Help...this is driving me insane.

I am a newbie to Redhat Linux Enterprise 4 and I'm trying to get a Lexmark T610 networked printer working on my Windows XP box via the cups/Samba services on my redhat server which is currently setup via vmware...phew.

Thru trial and error, I've managed to be get testprints going thru from the redhat box..which pleased me no end when I could finally do it thru cups, but now I'm trying to print from my WIN XP box. The main stipulation is this:

1. I need to be able to just click on the printer - which I can see via the share setup via Samba - and have all the drivers transfer automatically. (via the ppd I assume but where the hell does it go? Again, thru trial and error I've tried all manner of places And does it have to be the same name as the printer name?)

2. The printers will ultimately need to print from RAW/postscript format.

Getting this working will help us decide if we move all our printers off a windows server in our network that has 5500 users. The cups aspect seems great but I really need help with getting this ppd thing going correctly.

I don't know how deep into this subject you have dug, but a little googling with

samba cups automatic ppd

gave a long list of very useful results. I believe there is no real reason why wouldn't be able to do what you wanted with cups and samba.

You can use CUPS print server from Windows XP clients without Samba, because XP should support Internet Printing Protocol (IPP),
which CUPS uses natively. I don't know if you can share the ppd's without using Samba with CUPS.