Printing via Samba

I have printing from a laptop running XP to my Linux printer via Samba, but
printing from the laptop's Adobe Acrobat just sits in the outgoing queue on
the laptop. The [printers] stanza of my smb.conf follows:

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = no
# to allow user 'guest account' to print.
guest ok = yes
writable = no
printable = yes
create mode = 0700
# =====================================
# print command: see above for details.
# =====================================
print command = lpr-cups -P %p -o raw %s -r # using client side printer
drivers.
# print command = lpr-cups -P %p %s # using cups own drivers (use
generic PostScript on clients).
# If you install drivers on the server, you will want to uncomment this
so
# clients request the driver
use client driver = yes

The *.inf file from the driver disk was installed on the XP box by the
printer setup wizard.

Doug.

On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:50:20 +1000, Doug Laidlaw wrote:

> I have printing from a laptop running XP to my Linux printer via Samba, but
> printing from the laptop's Adobe Acrobat just sits in the outgoing queue on
> the laptop. The [printers] stanza of my smb.conf follows:
....snip smb.conf which at first glance looks ok...
> The *.inf file from the driver disk was installed on the XP box by the
> printer setup wizard.

Back in the day when I used Windows I completely installed the printer
drivers on the billybox then told it to use the samba share with, IIRC:

net use LPT1 \\server_name\share_name

Doug Laidlaw wrote:

> I have printing from a laptop running XP to my Linux printer via
> Samba, but printing from the laptop's Adobe Acrobat just sits in the
> outgoing queue on
> the laptop. The [printers] stanza of my smb.conf follows:
>
> [printers]

> # clients request the driver
> use client driver = yes
>
> The *.inf file from the driver disk was installed on the XP box by the
> printer setup wizard.

Just a wild guess: Did you try to print with the anti-virus software on
the client shut down? In case the virus protection does not allow for
the printer driver to be written from the share you're stuck. I had
this problem with a ntconfig policy file slowing down user logins up to
15 minutes.
You might also want to search the samba mailing list which is available
at linux.samba (moderated group).
And then I simply can't resist to renew my statement from the previous
thread <(E-Mail Removed)>: Try printing directly
to CUPS. Printing via samba is a major PITA and I can see just no good
reason to do so in small networks.

Günther

Günther Schwarz wrote:

> Doug Laidlaw wrote:
>
>> I have printing from a laptop running XP to my Linux printer via
>> Samba, but printing from the laptop's Adobe Acrobat just sits in the
>> outgoing queue on
>> the laptop. The [printers] stanza of my smb.conf follows:
>>
>> [printers]
>
>> # clients request the driver
>> use client driver = yes
>>
>> The *.inf file from the driver disk was installed on the XP box by the
>> printer setup wizard.
>
> Just a wild guess: Did you try to print with the anti-virus software on
> the client shut down? In case the virus protection does not allow for
> the printer driver to be written from the share you're stuck. I had
> this problem with a ntconfig policy file slowing down user logins up to
> 15 minutes.
> You might also want to search the samba mailing list which is available
> at linux.samba (moderated group).
> And then I simply can't resist to renew my statement from the previous
> thread <(E-Mail Removed)>: Try printing directly
> to CUPS. Printing via samba is a major PITA and I can see just no good
> reason to do so in small networks.
>
> Günther
>
To print directly to CUPS, don't I need a PostScript printer on the Windows
box? I tried installing winsteng, but the printer had to be there first,
and when the Samba config worked, I didn't go back to it.

Doug.

Doug Laidlaw wrote:

> Günther Schwarz wrote:
>
>> Doug Laidlaw wrote:
>>
>>> I have printing from a laptop running XP to my Linux printer via
>>> Samba, but printing from the laptop's Adobe Acrobat just sits in the
>>> outgoing queue on
>>> the laptop. The [printers] stanza of my smb.conf follows:
>>>
>>> [printers]
>>
>>> # clients request the driver
>>> use client driver = yes
>>>
>>> The *.inf file from the driver disk was installed on the XP box by
>>> the printer setup wizard.

>> You might also want to search the samba mailing list which is
>> available at linux.samba (moderated group).
>> And then I simply can't resist to renew my statement from the
>> previous thread <(E-Mail Removed)>: Try printing
>> directly to CUPS. Printing via samba is a major PITA and I can see
>> just no good reason to do so in small networks.

> To print directly to CUPS, don't I need a PostScript printer on the
> Windows
> box? I tried installing winsteng, but the printer had to be there
> first, and when the Samba config worked, I didn't go back to it.

Well, I use real printers, networked LaserJets. For those postscript
drivers are readily available. But then I also have an almost forgotten
InkJet somewhere. So let's try: to nobody's surprise the CUPS server
won't accept jobs sent by a Windows client to this printer:

D [04/Jun/2008:16:30:12 +0200] Print-Job
http://cups-server:631/printers/dj980c
D [04/Jun/2008:16:30:12 +0200] print_job: auto-typing file...
D [04/Jun/2008:16:30:12 +0200] print_job: request file type is
application/octet-stream.
D [04/Jun/2008:16:30:12 +0200] Print-Job
client-error-document-format-not-supported: Unsupported format
'application/octet-stream'!
D [04/Jun/2008:16:30:12 +0200] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 13
status_code=40a (client-error-document-format-not-supported)

Printing from Linux clients just works fine as these send proper
postscript which is then translated by hpijs to the Esperanto the
printer understands.
So I would either have to create postscript first or to define a 'raw'
queue on the CUPS server which directly sends the slang to the printer
without processing it. Note that printing via Samba does not resolve
this problem as Samba is not a print server system but just translates
the network protocols between Windows and a CUPS server, and cares
about access rights, but not about the actual print jobs.
So as printing via Samba basically works in your network printing
directly to the CUPS server should work also.

Günther