I finally got everything working properly in Linux RedHat 7.2, with the exception of printing. I'd have to say this installation was very difficult, but I can answer tons of questions now, so at least that is something.

My question. I have a printer that is shared on my windows 2000 network. The printer does not have a TCP address, so I am using file and print sharing, and then setting the device to share. I have check all of the permissions, and they seem to be fine. I can print from all of my PC's thoughout my house to this printer (connected via cat5 to a switch) but I cannot print from the Linux Server to it.

I set up the printer using the printconf-gui in Linux. I named the queue CanonBJC, and selected it as a windows smb printer. I used the following path, \\cadburry\canon BJC-8200(BJRSTR) and set the IP address to the internal LAN address for cadburry. I tried it with and without a password, with no changes.

I saved the changes and restarted lpd each time before I tried to send a test page.

The test pages seem to be sending, and I get no errors, but there is no output.

Any ideas? I'm stuck...

Thanks in advance for your responses...

I had the same problem with RH7.1 a while back. I don't know about 7.2, I haven't tried it. The problem with 7.1 seem to be that the gui for setting up a printer via smb was broke. What I did is used the Linux gui to set the printer make and model info then used Webmin to get the ports correct. I know that's a long trip around the block but it worked. If you don't have Webmin go to http://www.webmin.com and download it. It is a very useful admin tool.

Hope this helps,
Lee

Hi Lee,

Thank you for posting. Could you be a little bit more specific on what you did to get the printer to work?

I had already set the printer up, using the printconf file directly in Linux. I then went into Webmin and set it up in SAMBA. Even tried to set it up in another part of Webmin. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work.

You mentioned in your response that you used Webmin to get the ports correct. I have a feeling that this is probably what is wrong for me now, but I'm not sure what to do.

The printer is attached to a PC running Windows 2000 Professional, that is attached to a Network. The printer is local to the W2K PC though, but sharing is turned on. It is attached to USB001 on that PC.

What would be the proper port setting in Webmin, so that I can get the Linux box to print to the W2K printer.

Thanks again for your response. Hoping you will be able to give me that little tid bit of information that will let me move on to my next adventure...

While in Webmin goto hardware, then printer administration. Once in printer admin if you set up the printer with the linux gui you should see it. Click on the printer then under print destination section you will see a check box for remote windows server. Check it, then fill in the balnks. Windows server name, printer name, user, password, and workgroup. Click on the save button and that should work.

Lee

Hi, I had many difficulties when I switched from window to linux-- not exactly your situation. What helped me out was this URL linuxprinting.org, you may have already checked it out.

There is a list of printers and how compatible they are w/linux.

good luck.

If you are still having problems make sure to check out the Errata section of the RedHat web site...there are many problems with printing that have been fixed in 2 separate updates...I recommend trying to install some of the updates if you haven't already. I like stating the fairly obvious stuff that I missed for oh so many weeks.

Anyways, I just thought I'd make sure you knew. Goodluck.

Thank you all for your responses. I sincerely appreciate them.

I think the reason that I can't print to the SMB printer, which is contected to a Windows 2000 Professional PC is because it is on a NTFS partition. And, after tons of reading I've found that Linux RedHat 7.2 does not support mounting NTFS partitions with the kernel that is shipped with the OS.

I read somewhere that RedHat 7.3 is going to be released in the next couple of days, but that could just be speculation. I know that the beta versions of Redhat are using the newer kernel and that supposedly will allow me to mount NTFS partitions in read only. I'm really not sure if that will work or not, but as soon as it gets released, I'm going to get it installed, if for no other reason just for more learning experiences.

Thank you all again, and if I have stated anything incorrectly in this post, please feel free to correct me, since I am truly a Linux

I'm a real newnewbie on Linux, so don't hold out a lot of hope for value here . . . but I'll try.

My RH 7.1 box is on my home network, and I print to an HP printer locally attached to a W98SE box. I had the network setup to use file and print sharing bound to NetBEUI (non-routable protocol). I specifically made sure file and print sharing was NOT bound to TCP/IP. This works fine in a Windoze network. Unfortunately, Samba dose not seem to support NetBEUI. I had to bind file and print sharing to TCP/IP before I could access that printer from Linux.

Hope that helps!

Well, it was a good try... but I can print to a FAT32 PC, which is what Windows98 is. I just can't print to an NTFS partition. I'm almost positive that it is because the kernel that ships with RedHat 7.2 does not support it. I've been gone all weekend, so hopefully in the next few days, I'll get the chance to spend some time on it.

Thank you for trying to help!

RH Linux will allow you to mount a NTFS partition across a Samba share. I do it all the time at work. I have RH7.2 on my laptop and I share files and print off of my workstation which is Win2k that is a NTFS drive. If you look at the whole config file for Samba, all the shares all masquraded as NTFS. For example mount a Samba share with a windows machine, right mouse the drive letter assigned to it, click properties and it will tell you that it is a NTFS drive. I think your printer woes lie elsewhere.

Lee

Possibly, Lee. But, I am unable to view any NTFS shares. I can view FAT32 shares, but I get an access denied error in Windows 2000. I have read quite a bit about problems with RedHat Linux 7.2 and NTFS, even in threads here. The problems that I am having are happening to quite a few people. When I do a search on RedHat 7.2 and NTFS in this forum, there are posts that say that the two do not work together with the kernel that ships with RedHat 7.2. That said, I could compile the newest version of the kernel and try to get it to work, but I just don't have the time right now.

I find it interesting that you are able to mount NTFS shares from Linux, when others have not been able to, but it does give me some hope that maybe there is some sort of permissions (that aren't already set up/and are obscure) that I need to give to my Linux PC, or to the Windows 2000 PCs to allow this to happen.

I am able to see the Linux shares just fine in Windows 2000 (NTFS) and I can copy files from Linux to Windows 2000, I however cannot mount the NTFS partitions from the Linux PC, so it is definitely a one way problem.

Is there something special that you have done to make this work? I'm sure there are a lot of people who would love to know how you got it to work.

Looking forward to your response.