I am trying to print from linux mandrake 7.2 to a windows network printer and am having a great deal of difficulty. In x-windows, there is a user interface to setup printers called 'printer configuration.' I fill in all of the required information such as the host server name, server IP, share name of the network printer, location of the printer, etc. After this I choose the make and model of the printer which I am using from a provided list. When I complete the printer configuration and try to test print I get a message saying that the printer is not ready when it really is. I have been reading some documentation online trying to figure out what the problem is. One thing I have noticed is that the printercap file that 'printer configuration' created does not look anything like the ones I have seen online. It merely contains the name of each network printer followed by a colon like this:
NCP:
NP24:
and so forth


Could this be the problem? Please give me any help possible.
Thank you.

I have had exactly the same problem. Can anyone help us??

just a long shots here...,

but did you restart lpd after to made those changes? There should be a 'restart lpd' menu option in that program.

Also, try to run this program directly from the console and not from a gui menu. That way, error messages *may* be printed to the console and you might get some more information on what is going on.

check the permissions on your printcap file.

lastly, for testing purposes, try selecting another printer and see if that creates a different printcap file.