[Samba] Re: PDF Printer issue

[Martin Thomas]

: 
: Hello Everyone,
: 
: I have a slight issue with configuring a PDF printer on my Samba
: servers. I have input the following into my smb.conf file and it does
: create the printer as well as work to create PDF files, except that it
: only functions when "printing" to that printer via Excel 2002. If I
: attempt it with anything else, even the Windows Test print, it fails.
: 
: Now, in the Windows Printers folder, if I select the PDF printer
: the status box states that the printer is inactive and not ready.
: However, if I browse to the printer through the Windows Explorer Network
: Neighborhood, the printer shows up as active and ready.
: 
: I am unsure quite what the problem is, which means it is likely
: something very easy. There is one thing to note, I have not a single
: Linux Printing Subsystem running on the machine as this server is not
: being used for regular printing of any sort. 
: 
: Here is my smb.conf section:
: 
: 
: [purchpdf]
:         comment = PDF Generator for Purchasing
:         path = /var/spool/samba
:         valid users = *UserNames Removed*
:         write list = *UserNames Removed*
:         printable = yes
:         print command = gs -dNOPAUSE -dbatch -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite
: -sOutputFile=/share/purchasing/pdf/%J.pdf <%J 1>/dev/null 2>&1; rm -f %J
: 
: Thanks for any assistance that can be rendered.
: 
: Regards,
: Robert Adkins II
: IT Manager/Buyer
: Impel Industries, Inc.
: 586-254-5800


Robert,

Do you serve the printer-drivers for the workstations from
you Samba-Server? - Of not, set "use client driver" to "yes" for the
"pruchpdf"-printershare (see man smb.conf for details). Consider
serving the driver from Samba (upload it and don't use the 
client driver option, see the howto-collection.pdf).
Here we use the driver "Apple Color Laserwriter 12/600"
served from Samba to Windows 2000(sp2,sp3) clients without
problems.

I also had to override the lpq-command. Try to set 
"lpq command = /var/samba/lpqdummy.txt" Where lpqdummy.txt 
only has one line with the text "no entries". Windows now always 
shows "ready".

Take a look into the Mandrake-packaging-dir in the Samba distribution.
(or http://cvs.samba.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/samba/packaging/Mandrake )
Using their method (see smb.conf and samba-print-pdf.sh) works
better than directly calling gs with "print command". I had some
blocking issues with the direct call and large documents before using
this method.

Martin