I have Suse 9.1 Personal edition. I have setup Samba to get printing to work from the Windows XP box. When I print something from Windows XP, it seems to work just fine except nothing comes out of the printer.

I have been working on this for 3 days now and I could really use some help.

Here is my smb.conf file:

# Samba config file created using SWAT
# from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0)
# Date: 2004/10/19 12:06:04

# Global parameters
[global]
workgroup = TUX-NET
load printers = yes
map to guest = Bad User
interfaces = 127.0.0.1, eth0
printing = cups
printer admin = @ntadmin, root, administrator
bind interfaces only = Yes

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
valid users = %S
read only = No
browseable = No

[users]
comment = All users
path = /home
read only = No
inherit permissions = Yes
veto files = /aquota.user/groups/shares/

[groups]
comment = All groups
path = /home/groups
read only = No
inherit permissions = Yes

[pdf]
comment = PDF creator
path = /var/tmp
create mask = 0600
printable = Yes
print command = /usr/bin/smbprngenpdf -J '%J' -c %c -s %s -u '%u' -z %z

[printers]
printer = Lexmark
create mask = 0600
browseable = no
comment = All Printers
printable = yes
path = /var/tmp

[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/drivers
write list = @ntadmin, root
force group = ntadmin
create mask = 0664
directory mask = 0775

Let me see if I understand you corrcetly :

The Linux machine is networked to the XP machine and the XP machine has the printer connected to it?

So which does not work? A print job sent from the Linux machine or a print job from the Xp machine or neither?

I had a similar problem where jobs sent from the Linux machine would get stuck in the spool on the XP and hang the printer (although the print head would move then stop). To get round this on the XP machine goto Printer > Properties > Port then uncheck 'Enable bi-directional Support'.

Hope this helps ...

I'm going to answer, assuming that the printer is on the Linux box and the client is the XP machine.

In my experience, you ought to have the client machine open a file share before printing. XP is terrible at sending authentication for printing when the machine isn't a member of a domain.

This happened to me last week. My wife didn't have a password set on her XP machine, so her mapped drives (we keep our mp3's on the Linux box) eventually timed out and didn't reconnect, which also killed her attempt to print. I fixed the issue by convincing her to use a password at login, persistently mapping the drives and now she has no more printing problems.

Opps! Edit

I just realized that the jobs are obviously getting to the machine just fine. I'm going to leave the above (just in case it helps someone), but I think you need to add

to the global portion of your smb.conf.

Thanks everyone. Sorry I wasn't too clear. The printer is connected to the Linux box and I want the XP machine to print to it. There are only two machines in my network. They share an Internet connection through a D-Link router.

I will give your suggestions a try and see what happens.

Okay, I added "cups options = raw" to the global portion of my smb.conf file, restarted smbd and nmbd then ran testparm.

Testparm returns this error:

"Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
Unknown parameter encountered: "cups options"
Ignoring unknown parameter "cups options""

I think I am going to have to admit that I just can't do it. I guess I'll break down and get a print server.

Thanks for trying.

Don't give up just yet!

I had a very similar situation, and the fix lies in the /etc/cups/mime.convs & /etc/mime.types files.
Those 2 files you have to edit and uncomment the entries in both that prevent RAW printing.

This entry in mime.convs has to be uncommented:

application/octet-stream application/vnd.cups-raw 0 -


... as well is this on in mime.types:

application/octet-stream


restart cups, restart smb, and try again...

Okay, thanks. I haven't tried printing yet, but now testparm shows this:

"Invalid combination of parameters for service lexmark. Level II oplocks can only be set if oplocks are also set."

Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE

UPDATE: I set oplocks to "Yes" and am not getting this error message. When I can, I'll try printing form the Windows host and see what happens. I'll let you know if this works.

How do you learn such obscure things?

Nope, that didn't work either.

I have Suse 9.2 Professional coming as soon as it's released. Maybe that will solve some problems.

Thanks for trying.

when you print from the XP box, can you do a lpq on the server's command line and see if the spooler has the content?

Is the user that is on the XP box also within /etc/passwd and was added to samba with smbadduser -a?

bash: smbadduser: command not found

I will try from WebMIn.

Thanks.

OOps.. I meant smbpasswd -a (guess I confused it with RH9)

smbpasswd -a <username as it appears in /etc/passwd>

Try this, to see if that user can get to the printer from the commanline...

smbclient //localhost/<printername> -U <winXP_user>

Once successfully logged in, type "print <filename>" to test printing as that samba user...

Printing as the XP samba user works, at least from the Suse host.

So, essentially, the only thing that's between XP and printing to samba is CUPS. ... and from my own experience with it, those two mime.types and mime.convs files were the culprit, as they denied RAW printing....

But besides that, you might want to check your firewall on the SuSE host to check whether it blocks access from the internal LAN.

Been down that road. I am not using a firewall on my workstations. I am using the hardware firewall on my router.

Thanks for the help.