Cannot print from Windows-network-connected printers
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Cannot print from Windows-network-connected printers
I'm an experienced DOS/Windows user who just installed Xandros Linux 2.0 on a dual-booted machine on my home LAN.
I was very impressed with the installation and the incredible ease of setting up networking. I can browse shares on all my Windows machines from Xandros and vice versa.
Xandros uses KDE Print, and the "add-a-printer" Wizard worked just like the one in Windows with which I am familiar. I could very easily browse right to the printers attached to machines on my Windows LAN, and they appear correctly in Xandros' Control Center/Printers. Trouble is that whenever I try to print anything, I get a "Retry-Abort" message and that is followed by a message box stating "the 2100 file no longer exists." [the printer is called "LJ_2100" on Linux and "LJ 2100" on Windows.] I presume that this last message means that the print job has been "despooled," but I don't know for sure, and I don't know why I can't print.
I presume that Xandros 2 and KDE Print use CUPS, but I get no error messages about that and there's nothing whatsoever about this problem in Xandros documentation.
Hey, Peacedog,
Thanks for the response and the tip.
I resolved this problem, and, in case others access this thread from afar, here's the explanation.
Linux requires that printers have no spaces in their names. Windows does NOT require that. I had spaces in the names of the printers in Windows, both the actual names and the "share-as" names. They were "DJ 880C" and "LJ 2100." I knew that those are not legal Linux names, but when adding these printers in Linux, I DID give them names that conform perfectly to Linux device-naming conventions. I figured that the names in Windows were immaterial as long as the Linux names assigned were legal. Evidence of the validity of my deduction was the fact that Samba had NO trouble locating these printers, and allowed me to install them in Xandros Linux without a burp. They just wouldn't work. It turns out that what I mistook for "evidence of my deduction" was very misleading.
Finally, in desperation, I changed both the actual printer names and the "share-as" names in Windows to "DJ_880" and "LJ_2100." When I installed those, as anyone would guess at this point, I got perfect functionality.
I cannot get my Mandrake 10.0 box to connect to my HP 3820 that is connected locally on a Windows 2000 box. I went to Control Center....Printers....and added the printer....but it never seems to find it...even when I put the ip address in that is hardcoded on the windows box. I never did any modifications to any files...and the only thing I did in the CUPS options is add the hardcoded ip as a host. I went to the Configure CUPS that is in the printer control panel.
I am posting and replying on this site from my windows xp pro box. I hardly use the Linux box. I have 3 Windows XP Pro boxes, a Windows 2003 Server box, a Mac OS X Panther laptop, and a laptop with Linux on it. So as you can see, I am a windows guy but wanting to learn linux.
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