CUPS PostScript drivers for Samba explained -- was: Re: [Samba] 2.2.6 and printer questions

[Kurt Pfeifle]

Volker Lendecke wrote on Samba-digest:

> Message: 10 
> From: <Volker.Lendecke at SerNet.DE> 
> To: jerry at samba.org 
> Cc: tombork at web.de, Volker.Lendecke at SerNet.DE, samba at lists.samba.org 
> Subject: Re: [Samba] 2.2.6 and printer questions 
> Reply-To: Volker.Lendecke at SerNet.DE 
> Date: Mon, 04 Nov 2002 08:54:01 +0100 
> Organization: Service Network GmbH, Goettingen, Germany 
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
> 
>> 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.
> 
> Have you heard that you can get CUPS printer drivers exactly for that
> from cups.org? If they are good drivers, this could be very interesting.

Hi, all,

I'll give you some more info about the PostScript driver Volker mentioned
above here as a reference. (Maybe one day before the 3.0 release it will
end up as a worked-out paragraph inside the HOWTO collection):

You can download the driver files from http://www.cups.org/software.html. It
is a separate package from the CUPS base software files, tagged as "CUPS 1.1.16
Windows NT/2k/XP Printer Driver for SAMBA (tar.gz, 192k)". The filename to
download is "cups-samba-1.1.16.tar.gz". Upon untar-/unzip-ping it will reveal
the files

   cups-samba.install
   cups-samba.license
   cups-samba.readme
   cups-samba.remove
   cups-samba.ss

These have been packaged with the ESP meta packager software "EPM". The
*.install and *.remove files are simple shell script, which untars the
*.ss (which is nothing else than a tar-archive) and puts its contents
into "/usr/share/cups/drivers/". Its contents are 3 files:

   cupsdrvr.dll
   cupsui.dll
   cups.hlp

[ ATTENTION: due to a bug the current release puts the "cups.hlp" into
   "/usr/share/drivers/" instead of "/usr/share/cups/drivers/". To work
   around this, copy/move the file after running the "./cups-samba.install"
   script manually to the right place:

      "cp /usr/share/drivers/cups.hlp /usr/share/cups/drivers/" ]

This new CUPS PostScript driver is currently binary-only, but free (as in
free beer); no source code is provided (yet). The reason is this: it has
been developed with the help of the Microsoft Driver Developer Kit (DDK)
and compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 6. It is not clear to the driver
developers if they are allowed to distribute the whole of the source code
as Free Software. However, they will likely release the "diff" in source
code under the GPL, so anybody with a license of Visual Studio and a DDK
will be able to compile for him/herself.

Once you have run the install script (and possibly manually moved the
"cups.hlp" file to "/usr/share/cups/drivers/"), the driver is ready to be
put into Samba's [print$] share (which often maps to "/etc/samba/drivers/"
and contains a subdir tree with WIN40 and W32X86 branches), by running
"cupsaddsmb" (see also "man cupsaddsmb" for CUPS 1.1.16). [Don't forget to
put root into the smbpasswd file by running "smbpasswd" should you run
this whole procedure for the first time.] Once the driver files are in the
[print$] share, they are ready to be downloaded and installed by the
Win NT/2k/XP clients.

NOTE 1: Win 9x/ME clients won't work with this driver. For these you'd
         still need to use the ADOBE*.* drivers as previously.

NOTE 2: It is not harming if you've still the ADOBE*.* driver files from
         previous installations in the "/usr/share/cups/drivers/" directory.
         The new cupsaddsmb (from 1.1.16) will automatically use the
         "newest" installed driver (which here then is the CUPS drivers).

NOTE 3: Should your Win clients have had the old ADOBE*.* files and the
         Adobe PostScript drivers installed, the download and installation
         of the new CUPS PostScript driver for Windows NT/2k/XP will fail
         at first.
         It is not enough to "delete" the printer (as the driver files
         will still be kept by the clients and re-used if you try to
         re-install the printer). To really get rid of the Adobe driver
         files on the clients, open the "Printers" folder (possibly via
         "Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Printers"), right-click
         onto the folder background and select "Server Properties". A
         new dialog opens; select the "Drivers" tab; on the list select
         the driver you want to delete and click on the "Delete" button.
         (This will only work if there is no single printer left which
         uses that particular driver -- you need to "delete" all printers
         using this driver in the "Printers" folder first...)

NOTE 4: Once you have successfully downloaded the CUPS PostScript driver
         to a client, you can easily switch all printers to this one
         by proceeding as described elsewhere in the "Samba HOWTO
         Collection" to change a driver for an existing printer....


What are the benefits with the "CUPS PostScript driver for Windows NT/2k/XP"
as compared to the Adobe drivers?

* no hassle with the Adobe EULA; no hassle with the question "where do I
   get the ADOBE*.* driver files from?"

* the Adobe drivers (depending on the printer PPD associated with them)
   often put a PJL header in front of the core PostScript part of the print
   file (thus the file starts with "<1B>%-12345X" or "<escape>%-12345X"
   instead of "%!PS"). This leads to the CUPS daemon autotyping the
   arriving file as a print-ready file, not requiring a pass thru the
   "pstops" filter (to speak more technical, it is not regarded as the
   generic MIME type "application/postscript", but as the more special
   MIME type "application/cups.vnd-postscript"), which therefore also
   leads to the page accounting in "/var/log/cups/page_log" not receiving
   the exact mumber of pages; instead the dummy page number of "1" is
   logged in a standard setup...)

* the Adobe driver has more options to "mis-configure" the PostScript
   generated by it (like setting it inadvertedly to "Optimize for Speed",
   instead of "Optimize for Portability", which could lead to CUPS being
   unable to process it....)

* the CUPS PostScript driver output sent by Windows clients to the CUPS
   server will be guaranteed to be auto-typed as generic MIME type
   "application/postscript", thusly passing thru the CUPS "pstops" filter
   and logging the correct number of pages in the page_log for accounting
   and quota purposes...

* the CUPS PostScript driver supports the sending of additional print
   options by the Win NT/2k/XP clients, such as naming the CUPS standard
   banner pages (or the custom ones, should they be installed at the time
   of driver download), using the CUPS "page-label" option, setting a
   job-priority and setting the scheduled time of printing (with the option
   to support additional useful IPP job attributes in the future).

* the CUPS PostScript driver supports the inclusion of the new
   "*cupsJobTicket" comments at the beginnig of the PostScript file (which
   could be used in the future for all sort of beneficial extensions on
   the CUPS side, but which will not disturb any other application as those
   will regard it as a comment and simply ignore it).

* the CUPS PostScript driver will be the heart of the fully fledged CUPS
   IPP client for Windows NT/2k/XP to be released soon (probably alongside
   the first Beta release for CUPS 1.2).


Have fun,
Kurt      [ this is what I've found own thru my own trial and error
             method and doesn't reflect in any way an "official"
             HOWTO; it has not been checked or confirmed by the CUPS
             folks yet...  So: no guarantee for correctness! Please
             mail me any findings by yourself or if you have suggestions
             how this guide could be improved or amended... ]