cannot print to printer on remote xp box on network
 

I set up cups printing and installed printer. I sent test print and it says it sent is successfully but it says it's printing for as long as I leave it in the queue. In other words, it never prints. I give it about 15 minutes and then I finally remove it from the queue. This is a remote printer on my home network (windows/samba printer setup). The remote printer is an hp deskjet 990c on a windows xp workstation. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. I am using mandrake 10.1. I have checked the share, and can even get to the xp box itself in a browser window and the corresponding shares via smb://. This doesn't show the printer in the browser window, though. I have run the smbclient -L command and it does list the printer share there, as well. I have tried connecting to thenetbios name and the ip address, I have tried other drivers, I have tried using other connections other than CUPS, I have used the control center and kde printer wizard. NOTHING WORKS! It sends the print and just sits there. In looking at the IPP report for the printer, I still get: Unable to connect to SAMBA host, will retry in 60 seconds...ERROR: Connection failed with error NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED. The print just hangs in the queue. I was told to ensure the user account on the linux box and xp box match up (name and password, they do), and to set up the smbuser account. In looking for information on the smbuser account, I don't find much. I am at a complete loss at this point. I have installed the printer about 30 times, to no avail. Help? Please?

Did you enable printer sharing on XP?

Also XP requires a username or you get access denied.
If you use the KDE wizzard just select the guest user, and then fill in the XP box name, workgroup and XP printer share name on the next screen.

Yes, I checked that several times. I have a printer share on the xp box. In fact, that was the first thing I set up. As far as the user name, yes, I checked to make sure that matched up, and what is interesting is that sometimes it doesn't like the name and password I enter, even though it is the same each and every time. Sometimes it takes it, sometimes it doesn't. If I go with guest user in the kde printer wizard setup, it will actually show me the shares, but not the printer, and then give me the same error as in the ipp report, and I have to back out and give it a name and password BEFORE it will let me proceed. I can try it again, but I do remember trying it that way a few times. If it didn't see the shares on the xp box to which the printer is connected, I would suspect ntfs partitioning issues. I also checked the security on the printer to make sure there weren't limited permissions overriding the share permissions on the xp box. In fact, I even added the user to the admin group on the xp box for good measure, and it still didn't work. It's acting like a permissions issue, but on the xp end, everything is as it should be. I suspect perhaps I don't have permissions to something on the linux side. When I first set up mandrake, I couldn't play audio CDs as the user, and had to give myself permission to some folders to resolve that issue. Is there something on the linux side that may require some permissions even though this is a remote printer, like perhaps the samba folder or something?

Can you log in as root and add the printer? If it works then it's a user permission issue.

try this
it's kind of an obscure hp thing that worked for me
on the windows machine hp printer setup right click -> properties
and on the "Ports" tab uncheck "enable bidirectional support"

foo_bar is right, that does work sometimes.

XP and 2003 (especially 2003 server) can cause real trouble with sharing. Easiest option is to share the printer on the Linux box... works everytime.

Regards
Richard

I can actually add the printer as root and as the user, but I sometimes get harassed about the account depending on how I add the printer. The printer gets added, print jobs get sent to the printer, they just don't print. They just hang in the queue and never time out. The only way I can tell the job failed (other than the fact that they never print) is the ipp report generating the error I mentioned above. I looked at the "enable bidirectional port option" and it isn't even checked, so that rules that out. RKETTLE mentions sharing the printer on the linux box. Am I correct in assuming that means actually putting the physical printing device on the linux box and sharing it out? If so, that is not really an option in this case, as the linux box is on a laptop. If I am not making the correct assumption, please clarify. As an additional fyi, the laptop dual boots to xp and I can print from the xp os just fine. Thanks. : )

Just to be clear are you using ipp or samba to print to the XP box

does cups/printers.conf show
ipp://
or
smb://guest@workgroup/xpboxName/PrinterShareName

OK, in answer to your question, it is cups and yes, that is the path. I have some good news. I went to the applications to see if there were some samba programs out there that needed installed. I installed the samba client and now Root can print just fine. Unfortunately, the user account still cannot. I had root give the user account permissions to print, but it didn't help. It is something different, though. The job never gets to the queue, therefore, never hanging. When root prints, the job zips out of the queue as fast as it gets there, but the user never gets there. At this point, I would say it is a permissions issue for the user, but the user has the same permissions on the xp box as root, so it must be something on the linux end. Perhaps in the smb.conf file or something???? I am sooooooooo new with this linux stuff, so please bear with me. thanks.

well I finally got it figured out. It turns out that when I was finally printing as root, but not as user, I actually was printing as user. when my husband brought in the prints from root, he failed to mention that the printer needed the cartridge changed, so the prints that user sent were stuck in the print queue and I didn't know it. Therefore, user can print. thanks to all for their contributions to helping resolve my dilema. : )