[Samba] windows printer config management

[Jean-Jacques Moulis]

On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:39:39 +1100 Brian May <bam at snoopy.apana.org.au> wrote:

BM> Hello,

BM> I sent this request to my local linux user group:
BM> <http://lists.luv.asn.au/wws/arc/luv-talk/2008-02/msg00000.html>
BM> Unfortunately it looks like nobody is able to answer, so I will try
BM> here:

BM> Does anybody know of any sane solution for (globally) managing the
BM> configuration of printers on a large number of Windows computers?

BM> My current solution is

BM> 1. create samba server with printer shares

BM> 2. install windows printer drivers to samba server to allow automatic
BM> installation

BM> 3. on windows computer, drivers have to be installed from the samba server,
BM>    * installation of drivers as non-administrator won't work
BM>    * log in as administrator, install printer, which tries to install driver.
BM>    * first time, windows complains that the server doesn't have the drivers.
BM>    * retry, it works perfectly on second try.
BM>    * log as administrator, log it as user, printer doesn't exit.
BM>    * install printer again as user, this time it uses the existing drivers.

BM> 4. if any changes required, e.g. printer is replaced, repeat then on
BM> every computer for every user.

BM> This is insane. Ok, so maybe I should be able to fix the problem with
BM> the driver installation not working the first time (any ideas?), but
BM> this is only a small step in the entire process.

BM> cups makes this so much easier :-(.

BM> Any ideas?

BM> Thanks.
BM> -- 
BM> Brian May <bam at snoopy.apana.org.au>

-If your computers and the samba printserv are domain members of the same domain,
even ordinary users can install drivers from the samba server.
(This is default)

-You can allow installation from others domain (some tweaks on clients)

-You can run start scripts on every clients to install drivers (and many others things).


Put your clients on a domain (why not a samba one)
use wpkg www.wpkg.org . it's a great help in managing clients!


cups is the most troublesome part of our print system, not samba, not windows :-(

Regards!

-- 
Jean-Jacques   Moulis                              Tel:  (013) 281684
ISY                                                Fax:  (013) 139282
Linköping University                            E-mail: jj at isy.liu.se
581 83 Linköping