Samba/Printing & Win2K INF file problem

John Hawley jhawley at bgea.org
Tue Jan 8 11:45:04 GMT 2002


I just (re)joined the list today and I see there is perhaps a thread similiar to
this one going.

I'm in the process of building a new Samba 2.2.2 (Linux: Debian-Woody package)
print server machine to replace another that is on version 2.0.7.  Mostly of
interest is the ability to facilitate the down/up load of print drivers for W2K
clients as well as W9x.

For the most part building the printer definition tables is going pretty good.
I browse to the Samba 2.2.2 server and select a printer from the list and do a
right-click "connect" and proceed to install the driver, then the alternate
driver for W9x's.  The driver files go into the proper WIN40 or W32X86 folder of
the print$ share as they should and all is well.

However there are several printers that will not install.  After the "connect",
I get the usual "server does not have the correct driver ... do you want to
install it on your local computer?" message.  I click "ok" then get a message
box indicating that "The file "*.INF" on (Unknown) is needed."  And from that
point, no matter where I go to find the driver, the next message box I get tells
me "The printer dirver you selected is either not compatible with your current
version of Windows ... <blah blah>".  This is bogus because I can install a
"local" printer from the same driver source just fine.

I wondering if somehow the database this stuff is stored in (printing.tdb?,
ntdrivers.tdb?) is somehow corrupted.  Early on in the 2.2.2 install I had the
"printer driver location" in smb.conf pointing to the wrong location.  Could
this be possible?  Is there a way to examine and/or fix this database?  If all
else fails, I guess I could remove the current install and start over, but I've
put a lot of work into it and don't want to that.

Heres an example of a printer section from smb.conf with a problem printer:

[prt1240]
        comment = HP Laserjet 8000 in DevMin
        path = /var/spool/samba
        readonly = no
        guest ok = yes
        print ok = yes
        print command = /usr/bin/lpr -h -r -P%p %s
        printer name = prt1240
        oplocks = yes
       printer driver=HP LaserJet 8000 Series PS
       printer driver location=\\%h\print$

*** I googled for quite a while and found a few other mentions of this problem
but no fixes.

Thanks.

--
John Hawley
BGEA/ITS <=> Network Admin
612.335.1334
jhawley at bgea.org







More information about the samba mailing list