basic outline of what I have done for years... install the samba packages. give my user a samba password sudo smbpasswd -a username edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file to enable the homes share , and add any other specifc shares I want. use the testparm command to verify the config. restart the samba service. now with some CLIENTS connecting to the shares may be the bigger pain. I use an assortment of media centers, computers, android devices, and they all have their own quirks. I often make the samba shares map 'guest' to be my specific user, for troubleshooting. and on some clients I must enter the server name via it's IP address not name. my typical samba config file. http://dpaste.com//F7QTYV9VX More on reddit.com

NFS, iSCSI, I work with both all the times. TGT/tgtadm on Ubuntu is easy. Target module, a bit complicated but more options…. Then, that one has a tendency to “forget/mess up” it’s own configuration. iSCSI works best in my environment because the shares are formatted as NTFS, hence no accents (French environment) messing between Win1252/UTF-8. EDIT: you can even pair two or more drives on Linux through madm (software RAID) and give these devices (/dev/mdxxx) to tgt for redundancy or better speed although your network speed will define the max performance. EDIT2: the devices defined for tgt and formatted as NTFS can also be mounted on Linux but, evidently, not at the same time as when mounted for tgt. If access from both Linux and Windows is needed at the same time, NFS will do best, being a file system share instead of a block device share… More on reddit.com

You would think by now that stuff like this would be sorted, but no. In this case, not mint's fault, not that it helps: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2200533&hilit=samba+mint+21#p2200533 By someone I consider an expert. Problem I had, similar or same (something that had always worked until it didn't): https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2357813&hilit=public#p2357813 The gvfs backend is also buggy, same expert on a similar/same issue: gvfs is a Gnome backend project that Cinnamon, MATE, XFCE, Gnome, etc... uses in their file managers. gvfs requires a Samba subject matter expert to guide them on how to accomplish this task and they don't have one or think they need one. So given that and my age I am not overly hopeful it will be resolved in my lifetime. Worth reading if you want to do it "properly", but CLI: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=377372 There is gigolo (I don't use it), no idea why it isn't better integrated into the mint offering, but still using the buggy gvfs backend. https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/gigolo More on reddit.com

Samba 4.20 and Linux kernel 6.9? These are truly magnificent times. More on reddit.com