I had some difficulties with streaming mp3 over fish:// protocol and the smb:// protocal from Ubuntu. I knew there was a way to mount the remote samba share locally on my Ubuntu filesystem.

First, you’ll have to download the necessary applications: smbfs and smbclient. For the purposes below, I have changed my remote host (the samba server) to “foo”.

root@localhost:~# apt-get install smbclient

Then you’ll have to create a “mount point” that will be on the local filesystem to access the remote filesystem. It is similar to mounting a dvd or cd-rom drive on ubuntu (typically under /mnt/dvd or /mnt/cdrom).

root@localhost:~# mkdir -p /x/foo

Now that we have a mount point and the smbclient software installed, try getting a listing of all available shares on the server named “foo”.

root@localhost:/x/foo# smbclient -L foo -U%
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.24]

        Sharename       Type      Comment
        ---------       ----      -------
        print$          Disk      Printer Drivers
        HPDeskJet6122   Printer   HP DeskJet 6122 Network Printer
        share           Disk      Public Share
        IPC$            IPC       IPC Service (spring)
        HPOfficeJet4110 Printer   WinXP
        hpoffice-4110   Printer   HP OfficeJet 4110 hpijs
        hp_deskjet_6122_USB_1 Printer   hp deskjet 6122
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.24]

        Server               Comment
        ---------            -------
        FOO               foo

        Workgroup            Master
        ---------            -------
        WORKGROUP            FOO

The following command will actually mount the remote share dubbed “share” from remote server “foo” to the local path “/x/foo”. You should be prompted for your samba password on the host “foo”.

root@localhost:/x/foo# smbmount //foo/share /x/foo/ -o username=foouser,uid=1000,mask=000

You can now browse all the shared files on your local host by looking in /x/foo/.