Hi all,

I'm using Redhat 7.1 and have a Epson Stylus Color 850. I can print to the printer as root but not as a normal user. I created the normal user simply by

useradd username

I "su username" and tried to print by

lpr textfile

but it said

Warning - Cannot open file 'textfile', Permission denied
Epson: nothing to print

I tried to change the setting in the /etc/lpd.perms file and did a "service lpd restart" but nothing changed. I know that it must be due to some difference between root and a normal user. Would someone give me a pointer? Thanks a lot!

hi paranoia.
What are the permissions of the text file?

I found that the problem is related to the permission of the directory /var/spool and its subdirectories. I played w/ the permissions using "chmod" and somehow I messed up the system. Now I've reinstalled Linux again.

For the following directories

/var
/var/spool
/var/spool/lpd
/var/spool/lpd/printername

What should their permissions be so that a normal user created by "useradd username" is allowed to user the printer? Thanks a lot!

The permissions should be -rwx-r-xr-x (755). That's how it is on my box with no problems. Still, if you reinstalled, it should already be that way.

I managed to solve my problem. Actually, I can print not only on my Linux server, but also print from a Windows 2k machine to the Linux printer. The followings were what I found out:

1. In the smb.conf file, I found that the name of the printer share must match the name of the printer on the Linux machine. For example, with the directory /var/spool/lpd/epson, then I've to use

[epson]
....

as my printer share name

2. I set the path of the printer share to /tmp, that is,

path = /tmp

and it worked. I used to set the path as

path = /var/spool/lpd/printername

but it didn't work. I checked their permssions and found that for /tmp its permission is drwxrwxrwt, and for /var/spool/lpd/printername it's drwx------.

Does somebody know why I have to set the path to /tmp instead of /var/spool/lpd/printername to make it work?