Hi all,

I have RedHat 7.1 and Mac OS 9 installed on my Linux machine and Macintosh G3. I set up Netatalk on my Linux box and I can access the share from my G3 by "Chooser" in the Apple menu. However, I cannot see my Epson Stylus Color 850 printer in the Chooser menu.

I know that I have to configure the /etc/atalk/papd.conf file. My papd.conf file looks like

netprint:\
:pr=lp:op=user_name:

where "netprint" is the name of my Linux printer and user_name is the name of the user logging in from the Mac machine. I also have a Windows 2000 server machine on the LAN and my Mac machine can see its shared HP LaserJet printer correctly and print to it.

Does somebody have a clue how I can make my Epson printer appear in the Chooser menu? Is there something I'm missing in the papd.conf file? I appreciate any kinda pointer. Thanks!

After some trials and errors, the followings are what I found:

There were two ways to set up a printer in Mac OS 9: Chooser and Desktop Printer Utility.

Under Chooser, I saw the following items:

AppleShare
Color SW 1500
Color SW 2500
Color SW Pro
CSW 6000 Series
LaserWriter 300/LS
LaserWriter 8
SC 850
SC 850 (AT)

When I clicked AppleShare, I can only see the Windows 2000 Server machine but not my Netatalk Linux server. I could neither see the Epson Stylus Color 850 printer under any of the printer icons. However, I could access my Netatalk share by clicking the "Server IP Address" and logging in as a user that already existed on the Linux system.

Under Desktop Printer Utility, in the "With" fields, there was only one choice, which was "LasterWriter 8". I chose "Printer (LPR)". Then for the PPD file, I chose "Generic", and then specified the printer by the Linux machine's IP address. Next, the printer icon appeared on the desktop. However, when I tried to print to it, it prints pages of junk.

I cound find the PPD file for my Epson printer from www.linuxprinting.org. Does someone know if I need it? If so, how should I configure it into my system? Besides, is there anyone who can tell me more about configuring the /etc/atalk/papd.conf file? I've been googling for quite a while but couldn't find any document that has detailed explaination on it. Thanks a lot!

I've been dealing with my Netatalk problem for the past few days but still can't get it solved. The followings were what I found.

From the help pages under Mac OS 9, it said that one should use the Desktop Printer Utility to set up a Postscript printer, and use Chooser to set up a non-Postscript printer. Since my Epson Stylus Color 850 is a non-Postscript printer, I only dealt with Chooser.

As I've listed in the last post, there are 9 icons when I start Chooser. My Epson printer, which is connected to my Linux machine directly and is working fine, fails to appear in any of the printer icon. However, The HP LaserJet printer of the Windows 2000 Server machine on my LAN appears under "LaserWriter 8".

My papd.conf file now reads

Epson:\
:pr=|/usr/bin/lpr -Pnetprint:\
:pd=/etc/atalk/ppd/Epson-Stylus_Color_850-stc800ih[1].upp.ppd

I got the PPD file from www.linuxprinting.org. I've tried 3 other PPD files for Epson Stylus Color 850 but they didn't work. My printer just won't show up in the Chooser menu. So, is there something I MUST do before my G3 Mac machine can see the Linux printer of my Linux box? Something like advocating itself on the network...

Somebody please help me.... Thanks a lot.... :(

I may have discovered something that cause my Netatalk problem. Here it is:

In order to run Netatalk with file and print services, the daemons atalkd, afpd and papd should be started. However, when I type

atalkd

in the command prompt, the following error message is displayed.

eth0: Invalid argument
Can't configure multicast.
eth0: disabled.
atalkd: zero interfaces, exiting.

When I type

papd

nothing is displayed. And I'm sure that afpd is running as I can see it when I type

ps -xa | grep afpd

but when I type

ps -xa | grep atalkd & ps -xs | grep papd

the daemons aren't running. So does somebody have a clue why I can't start the daemons atalkd and papd? Thanks....