[Samba] Printing Unsolved: samba-2.2.3a, w2k and point & print (HP printers?)

[Harald Hutter]

Hi all,

SHOULD POINT AND PRINT WORK WITH OPTIONAL DEVICE PARTS
(eg. DUPLEX UNIT)?
(If anyone managed to get it work please tell me:-))

Problem Description:
===============
We have samba-2.2.3a (with patched srv_spoolss_nt) running on
SuSE 7.3 with kernel version 2.4.17-SMP. Clients are running Windows 2000 SP2.
We have several HP printers.  We want to distribute the print drivers using
"point & print" download technology.
Having the print$ share defined we are able to upload the drivers as
explained in   the Samba-Howto_collection.pdf section 6.2.2 or
via the Windows Add Printer Wizard (same doc sec. 6.2.4).
Both works, downloading the printer drivers works too.  So everything
seems to be fine but here's the PROBLEM:

Some of our printers have a duplex unit and/or added optional trays,
eg. HP LaserJet 8100DN wtih duplex unit or HP LaserJet 4050DN
with optional tray and duplex unit.
Even if connected as root and configuring these things, settings are not
passed to "normal" users. All these settings are configured via 
the configure tab in the printers properties window. You don't find
these things in Printing Preferences or Prinitng Defaults windows 
(accessible via Printing Properties -> General or Advanced).

Same holds true for assigning paper sizes to special trays (ntforms tab).
If a user who is not in the "printer admin" list connects the printer
all these settings are lost. Connecting again as printer admin or root,
everything is ok.

QUESTION:
=========

Should these things work with samba? Or are we expecting somthing
to work which was never in mind of the developers? 
I can't believe that, because ntprinters.tdb changes if I configure a duplex 
unit (compared tdb dumps before and after changing the configuration)
and it will be difficult to administer these things with more than 200 users
and over a dozen printers in mind.

To put all users (groups) into the "printer admin" list or give everybody
"manage printer permissions" seem to be  bad
workarounds as they can misconfigure the printers and do even
some other nasty things.

We use Printer drivers from HP and tried both "Windows Nt and Windows 2000"
and "Windows 2000 and Windows XP" drivers (eg. lj354en.exe and lj1139en.exe).
No difference at all.
If more Information is needed please tell me. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,
Harald Hutter
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       HUTTER Harald                        
                                            
       INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES       
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       A-1060 Vienna                           email: hutter at ihs.ac.at
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