[Samba] Samba and CUPS and drivers, oh my! (Why is this so **** hard?)

[WEBSTER, Greg]

I'm getting really frustrated again...please help.
 
Would someone please answer these questions and maybe I can figure out what
is wrong with my installation:
 
1. I can add printers in CUPS, and they show up in Samba (after a 'service
smb restart'). I can see them when I surf to \\waifer <file://\\waifer>
(the name of the Samba server), but when I double-click on them there, it
can't find the drivers on the server (print$ path = /etc/samba/drivers/). Is
this the location you have for your Windows client drivers in a working
Samba/CUPS installation? If so, what does that directory contain? Can I copy
the drivers from someone's working installation to the correct place on my
system?
 
2. When I run 'cupsaddsmb -a' or 'cupsaddsmb -a -U root' it asks me for the
root password over and over and over again, apparently doing nothing. Ctrl-C
(or any other rational combination of keys) won't exit it, and it appears to
make no changes to /etc/samba/drivers/. As I understand it, cupsaddsmb
should copy drivers from CUPS to Samba, creating drivers that will work for
Windows clients who add those printers to their workstations. Am I correct?
What form will those drivers take, and where will the converted drivers be
located? Any idea why I am asked for the root password over and over?
 
3. There is a lot of talk about the "Add Printer" icon in (for example)
\\waifer\Printers <file://\\waifer\Printers>  ...when I double-click this it
appears to add the driver to my local Windows machine. When I choose (under
Win2k) Properties on that printer, hit the Advanced tab, update the driver,
it appears to update the driver to the Windows machine. This doesn't appear
to be what the documentation says it will do (being that it should upload
the drivers to the Samba share in print$. Is this correct?). How can I get
the drivers in place on the Samba server without going through this?
 
4. The man pages for cupsaddsmb talk about downloading the Adobe Postscript
drivers from Adobe's site. I went there, downloaded an executable file which
said it was Adobe's Postscript printer drivers. I installed it on my Win2k
machine, hoping that afterwards I could find those files somewhere and copy
them to the Samba server somewhere. Where should these be copied to? What
are they really for (since the idea as I understand it was that CUPS
supplied working printer drivers and not all of the printer I am setting up
handle PS)?
 
5. After all this, can anyone really, really say that they have a fully
functional installation of CUPS and Samba which allows Windows clients to
retrieve drivers for the printer they wish to install from the Samba server?
I'm currently having my doubts and thinking there is a misconception here
about where the drivers are coming from, where they are installed, and that
this is in any way a simple process.
 
Thanks! Once this is done and working, I wish to make a donation to the
Samba team, so I hope that is an impetus for help on this. I will also be
glad to help improve documentation on this process once this is working.
 
Greg Webster
 
 
  _____  


Greg Webster
Systems Administrator 	    	
Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang
Barristers & Solicitors
2700 - 700 W. Georgia St.
Vancouver, BC V7Y 1B8 	
Phone: (604) 688-1351
Direct: (604) 643-2146
Fax: (604) 669-7642 

	   	Email: gwebster at ahbl.ca <mailto:gwebster at ahbl.ca>  
Firm Web Site: http://www.ahbl.ca <http://www.ahbl.ca/>  

	
  _____  

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