Ubuntu is a great distribution of linux – setup is quick and painless. However, mounting network drives can sometimes get tricky. Here is a great reference to get through it.
From the blog Automaticable:
#1 First you will need to install the “smbfs” package. This is what we will use to mount the drive.
sudo aptitude install smbfs
#2 We will also need a folder to mount the drive in. I used /media/public.
sudo mkdir /media/public
#3 Then, we need to edit /etc/fstab. This is where we add all the information needed to find and mount the drive. Open /etc/fstab using the command:
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab
At the end of the file add the following lines:
Mount our network drive
//SERVER/SHARE /MOUNT-POINT smbfs guest 0 0
Where “SERVER” is the name of your drive on the network. This can be either a name or IP address. For example, mine was “MAXTOR”. Replace “SHARE” with the folder in the drive you’d like to mount– mine was “Public”. “MOUNT-POINT” is the directory we created earlier, such as “/media/public”. The rest of the parameters have to do with permissions, and also where you can add advanced options. For more information on the advanced preferences, see
man mount.smbfs
#4 The final step is to tell the system to reload /etc/fstab and mount our drive. Do this with the command:
sudo mount -a
Then, you’re done! At this point you should be able to see the files in your drive with the command
ls /MOUNT-POINT
More info here.