A few months ago a client had me build a small file server running OpenSuse for them. They also had me install an HP Designjet 650C on the server and share it on the network for 2 desktops to print to.

All went well and there have been zero problems. Happy customers are good things.

They use a few specialty apps that don't have good enough FOSS counterparts, so I couldn't talk them into switching the desktops to Linux, although they were very interested in it. One of the desktops runs Vista and has an XP Pro VM on it (they are considering a Linux VM to go with it so they can dip their toes in the water). There was a locally installed HP OfficeJet 5610 on the machine, but printing from the XP VM was a hassle because they had to tell virtualbox to pass the usb interface to the VM, effectively disabling it in Vista. Then to print in Vista again they had to release the interface back to the host OS. The other desktop (running XP) was also unable to print to it.

They asked me to install the 5610 on the server and share it like I did the 650C. Installing it on the server was easy. I just plugged it in and checked to make sure everything was neat and tidy in YaST. It printed flawlessly. I configured the share identically to the way I shared the 650C.

I browsed the network from Vista, found the printer, and installed it using Vista's native driver. Then I sent a print to it from Vista and nothing happened. Vista is very slow to communicate with the printer compared to the 650C, but it will eventually report that the print job was successful. The printer never receives the print, though. Where are the print jobs going?

The VM and other desktop are as big of a problem. XP does not natively support the 5610, so I have to download a driver from HP's site. The driver uses a stupid binary installer that will not allow the driver to be manually installed. Running the installer works, but the driver will not install until it sees the printer in a usb port. That won't work because we are connecting to it over a network path. Where can I find a driver that can be manually installed?

TIA

J

Use a other driver for your printer or use only the inf file in windows.

That's what I am thinking, too. Where do I get another driver to try with, though?

Thanks for the reply,

J

*bump*

Believe it or not, my customer is still patiently waiting...

Any new ideas?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

J

I think this is where your problem lies: You installed the "Vista native driver"

I no longer use win, but let me give you an analogy from my linux-only LAN.

My server has my printer attached. Printing from the server is easy. CUPS on the server is configured with the appropriate HP Laserjet driver, and to advertise its services to my LAN.

If I want to print from my laptop, I ask laptop-CUPS to find the server-printer on my LAN. It finds it. Then, when laptop-CUPS asks me for which printer driver to install I have to Select "None": Raw printer.

This is because the laptop doesn't need the printer driver, all that is handled by the server-CUPS.

If on laptop-CUPS I install the HP Laserjet driver (which is what I did at my first attempt to get the remote pronter working), the server-printer does not work.

So you need some way of telling windows not to use the printer-driver, just send the raw job to your networked printer, and let the CUPS-driver sort it all out. The last windows I used was '98, so I cannot help you with the windows end of things, but at least you should know where to start looking.

THAT is interesting!!!

I can't wait to try it. I'll report back (and thank) if it works.

J

I googled for the right driver to use in Windows XP/Vista for a raw printer and ran into this:

http://www.owlfish.com/thoughts/wini...003-07-20.html

It really looks like you are on the right track. The client is out for the weekend, but we'll be testing it soon!

J

It seems like the desktops aren't able to communicate with the remote printer queue with an "access denied" error. I can install the printer, but the print jobs still vanish into the ether. It looks like a permissions issue. How can I check/change that?

Not sure, it's a permissions issue ...
Do you see any entry in /var/spool/cups when you try to print ?
I've a look on samba logs, may you have some interesting logs