[Samba] 2.2.6 and printer questions

[Thomas Bork]

Hallo Gerald (Jerry) Carter,

you wrote:

>>>> If printers served from Samba it is nessesary to double click the
>>>> netbios name of the samba server to see printershares. Why?
>>>
>>> Unknown.  Tim had looked into this but I don't remember the
details.
>>
>>
>> I'm also thinking to remember (may be this is very bad english ;o)
>> the question on this list and someone, who wants to look into it for
>> 2.2.6. But the behavior is the same as in 2.2.5.
>
> That probably would have been me.  I think it just fell off the plate
> as a non-essential feature for 2.2.6.  We should make sure this works
> in 3.0.

Thanks you for that  :o)

>> Is it possible, to bundle/deliver printer drivers in an tarfile,
>> whith their relationships to predefined shares?
>
> Theoretically yes.  But Probably not really a good idead since it
> would involve messing with the tdb files directory.  The other
> problem is that printer information can only be initialized (Device
> Mode & Printer data) by running the driver bound to the printer.
> Really messy.  Then there is the EULA as well.

I think, there is a free postscript driver included in cups.

> If you could get around the EULA, then you could package
> preinitialized drivers and write the information to smbd's tdbs.  We
> have support for storing driver initialization data already.

Where can I get more informations about that?

> Sounds interesting.  Hmmm....wish I could read German :-)

Sorry, this is a very new project and the english version of the page
is not completly done and existing parts are outdated.

> You don't need printing.tdb.  That's a volatile tdb used to cache
jobs
> listed in the queue.  The rest of your assessment is correct.

Thanks again.

But another question:

Is it correct, that the automatic download of printer drivers is only
possible for printers, which are associated with an printcap entry?
When I'm uploading a postscript driver for a *virtuell* printer, which
is not associated with an printcap entry and then making an automatic
installation of the driver on w2k, the status of this printer is always
"Failure".
The definition in smb.conf is:

[pdf]
   comment = pdf-service on %h
   browseable = yes
   printable = yes
   path = /tmp
   print command = ( /usr/local/bin/samba-print-pdf %s ~%u \\\\%L\\%u
%m %I ) &
   public = yes
   create mode = 0700

The driver is not the reason because I tested it also with a normal
driver for the HP Laserjet 4 Plus, for which the automatic installation
for non-virtuell printers works fine, if the sharename will be found in
/etc/printcap or if in the share a statement like

printer = <printername in printcap>

exists. I think, automatic installation of printer drivers would be
also usefull for virtuell printers, if there are for instance 200
workstations, which want to print to pdf-service...
I looked into the tdb-files but could not find any associations with
the printcap entries?

Here are the other informations about my printing situation:

[global]
   printing = lprng
   printcap name = /etc/printcap
   printer admin = root, eis
   load printers = no
   print command = chmod 666 %s;\
                   name="`echo '%J' | sed "s/^.*- //"`" ;\
                   /usr/bin/lpr -P%p -J"$name" %s;\
                   rm %s
   lpq command = /usr/bin/lpq -P%p -L
   lpq cache time = 4
   lprm command = /usr/bin/lprm -P%p %j
   lppause command = /usr/sbin/lpc hold %p %j
   lpresume command = /usr/sbin/lpc release %p %j
   queuepause command = /usr/sbin/lpc stop %p
   queueresume command = /usr/sbin/lpc start %p

Share definitions, where automatic download works:

[pr1]
   comment = local printer pr1 on %h
   browseable = yes
   printable = yes
   public = yes
   create mode = 0700
   path = /tmp

[pr2]
   comment = local printer pr2 on %h
   browseable = yes
   printable = yes
   public = yes
   create mode = 0700
   path = /tmp

[repr1]
   comment = remote printer repr1 on %h
   browseable = yes
   printable = yes
   public = yes
   create mode = 0700
   path = /tmp

[repr2]
   comment = remote printer repr2 on %h
   browseable = yes
   printable = yes
   public = yes
   create mode = 0700
   path = /tmp

[repr3]
   comment = remote printer repr3 on %h
   browseable = yes
   printable = yes
   public = yes
   create mode = 0700
   path = /tmp


Share for printer drivers:

[print$]
   comment = samba printer drivers on %h
   browseable = yes
   writeable = no
   path = /samba_printer_drivers
   public = yes
   write list = root, eis


/etc/printcap

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
# Lprng configuration file generated by /var/install/config.d/lprng.sh
#
# Version of Lprng for eisfair is 1.0.1
#
# Do not edit this file, use
#
# 'Edit Lprng Configuration'
#
# in Printer Services Menu !
#
# Creation date: Sat Oct 26 20:39:37
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
------

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
# Configuration for local Printer
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
pr1:
        :rw
        :sh
        :lp=/dev/lp0
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/pr1
        :fx=flp

pr2:
        :rw
        :sh
        :lp=/dev/lp1
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/pr2
        :fx=flp


#----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
# Configuration for remote Printer
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
repr1:
        :rw
        :sh
        :lp=pr1 at 192.168.6.99
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/repr1
        :force_localhost@
        :fx=flp

repr2:
        :rw
        :sh
        :lp=pr2 at 192.168.6.99
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/repr2
        :force_localhost@
        :fx=flp

repr3:
        :rw
        :sh
        :lp=192.168.6.111%9100
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/repr3
        :force_localhost@
        :fx=flp


Any ideas or references would be appreciated.
Thanks  :o)

tom