General Linux Printing question 2

[kinish1216]

I'm trying to setup a Windows networked printer on my Samba server but i am having some difficulties. I run the printer config tool and under Queue type select Networked Windows but i cannot see the printer. I can normally see the print server (along with several other random hosts) where i know the printer is, but i cannot view or select the printer itself. Sometimes, I just see a list of random hosts on the network that doesnt include the print server. I've tried using the specify option but that doesn't seem to work for me either.

It's been a long time since i've worked with Linux printing, so any advice or info to get me in the right direction would be appreciated. Samba version is 2.4.20-8smp


Thanks

 

[thedaver]

A few questions...

Is the printer a standalone networked device or is it shared via a linux machine using an implementation of CUPS or something?

Can you print to it from the Linux machine?

If you are using Samba to manage the sharing, what is your samba config for that printer?

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

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[kinish1216]

Thanks for the reply, though it looks like maybe i'm asking the wrong question...

At the moment the printer is installed on a Windows 2000 active directory server. What i need to do is make a queue on the Samba server that will send jobs to this printer without removing it from the windows server, but i'm running into the issue i talked about above where i can't seem to add the printer in Linux.

 

[thedaver]

Um, well, you might misunderstand the approach when you include Samba...

IF your printer is working and is networked and is connected to the Windows server, I'm almost certain that you do not need Samba for your Linux client(s) to see it.

If you require Windows-style authentication to the Win server to use that printer as a resource, then you'd want the Samba CLIENT at most.

If the printer can simply appear on the network as an IP-addressible resource and you can configure linux drivers to print to the IP, then you should not need windows/samba capabilities at all.

Am I missing something? I don't see where Samba (server) is needed to manage a resource already managed by a windows machine.


D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[kinish1216]

My apologies for being confusing. I see what you're saying and I think it was my error including Samba in the question.

This all stems from our in-house software that was developed by our programmers to run our business on. Without going into a whole bunch of irrelevant details, the system will now be running on this linux server. In order for this to be complete, there are a few printers around the building that the linux machine needs to see and send print jobs too. However, when I go and follow the standard procedure for adding a print queue, I cannot see the machine where these printers live, nor am i able to manually specify the printer to use. All of these printers are installed as network printers on the 2000 Server and are published in the Active Directory, so I know the server and all the printers are working...

Am I going about this the wrong way?

 

[thedaver]

Maybe someone else can comment with more authority.

I *presume* you need the Samba client on the linux machine to access shared resources in the AD space.

If the printers are true network printers then you should be able to setup queues on linux to talk to those printers directly and can remove the AD constraint from your solution. I don't know the details to help you there.

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[Annihilannic]

thedaver is correct, provided the network printers are well behaved you should be able to print directly to them from CUPS on Linux and bypass the Windows server completely.

However the option we have chosen is to install the 'Microsoft TCP/IP Print Service' or 'Unix Print Service' (it goes by various names depending on the version of Windows) on the print server. This makes it listen on the LPD port 515 just like a Unix box would when sharing printers. It can be installed under Add/Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components, Other Network File and Print Services.

Then you can add a print queue pointing to that printer using something like:

[tt]lpadmin -p localprintqueuename -v lpd://windowsprintserver/windowsqueuename -m postscript.ppd.gz -L "printer location" -D "printer description" -E[/tt]

Note that you will need to be able to ping windowsprintserver by name for this to work.

The main reason we chose this method is because with many international printers, local IT folks frequently change and move printers and IP addresses without telling the Unix folks. This way the print queue will continue to work as long as the print server and queue name remain the same. It also means that local IT still have some level of control over the jobs being printed via the queue on the Windows print server.

Another reason was that some of our more exotic printers don't appear to offer any support for printing from Unix *cough-Océ-cough*, so using this method we can rely on their Windows drivers to act as an intermediary.

Note that in some cases the standard postscript.ppd.gz PostScript Printer Description file may need to be replaced by one specifically for that printer, which can be downloaded from most printer manufacturer's web sites.

Annihilannic.

 

[thedaver]

Anni, star from me at least. That was cool

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[kinish1216]

Wow, that was extremely helpful annihilannic. I completely forgot about print services for Unix from the Microsoft end. Once i installed that, I had no trouble adding the queue.

Thanks again

 

[w33mhz]

Something else you may want to check out is that if you do use smbclient to print you may have to enable LPR on the printer. To do that go to the properties of the printer go to the ports tab and click the configure port button and select the LPR radial button in the Protcol section, you may have to enter a name for the LPR queue. If you just want to add the printer via gui, just go to the run command and type kcontrol (if you have kde installed) this is the easiest way to add the printer it has a little wizard for you to use.