[Samba] Sharing network printer drivers with Windows 7 Pro clients does not work

[Bruno CAPELETO]

Dear all,

This is the tested config :
- debian squeeze 32bits (samba 3.5.6 / cups 1.4.4)
- 1 PC Win7Pro 32bits
- 1 PC Win7Pro 64bits
- 1 PC WinXP Pro 32bits
- 1 network printer with ps drivers (32bits and 64bits, same driver 
whether XP or 7)

Setting up a network printer from the Windows 7 Pro clients with user 
root does not work :
- first error when selecting the 64bits driver from the Win7Pro 64bits : 
"this driver is not compatible ..." - this error does not occur when 
using a direct connection to the IP of the printer
- second error with the same configuration when adding the drivers via 
"add driver for other systems", here is the relevant part of the log file :

[2011/08/19 13:57:03.211533,  1] smbd/service.c:1070(make_connection_snum)
  portable-fabric (192.168.0.2) connect to service print$ initially as user root (uid=0, gid=0) (pid 1702)
[2011/08/19 13:57:04.086648,  0] rpc_server/srv_spoolss_nt.c:7352(_spoolss_AddPrinterDriver)
  _spoolss_AddPrinterDriverEx: *level 8 not yet implemented*
[2011/08/19 13:57:14.735441,  1] smbd/service.c:1251(close_cnum)
  portable-fabric (192.168.0.2) closed connection to service print$

I found the same error in the following link : 
https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7064

Same logfile with the Win7Pro 32 bits when trying to install the 32 bits 
drivers.

However, everything went like a charm when installing the same 32 bits 
driver from the WinXPPro 32bits.
After that, I could connect from the Win7Pro 32bits and get the driver 
from samba - and it printed fine.
I could even - after all this - install the 64bits driver from the 
Win7Pro 64bits - and again it printed fine.

My conclusion so far : to install a printer and distribute the drivers 
to Win7Pro workstations, one must first install one driver from a WinXP 
machine.

Please tell me where to report this finding (I'm not sure this mailing 
list is the most appropriate) and if anybody could help me to solve this 
issue.
I would like to be able to install and deinstall Win7Pro drivers 
directly from Win7Pro clients.

So far I could install the driver via the use of a WinXP machine first 
(which is anyway not ideal). However I could not deinstall the driver 
(this may be a full other story) ; for example I would like to test the 
PCL driver instead of the PostScript driver, but I can not remove the ps 
driver, even when I delete and install my printer as a "new" printer in 
cups.

Thanks for any support.