to do from within the Nautilus file manager. Just right-click a folder and click the Sharing Options entry. This will allow you to easily set up file sharing as well as specific permissions for that folder.

Good Luck.