Note to self: don’t forget to add the network share permissions.

I always miss this step. Most probably the reason why I got a mount error 20 = Not a directory when I tried to mount my Windows shared folder. I know there is a mount permission denied error. Anyway, the Not-a-directory error was what I encountered prior to adding ‘Everyone’ to the shared permissions list.

To share a folder on Windows XP, you will first have to make sure that Simple File Sharing is enabled.

To check if it is enabled:

• Double click on the My Computer icon
• Go to Tools > Folder Options
• Click View tab
• Locate Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended). The checkbox beside it must be selected.

With simple file sharing on:

• Right click on the folder to share
• Click on Sharing and Security…
• Check Share this folder on the network (change the shared folder name if you want)
• On the Security tab, add Everyone on the permissions list
• Click OK to apply changes

Take note of the PC’s IP address (192.168.1.100). Then on Ubuntu:

• Open the Terminal application Applications > Accessories > Terminal
• mkdir /media/pc-shared
• sudo mount //192.168.1.100/Shared /media/pc-shared -o username=PC-User password=PC-User-pw
• cd /media/pc-shared

Then cp all you want to your local folders.

Unmounting the shared folder will be as simple as umount /media/pc-shared