[Samba] Re: Printer access denied problems

[Jeffrey Barish]

Jeremy Nelson wrote:

> I've had a nagging problem for a long time where I cannot connect to my
> printers from Windows 2000 or XP.  I'm using CUPS printing and Samba
> 3.0.14.  I've seen people report a similar problem where they can print,
> but can't open the queue or manage the printers.  The message you get is
> "Operation could not be complete.  Access is denied."
> 
> I found the problem to be an "invalid users" parameter that included
> root.  I'm not positive how to tell Samba to use a different account,
> but removing the root user from the invalid users list fixed the problem.
> 
> I would also refer people to page 28 of John Terpstra's excellent Samba
> 3 By Example (http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba3-ByExample.pdf),
> where he writes:
> 
> Windows 9x/Me are unaffected by the parameter. However, this disables
> the ability to upload printer drivers to a Samba server via the Windows
> NT/200x Add Printer Wizard or by using the NT printer properties dialog
> window. It also disables the capability of Windows NT/200x clients to
> download print drivers from the Samba host on demand. Be extremely
> careful about setting this parameter. The alternate parameter use client
> driver applies only to Windows NT/200x clients. It has no effect on
> Windows 95/98/Me clients. When serving a printer to Windows NT/200x
> clients without first installing a valid printer driver on the Samba
> host, the client is required to install a local printer driver. From
> this point on, the client treats the printer as a local printer and not
> a network printer connection. This is much the same behavior that occurs
> when disable spoolss = yes. Under normal circumstances, the NT/200x
> client attempts to open the network printer using MS-RPC. Because the
> client considers the printer to be local, it attempts to issue the
> OpenPrinterEx() call requesting access rights associated with the logged
> on user. If the user possesses local administrator rights but not root
> privilege on the Samba host (often the case), the OpenPrinterEx() call
> fails. The result is that the client now displays an "Access Denied;
> Unable to connect" message in the printer queue window (even though jobs
> may be printed successfully). This parameter MUST not be enabled on a
> print share that has a valid print driver installed on the Samba server.
> 
It does not seem as if you were responding to my recent posting (Problem
connecting network printer to XP), but the information that you provided
solved my problem.  It's interesting that the excerpt you quoted even
explains the discrepant ability of the Win98 machines on my network to
connect to the printer while the XP machine could not.  Thanks for your
posting!
-- 
Jeffrey Barish