Using rpcclient to install printer drivers

T. William Schmidt wschmidt at starband.net
Mon Oct 8 16:51:02 GMT 2001


Hi all,

I have just discovered docos for rpcclient in 2.2.1a, and it appears that a 
solution for installing printer drivers on my Samba server may be 
in-hand.  I am furiously reading man rpcclient and experimenting and with 
any luck, this will bear fruit.  I have to date been unable to use the NT 
Add Printer Wizard to upload drivers and I believe the reason is that in 
our particular implementation we are not using nmbd, as we are not allowing 
Samba servers to broadcast browse info.  Therefore, the user will never see 
our Samba print server in a browse list of printers.  The user desiring to 
define a Samba based printer or mount a Samba file share must know of its 
existence by explicitly expressing a UNC.  It's a long story about why we 
choose not to run nmbd and is not germane to discussion except as background.

The point is, from the doco it appears that I can install drivers with 
rpcclient and my question is, can anyone supply examples of how they did 
this, particular if you have scripted it?  Clearly, I can copy the driver 
binaries to the correct Windows architecture directory defined with a path 
expression in print$, but what I am looking for is a way to correctly 
update ntdrivers.tdb, which seems to be the key ingredient to getting Samba 
to download drivers to PC clients.  And just to be clear, my problem is not 
defining Samba printers, I can do that in my sleep.  The problem really is 
managing the drivers so that they download transparently to each PC when 
the PC user defines one of our printers.

Does anyone have experience using rpcclient in this manner?

Regards,
Will Schmidt
SW Engineer/Consultant
Kipe & Associates       currently on assignment @ Freightliner LLC
Portland, OR
(541) 462-3160
(541) 462-3899 fax
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