We have been happily using cups and samba for printing on our small network at work. Recently we have started having problems with our the machine that has our main printer connected to it not allowing other machines to print through it.

I have been trying to look into possible causes and am getting bogged down by all of the documentation out there. I don't want to spend the next 3 years learning EXACTLY how these systems operate in microscopic detail. I think that our problem is with samba, this was originally setup as we had a windows machine that needed to share the printer. This is no longer the case so I figured we could forget the samba part.

When adding a samba shared printer through cups I found it very simple. I just put smb://ip.of.machinewith.printer/ReceptionPrinter, no problem. I have been all over loads of FAQs and tutorials but I can't find one that explains what device and what URI I need to use plus the syntax for the URI.

Just in case I'm overcomplicating this, we have a Linux machine running cups and we want to be able to send jobs to that printer from other linux machines on the network. Sounds so simple.

Can anyone help?

At the linux box which has the printer connected, type the command: printconf-gui .
You should see the printer listed, right click on the printer and select sharing / all hosts and save the changes. Now the printer should show up at the other linux boxes.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I dont have and can't find printconf-gui. I found printconf and installed and ran it but got this error:

# printconf
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/printconf", line 121, in ?
if not pdbinfo:
NameError: name 'pdbinfo' is not defined

Any more ideas?

Is machine connected to printer using CUPS?