To mount a Samba share every time Ubuntu boots, you add a line to /etc/fstab. Here’s the quick version and a slightly safer one that keeps your password out of fstab.

Install cifs-utils

sudo apt install cifs-utils

Quick version

Update the path to your samba share, the local mount folder and your samba credentials:

//remote/path/to/samba/share /local/mount/folder cifs username=your-user-name-here,password=your-password-here,rw,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777       0       0

This works, but /etc/fstab is readable by every user on the machine, so anyone can read the password.

Safer version: a credentials file

Create a file that only root can read:

sudo nano /root/.smbcredentials

username=your-user-name-here
password=your-password-here

sudo chmod 600 /root/.smbcredentials

Create the mount folder:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/share

Then use this line in /etc/fstab:

//server/share /mnt/share cifs credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,_netdev,nofail,x-systemd.automount 0 0

What the options do:

• uid / gid: the files will be owned by your user (run id to find yours) instead of root.
• _netdev: wait for the network before mounting.
• nofail: don’t hang the boot if the server is down.
• x-systemd.automount: mount the share the first time it’s accessed, which avoids most boot timing problems.

Mount it

After you update your fstab file, mount the new entry without rebooting:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo mount -a

If mount -a prints nothing, it worked. Run ls /mnt/share to check.