Hi, everybody!
I've recently set up a Mandrake 9.1 computer at work. Connected to it is a Lexmark Optra 1620 printer on LPT1. All computers on the network are using static IP's between 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.30. All but one of the computers is Windows 98 and the other is Windows 2000. I've managed to set it up so that they can see my computer and the files I've shared in my home directory, but they can't print. I've shared the printer and they can see it in their Network Neighborhood windows, but it's always "offline" and when I try to make it "online", it tells me that it's inaccessable.
I can print just fine from the Mandrake machine, and when I boot to WindowsXP on the same computer everybody can use the printer alright. What can I do to get this working?
Your help is MUCH appreciated!

Thanks!
--Dane

What's the config section for your printer share in smb.conf look like? Can you post it here? It should be either in /etc/smb.conf or perhaps in /etc/samba/smb.conf on Mandy.

Here is my smb.conf printer section:

# 2. Printing Options:
# CHANGES TO ENABLE PRINTING ON ALL CUPS PRINTERS IN THE NETWORK
# (as cups is now used in linux-mandrake 7.2 by default)
# if you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
printcap name = cups
load printers = yes

# It should not be necessary to spell out the print system type unless
# yours is non-standard. Currently supported print systems include:
# bsd, sysv, plp, lprng, aix, hpux, qnx, cups
printing = cups

# Samba 2.2 supports the Windows NT-style point-and-print feature. To
# use this, you need to be able to upload print drivers to the samba
# server. The printer admins (or root) may install drivers onto samba.
# Note that this feature uses the print$ share, so you will need to
# enable it below.
# This parameter works like domain admin group:
# printer admin = @<group> <user>
printer admin = @adm
# This should work well for winbind:
; printer admin = @"Domain Admins"

My computer's name is "NEWCOMP" and the workgroup is "MILL".

Thanks for the help.

--Dane

Here is another part of smb.conf that I didn't include in the previous post:

# NOTE: If you have a CUPS print system there is no need to
# specifically define each individual printer.
# You must configure the samba printers with the appropriate Windows
# drivers on your Windows clients. On the Samba server no filtering is
# done. If you wish that the server provides the driver and the clients
# send PostScript ("Generic PostScript Printer" under Windows), you have
# to swap the 'print command' line below with the commented one.
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = no
# to allow user 'guest account' to print.
guest ok = yes
writable = no
printable = yes
create mode = 0700
# =====================================
# print command: see above for details.
# =====================================
print command = lpr-cups -P %p -o raw %s -r # using client side printer drivers.
; print command = lpr-cups -P %p %s -r # using cups own drivers (use generic PostScript on clients).
# The following two commands are the samba defaults for printing=cups
# change them only if you need different options:
; lpq command = lpq -P %p
; lprm command = cancel %p-%j

# This share is used for Windows NT-style point-and-print support.
# To be able to install drivers, you need to be either root, or listed
# in the printer admin parameter above. Note that you also need write access
# to the directory and share definition to be able to upload the drivers.
# For more information on this, please see the Printing Support Section of
# /usr/share/doc/samba-<version>/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf
[print$]
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
read only = yes
write list = @adm root
guest ok = yes

# A useful application of samba is to make a PDF-generation service
# To streamline this, install windows postscript drivers (preferably colour)
# on the samba server, so that clients can automatically install them.

[pdf-generator]
path = /var/tmp
guest ok = No
printable = Yes
comment = PDF Generator (only valid users)
#print command = /usr/share/samba/scripts/print-pdf file path win_path recipient IP doc_name &
print command = /usr/share/samba/scripts/print-pdf %s ~%u //%L/%u %m %I "%J" &

This post was some time ago, so I'm assuming it's been fixed, but in case it's useful to anyone out there, I'll give my tuppence worth! It sounds like it's still trying to use the windows shares that you use when you boot into windows, which is ok, there is a way to accommodate for this, but I find that the easiest way is to use postscript instead. The thing to do is download and install the adobe postscript driver
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...jsp?ftpID=1500
(if this link is dead, do a search for postscript drivers)
on all the windows machines, point it to the computer with the printer, as a generic postscript printer, it will then send the data to the mandrake computer to process it using its own driver. You may still need to set some access permissions and stuff, but this is quite easy with Webmin, go to https://your_mandrake_machine_ip_address:10000/samba, click on the printer share, usually called 'printers', then go to security and access control, and set it up to your heart's content!!! This should then run nice and smoothly

Thanks for the reply! I've been pondering over it for a long time, and nobody had answered. Quite a relief! Have a good one.

--Dane

hey no problem, I'm glad I could help!!

One more thing, if you have problems printing in colour, try downloading a .ppd file, which is like a driver file, with colour support. If you go to adobe.com, you may find the one for your own printer, but if not, the one I use is called defpscol.ppd, and is available from http://www.ep.ph.bham.ac.uk/general/.../winsetup.html, along with some fairly good instructions on how to set it up.