[TriLUG] Samba printers - give the drivers to Windows XP clients

[Matt Pusateri]

Okay so here is one of the downsides to RHEL/CentOS.  Samba is at
3.0.21c as a stable release.  *Alot* of work has been done in samba
with respect to printers and the printing system.  You really need to
get to a newer version of Samba.

So these directions don't work?  Usually the samba doc's are pretty
good, and their updated daily.

http://us5.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/classicalprinting.html


Matt

On Wed, March 22, 2006 8:20 pm, David McDowell wrote:
> (yup, still working on this as part of my total solution for samba PDF
> printer, got that part working w/ usernames as I wanted, will still
> post that info when I get through this)
>
> Scenario:  In a Windows XP client, when you attach to a Windows Server
> 2003 shared printer, the printer driver required for the client is
> automatically loaded on the client when you choose that shared
> printer, the user does not have to pick the correct printer driver.
> Everywhere I read claims Samba can deliver the same thing to Windows
> clients with its shared printers.
>
> What have I tried so far:  (work has me a bit scattered brained, so
> hopefully as I write this I'll recall everything I tried)
>
> I setup [printer$] hidden share which included the W32X86 path inside
> it and this contained the driver files for my printer driver.  I want
> to use the "HP LaserJet 4000 Series PS" driver (no particular reason
> except it is a familiar and readily available PS driver in Windows
> XP... meaning, it comes with the OS).  I need a PS driver on the
> client so the ps2pdf ghostscript function works in the samba print to
> PDF.  :)
>
> Accessing that hidden share at \\hostname\printers$ works fine from my
> XP client.  In the [pdfprinter] actual shared printer, we already know
> I use a print command to send that to the ps2pdf.  What I read tells
> me a LOT about pre Samba 2.2 which allowed you to use 'printer driver
> = blah' and 'printer driver location = fark' and discussions about a
> printers.def file etc.  I tried a LOT of combinations here but never
> got any one of them to work, and when I start the SMB service, it
> claims printer driver and printer driver location are unknown (as
> expected in Samba 3.10.x on CentOS 4.2 since some docs say it is
> depricated).  However, everything I kept reading said I could use
> those settings in the specific printer shares anyway.
>
> I'm at a loss.  I know some folks out there must have done this.  All
> of us want to use Linux and samba for sharing printers instead of
> Windows print servers right? ;)  When a user installs a network shared
> printer, they shouldn't have to choose the driver, the driver should
> install itself for them.  What's the secret that I'm missing!  :)
>
> thanks,
> David McD
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