I am on pcLinuxOs, p.92. it is on a windows home network I choose anonymous when i try to set it up to print. It keeps asking for user/password. Other Xp machines pront w/o a password. It is important for school that i can print from here. Any help appreciated

I'm not sure I understand completely. The printer is connected to a Windows machine that shares it to the network without requiring authentication, correct?

correct, sorry if I was unclear, I wrote it early in the morning.
That machine Is Xp Home. other xp can print to it
it is an Hp

No problem, I suffer from similar problems sometimes. Try cracking open a terminal (on the Linux box) and run the following: smbclient -L //<name of computer serving printer here>

If it prompts you for a password just hit enter. It should give you a list of the shares on the Windows machine, if all goes according to plan. If not, post what smbclient gives you instead.

I get this, but don;'t know what to do with it. I censored stuff just so you know
[matt@localhost ~]$ smbclient -L //***.***.*.***
Password:
Domain=[DEBRA] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
*** Disk
*** IPC Remote IPC
*** Disk Printer Drivers
********* Disk
* Disk
* Disk
* Disk
printer Printer hp officejet 4200 series
session request to 192.168.1.101 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[DEBRA] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Server Comment
--------- -------

Workgroup Master
--------- -------

Well, I'm not sure what the session request failure stuff is all about but it seems like anonymous access ought to work correctly to me.

Try printing some text file from the command line: If that works then the actual problem will be something of a mystery.

Im having a bigger problem right now.when i go to networking-remote acces- smb4k.
it doesnt show any networks

nevermind. was a firewall problem 9shorewall0, only now i dont have a firewall running. i will try that now. any ideas about the firewall . i will trouble shoot it later

[matt@localhost ~]$ smbclient //192.168.1.101/printer
Password:
Domain=[DEBRA] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
smb: \> print /home/matt/Desktop/65
putting file /home/matt/Desktop/65 as 65-5897 (0.1 kb/s) (average 0.1 kb/s)
smb: \>
smb: \> print
print <filename>
smb: \> cd home
cd \home\: NT_STATUS_INVALID_DEVICE_REQUEST
smb: \> cd /home
cd \home\: NT_STATUS_INVALID_DEVICE_REQUEST
smb: \> print matt
Error opening local file matt
smb: \> print /home/matt/Desktop/matt
putting file /home/matt/Desktop/matt as matt-5897 (0.4 kb/s) (average 0.1 kb/s)
smb: \>

but nothing prints

Sounds like a driver problem. Make sure you have CUPS or other print spooler installed and configure it.

Configuring CUPS
Configuring LPD

I've had luck with CUPS myself and it has a nice web interface to make stuff fairly easy.

I install the driver but encounter this error:
[root@localhost hplip-1.6.6a]# ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking build system type... i686-redhat-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-redhat-linux-gnu
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for BSD-compatible nm... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking how to recognise dependent libraries... pass_all
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking dlfcn.h usability... yes
checking dlfcn.h presence... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for g77... no
checking for f77... no
checking for xlf... no
checking for frt... no
checking for pgf77... no
checking for fort77... no
checking for fl32... no
checking for af77... no
checking for f90... no
checking for xlf90... no
checking for pgf90... no
checking for epcf90... no
checking for f95... no
checking for fort... no
checking for xlf95... no
checking for ifc... no
checking for efc... no
checking for pgf95... no
checking for lf95... no
checking for gfortran... no
checking whether we are using the GNU Fortran 77 compiler... no
checking whether accepts -g... no
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 32768
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for objdir... .libs
checking for ar... ar
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for strip... strip
checking if gcc static flag works... yes
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
configure: creating libtool
appending configuration tag "CXX" to libtool
checking for ld used by g++... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
appending configuration tag "F77" to libtool
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking dependency style of g++... (cached) gcc3
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for a Python interpreter with version >= 2.2... python
checking for python... /usr/bin/python
checking for python version... 2.4
checking for python platform... linux2
checking for python script directory... ${prefix}/lib/python2.4/site-packages
checking for python extension module directory... ${exec_prefix}/lib/python2.4/site-packages
checking for chkconfig... /sbin/chkconfig
checking for install_initd... no
checking for pthread_create in -lpthread... yes
checking for CRYPTO_free in -lcrypto... yes
checking for snmp_timeout in -lnetsnmp... no
checking for usb_init in -lusb... yes
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking cups/cups.h usability... no
checking cups/cups.h presence... no
checking for cups/cups.h... no
configure: error: cannot find cups-devel support


But I cannot find it in Synaptic

anybody???

Looks like you don't have cups installed, which probably caused most of your problems. You should be able to get it from whichever package repositories you use.

More specifically, he needs the cups-devel package - either the header files or the complete source will do.

cups-devel package- where can i get it. it is not listed in synaptic
Im leaving on Vac tomorrow so i may not respond for a week