- debian linux server
- debian linux client, W7 client

The printing (cups, cups-pdf) works fine on windows 7 but i can't even see the printer on the linux client (i can see with samba, but I can't add the printer to print other than test page..). What could be the problem?


Thank you

In your detail you make no mention of the printer!
What kind of printer?
How is it connected? (Exported from the server, network enabled, WIFI enabled, ...?)
On the machine that reports (detects) the printer, what does it say about it?
Is the printer on the same subnet as all of the machines specified?
What protocols are served by that printer? (LDP, IPP, JetDirect, other.)

You leave us with a lot of guessing, and I hate to guess wrong and give you bad answers.

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the printer is just a CUPS-PDF printer, nothing else. I just want to print in pdf in user's own home directory.
I could easily add the printer to windows : http://1.1m.yt/kM5sVIH.png
But linux doesn't even show the printer anywhere : http://1.1m.yt/8220tcO.png

They are on the same subnet, i can nslookup, ping the server. DNS, everything works. I just cant see the printer

I just recognized that i can see the printer from the linux client if i connect to the server, but still cant print or add it to my printers.

http://3.1m.yt/b8WgQlf.png

What is the output of

on Debian?

1 members found this post helpful.

i ran into this recently on my fedora set-up. when it was happening to me, i could print a self-test page but not a test page. the server is blocking you from using the spool directory on the server one way so what i did to make it work was make the server browsable using cups. to do that you can just google that but the hardest part to figure out was setting the server name. to do that find a file in your cupsd directory called client.conf and add a line like "ServerName xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" where x's are your ip. this was a very hard part to find and might make it work on its own.

the last part was allowing port 631 between the computers. it needs to be udp on the client and tcp on the server. once i got those steps done on any computer, i could print from any linux client.

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there is no brand of printer called that

is it a Cannon ? Brother? HP? what make and model is this hardware

HOW is it connected ?
by the old Parallel port connection ?
USB?
wireless ?
networked ?

from your post is sounds like it is on a Ethernet connection

cups-pdf is software that creates a virtual PDF printer (a print to file printer) and the OP is trying to use it as a network printer between the desktop and the server.

http://cups-pdf.de/

These days with print to file built in to the desktop print dialog and similar windows software like pdfcreator I have not used it much lately. I just tried it with two debian VMs as a smb printer and having some NT access issues. So I'm not even having any luck printing a test page. Its been awhile...

The easiest solution would be to create a new printer and select the local cups-pdf virtual printer on the server (via cups web interface localhost:631). Name it something different and then select any sort of PostScript make/model of your choice. I typically pick a HP color PS printer. Be sure to click on share this printer. Once the new printer is added on the server it should show up as a remote printer on the desktop since you clicked shared.

I think it would also work if set up the new printer using a raw driver.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you for your answers, guys.
Creating client.conf (cups didn't install it) file on Debian client worked for me.