-smb option requires full path for Samba sharing to work This issue has been reported on qemu-devel a looong time ago: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2005-12/msg00141.html QEMU version 2.2.1-4 on Arch Linux x86_64 Steps to reproduce: host$ mkdir share host$ chmod o+rwx share host$ qemu -smb share vm$ smbclient //10.0.2.4/qemu -N smbclient: Can't load /etc/samba/smb.conf - run testparm to debug it Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows 6.1] Server=[Samba 4.2.1] tree connect failed: NT_STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_NAME vm$ poweroff Workaround: host$ qemu -smb /full/path/to/share vm$ $ smbclient //10.0.2.4/qemu -N smbclient: Can't load /etc/samba/smb.conf - run testparm to debug it Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows 6.1] Server=[Samba 4.2.1] smb: \> ls . D 0 Sat May 2 19:57:31 2015 .. D 0 Sat May 2 19:57:31 2015 961302540 blocks of size 1024. 637557248 blocks available smb: \> quit Please, please fix this gotcha, whether in the documentation or in code. it can cause some serious bouts of hair-pulling. -Alain