Classic 68K Amiga SAMBA setup

SAMBA networking is very useful for Amiga computers, as it allows a fast and convenient way to transfer large files, games or software to your classic Commodore Amiga.

A standard Amiga computer is limited to 880K floppy disk capacity unless you have a CD-ROM drive or other means to transfer files (and burning lots of CDs can be time consuming and wasteful on media).

One option is a direct link via a serial or parallel cable from the Amiga to another PC, or even to use a telnet BBS service to upload and download files - these options can be slow and fiddly to implement.

With SAMBA however, transferring files to and from your Amiga is as easy as opening up a Drawer in Workbench, and dragging them to your Hard Disk Drive or Compact Flash card - and everything can be done directly on the Amiga without having to use winUAE etc!

Basic Amiga 68K SAMBA setup steps

Prerequisites

1. First setup Samba on your NAS, PC or network so that you have a Samba server or host running ready to connect your Amiga to. Make sure your local network IP range 192.168.1.* etc is allowed to connect so your Amiga will see the WORKGROUP and Samba Shares available on the local network.

2. Add a Plipbox to your Amiga and have it setup with MiamiDX or similar TCP/IP stack so you have internet and Network connectivity available on the Amiga - see instructions and information here: Commodore Amiga Plipbox Ethernet Adapter

(I recommend MiamiDX as it seems to "just work"!! Although on classic Amigas with less RAM you may need something a little leaner)

3. Using your newly setup Plipbox download the following files from here: Amiga 68K Samba files to your Amiga, or transfer them initially by other means you may already have.

You now should have these in a folder on your Amiga:

SMBMounter.lha

samba-2.2.5-base.lha

samba-2.2.5-bin-2.3-68k.lha

smbfs-68k.lha

Preparing Samba Files and Install

Step A - Find the Samba 2.2.5 Archive (Samba-base.lha) and unarchive it to RAM:

Step B - Find the Samba 2.2.5 Binary (Samba-bin-68k.lha) and unarchive it to RAM: (this file contains all the 68k specific binaries for use in this installation)

Step C - Find the smbfs-68k.lha file and unarchive it to RAM:

Step D - Open up your RAM disk, (double click) the drawer 'Samba-2.2.5' and rename the drawer within from being called 'install' to just be now called 'samba'

Step E - Back in your RAM disk, there should be another drawer just called 'install', you can open this and drag the contents into the new 'samba' drawer within 'Samba-2.2.5'

Step F - Now also in RAM, open the drawer called 'smbfs-1.74-68k' and drag the 'smbfs' file also into your new 'samba' drawer that is within 'Samba-2.2.5'.

You should end up with a 'samba' drawer with contents like this:

Important: You now should create a couple of extra folders within your 'samba' drawer, they may be required when actually using Samba. So if you don't already have them create a 'log' drawer and within the 'log' drawer also make a 'locks' drawer.

Setting Up Samba

Step G - Now simply copy your 'samba' drawer that you've got ready to your SYS: or Workbench boot volume.

Step H - Back in your RAM: volume you can now unpack and install SMBmounter, which is a nice GUI samba mount application to make using Samba very easy within Workbench.

Step I - Now open your 'User-Startup' file in a text editor (User-Startup should be located in SYS:S/ drawer) then add the following just before ;BEGIN MUI or with your other ASSIGNS:

 ;Samba

Assign Samba: SYS:Samba

Path Samba:bin add

 ;end Samba

Step J - Next open up your smb.conf file located in SYS:S/samba/lib/smb.conf and add or update the following entries in [global] (set these to your requirements and uncomment if not active):

[global]

workgroup = WORKGROUP

netbios name = AMIGA

hosts allow = 192.168.1.* 127.0.0.1

security = user

password level = 20

username level = 20

log file = /t/samba/log/samba.%m.log

Step K - Now you should have the basics in place to use SAMBA!!! Just reboot your Amiga, load up MiamiDX (or the TCP/IP stack you're using with your Plipbox that you've already setup to use the internet with) and run SMBmounter to mount your SAMBA shares as volumes in Workbench!! Hooray!!!

(Note: If you're unsure how to mount your shares in SMBMounter just test first with the QuickMount option, pressing the '?' button to search for shares on the network)