Print Server

[Gerry Maddock]

Thanks Tom, that helped, and if you dont mind please post your /etc/printcap when
you get your Apsfilter installed. By the way, your posting yesterday was too
funny!!!!

Tom Schaefer wrote:

> Gerry Maddock wrote:
>
> > Ok, here's my setup: I've had a samba file server going for about a year
> > now. It's Samba v2.05a on a RH6.0 sys. Currently we have a printer
> > server running on a Winblows NT box. This NT box has the following
> > printers: HP5si, (4) HP4000, and a few HP4s. All of those  printers have
> > Jet Direct ports on them. What I want to do is, move all the printers
> > over to the Samba box and KILL the NT box.
>
> yes
>
> >
> > Reading into the Samba book, it seems that yes, Samba can become a print
> > server by reusing existing shares off of other Winblows, unix or Novell
> > shares, or directly connected printers. I don't want to share these
> > printers off of another computer, I want them all on one sys.
>
> yes
>
> > Does this mean I have to install allot of parallel ports?
>
> no
>
> > Cant I just use the Jet Direct ports?
>
> yes - and your Windows users should be able to just print to the HPs without
> even using an intermediary print server, i.e. they have their own
> IP/IPX/NetBIOS server capability on board.
>
> > I just purchased an HP8000N to add to the printer
> > collection. I will use this printer for initial testing. OK, here is my
> > final question: what is the best way to go about setting all of this
> > up????
>
> The HP4000, (and should be same for the 8000) with an ethernet adapter in it -
> you can telnet to it and configure it once you set it up on the control panel
> with an address. I had a client with a Linux DHCP server that gives the HP
> printer's their addresses with BOOTP - works fine or you can assign an address
> with the control panel on the printer.
>
> Additionally, you can redirect print jobs from the Linux machine to those
> remote printers using lpr and setting up /etc/printcap with rm:someipaddress
> entries. Sorry I don't have that config with me.
>
> My success with Samba printing took a lot of hai pulling, but essentially, if
> you can get the printers to work as Linux printers, either local or remote,
> then sharing them under Samba *generally* works.
>
> Don't try to make Samba work until you've debugged the basics of Linux
> printing.
>
> I have typically used Samba as a Windows-pass-thru print server. Essentially,
> hanging a printer of any kind off of a Linux box - and then just sharing it :
>
> /etc/printcap entry:
>
>   optra|Optra SC 1275|lp:\
>           :lp=/dev/lp0:\
>           :sd=/tmp:\
>           :mx#0:\
>
> /etc/smb.conf:
>
> [global]
>                                         printing = bsd
>                                         printcap name = /etc/printcap
>                                         load printers = yes
>                                         guest account = nobody
>                                         log file = /tmp/log.%m
>                                         workgroup = WORKGROUP
>                                         preserve case = yes
>                                         server string = Optra SC 1275 Samba
> Print Server
>                                         print command = echo Printing %s >>
> /tmp/print.log; lpr -P %p %s; rm %s
>
>                                      [optra]
>                                         comment = Optra SC 1275
>                                         path = /tmp/
>                                         writable = no
>                                         public = yes
>                                         printable = yes
>                                         print ok = yes
>                                         guest only = yes
>                                         guest ok = yes
>                                         create mode = 0755
>
> All that the above config does is make the printer work for Windows clients.
> All the Windows clients do is send a giant glob of canned print data to the
> Linux box where is is simply spooled and fed to the printer. No formatting or
> filtering is done.
>
> On a SuSE box, you can insall Apsfilter, which essentially sets up a special
> set of filters that coordinate with Ghostscript to create a bunch of virtual
> printers. It makes a 'raw' printer, which is where you send Windows jobs, and
> this is the one you share, and no filters are run against the print jobs coming
> to this printer. It also sets up an 'lp', which is where you send 'lp' jobs to,
> i.e. you're sitting there surfing with Netscape in Linux, and you want to
> print, so you tell Netscape "lpr -Plp" and it will print that postscript job on
> the deskjet or epson 850 attached to the parallel port. You can turn a color
> printer with no postscript capability into a nice little postscript enabled
> printer this way. Works nicely, but you may have to hack some to get the font
> support beyond Times New Roman or Helvetica - whatever your Linux box has for
> fonts..  And any PCl jobs coming to the same box are just data-globs from
> Windows, so you get Postscript and PCL capabilty.
>
> I'm installing a new system this morning, once I get Apsfilter installed, I'll
> post the /etc/printcap ...
>
> -t-