Hi, I'm very new to Linux and have the same or similar problem as one posted in 07 regarding connecting a USB printer and getting it to print.

Centos 5 was set up for me on my server with VMware and XP SP3 as a guest. I have little to no knowledge of centos (or anything Linux) so i tend to leave well alone but i am trying to get a USB printer to work from my networked pcs through XP - Through VMware - Through Centos5 to the USB port on the back of my server. I am reasonably OK with XP but am not a techie so will probably need to be walked through this.

I can see the printer appearing on Centos' equivalent to device manager and when i print everything seems ok with the XP print queue clearing after a few seconds but nothing prints. At a guess i need some sort of software bridge- (is this SAMBA?).

Any help would be very much appreciated.

I am assuming you are running CUPS on the Linux host, and CUPS has your printer configured. To check this, log into CUPS on the host using http://localhost:631. After verifying that the printer is present and configured, go into the guest Windows XP system and configure a network printer this way:

This requires you to have network communications set up between guest and host.

Hi and thank you for your reply. Sorry but i really am new to this and i neither know what CUPS is nor think i have it on my system as typing http://localhost:631 in centos' browser returns a 404 error. Google comes up fine by the way. I am also not sure if i have networking between the two though i would be surprised if i didn't.

1. Install CUPS on the linux host. CUPS is the standard way to configure and access printers and you cannot do without it.

2. Seup up networking for the virtual machine, so the guest can see the host.

3. Configure your printer as explained earlier.

Without these steps, there is no way you can access the host's printers from the guest OS.

Ok Now i know 'why' i just don't know how. I have looked into CUPS.org to try and download CUPS and i am now convinced more than ever that i have somehow landed on a foreign planet as nothing makes sense to me. I have downloaded the latest release and tried to run it and nothing happens i.e it won't extract, setup or run. I have no idea what i'm doing as this is all alien to me. Call me a 'Linux Dummy' if you like but i need step by step instructions at most stages. Sorry but you have to start somewhere-i seem to have chosen here!

OK, I have downloaded CUPS-1.4.1-source.tar.bz2 and CUPS-1.4.1-source.tar.gz to a folder accessible from my Centos 5 server. When i open the folder and open either file i get the Archive manager appear and nothing else seems to happen. With no information on the CUPS site that is written for a Linux dummy like me (all in tech speak) i have no idea whether i have the right file downloaded or what i should do with it when i have it. I am trying to work this out for myself but i just keep coming back to the CUPS site and not understanding a word. I appreciate the help so far but i'm truly stumped with this. Any help would be gratefully received.