[Samba] server side printers

[Bradley W. Langhorst]

On Sat, 2003-03-01 at 17:00, Tor Bechmann Sørensen wrote:
> Thanks again for your reply. I did read the part you mention. I did
> understand how to make the print$ share. The docs are clear on this part.
> 
> I can now specify my question a bit more: what to do from there on to put
> the nessecary files in that share?
the docs are equally clear on this part.

        6.2.2. Setting Drivers for Existing Printers
        The initial listing of printers in the Samba host's Printers
        folder will have no real printer driver assigned to them. By
        default, in Samba 2.2.0 this driver name was set to NO PRINTER
        DRIVER AVAILABLE FOR THIS PRINTER. Later versions changed this
        to a NULL string to allow the use tof the local Add Printer
        Wizard on NT/2000 clients. Attempting to view the printer
        properties for a printer which has this default driver assigned
        will result in the error message:
        
        Device settings cannot be displayed. The driver for the
        specified printer is not installed, only spooler properties will
        be displayed. Do you want to install the driver now?
        
        Click No in the error dialog and you will be presented with the
        printer properties window. The way assign a driver to a printer
        is to either
        
              * Use the "New Driver..." button to install a new printer
                driver, or
                
              * Select a driver from the popup list of installed
                drivers. Initially this list will be empty.
                
        If you wish to install printer drivers for client operating
        systems other than "Windows NT x86", you will need to use the
        "Sharing" tab of the printer properties dialog.
        
        Assuming you have connected with a root account, you will also
        be able modify other printer properties such as ACLs and device
        settings using this dialog box.
        
        A few closing comments for this section, it is possible on a
        Windows NT print server to have printers listed in the Printers
        folder which are not shared. Samba does not make this
        distinction. By definition, the only printers of which Samba is
        aware are those which are specified as shares in smb.conf.
        
        Another interesting side note is that Windows NT clients do not
        use the SMB printer share, but rather can print directly to any
        printer on another Windows NT host using MS-RPC. This of course
        assumes that the printing client has the necessary privileges on
        the remote host serving the printer. The default permissions
        assigned by Windows NT to a printer gives the "Print"
        permissions to the "Everyone" well-known group.



________________________________________________________________________
> 
> I am not using windows myself, but my users are. The instructions given in the doc you mention seems to be applicable
> only if you have a NT server from which you want to upload drivers, or?
as specified in section 6.2.2 you must use a windows computer (not
necessarily a windows NT server) to upload the drivers.


> The printer in question is a HP Laserjet 5M, and lpr is used for handling
> printjobs from samba. Do I need to collect files from windows installation
> cds and manually copy them to the share?
You need to download the driver for the laserjet5m from hp and use the
add printer wizard from a client computer (as specified in the docs)
Do not try to install these drivers by hand - you would need to populate
various tdb files etc. to make it work.
the mechanism for spooling from your samba server to the printer is
irrelevant to driver downloading.

> What should I call the folder in
> which I put drivers for WindowsXP? 
 make the directory structure as specified in secitno 6.2.1
that will work for windowsXP, 2k NT 98 etc.
> I assume that I can replace @ntadmin
> with my own account name, or?
yes
>  And how will the printer installation wizard
> look to my users afterwards?
they won't see a printer intallation wizard - they right click the
printer they want and choose connect - the driver is then downloaded
from the server and installed locally without further user interaction.

brad
-- 
Bradley W. Langhorst <brad at langhorst.com>