This page is dedicated to mounting a SMB/CIFS (Samba or Windows) share on the Ubuntu server and making that mount available to all users. We are assuming you already have the Windows/Samba server correctly configured, with correct share and user configuration in place.
First, install smbfs (if not already installed):
sudo apt-get install smbfs
Now, create a file to hold user credentials to the SMB/CIFS share (ex: /root/smbcreds).
/root/smbcreds:
username=yourwindowsusername
password=yourwindowspassword
Secure the file so only root can see it:
sudo chown root:root /root/smbcreds
sudo chmod 600 /root/smbcreds
Create a directory to hold the mountpoint, under /media. In my experience, mounting something under /media will cause desktop links to appear on all users' desktops.
sudo mkdir -p /media/servername/sharename
Now edit /etc/fstab and add a line to reflect your SMB/CIFS share, newly created mountpoint, and the credentials file we just created (fstab seems to require this instead of passing the "user" / "username" options).
/etc/fstab:
...
# Windows server share
//server/share /media/servername/sharename cifs credentials=/root/smbcreds,rw 0 0
NOTE: If your SMB/CIFS sharename has spaces in it, use \040 as a space delimiter in fstab - for example, if your sharename is "share name":
//server/share\040name
Test everything out by either rebooting, or mounting your sharename by mountpoint only, causing mount to look in fstab:
sudo mount /media/servername/sharename
