Re: Printing from SuSe Linux to WindowsXP print Server

Marshall Paul wrote:

> Eric,
>
> I fixed it. I can now print from my Linux box to my
> windows box.

Way to go, Marshall!

> The problem was with the uri
> specification. The documentation format seems to
> shows "smb://workgroup/server/share_name"
> The problem was with the server name. If the
> workgroup was MSHOME and the server name was Wonda and
> the share name was HP then I expected the uri to be
> "smb://MSHOME/Wonda/HP"; silly me.

Not so silly, I'd've expected the same thing.

> What was required
> was a server name of "user_name@server_name". The
> user_name could be anything because it is ignored;
> '""' (double quotes works just as well).

I'm guessing that the user name would be used in a domain login
configuration, and that it's ignored because you're peer2peer. Just
guessing.

> So the uri
> could be "smb://MSHOME/anything@Wonda/HP" or
> "smb://MSHOME/""@Wonda/HP"; Both works fine.
> This entry is in the etc/cups/printers.conf file as
> DeviceURI.

URIs (Uniform Resource ?Identifiers?) are new to me. They seem to be
similar to URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), but are apparently a bit
different. Does anyone on the list know of a good primer that explains them?

I would think that since there is no user name required, the @ should be
optional (as the name is). If that is the case, this is a bug that
should be reported.

> I configured this using the http://localhost/631 GUI
> utility. The problem was not aided by the fact that
> the utility printer configuration page does not fully
> update properly and shows error messages from previous
> actions. These error messages only update properly
> after the utility is closed and reopended. So some of
> the error messages I was reporting were misleading.
> It showed an error even when I triped on the correct
> configuration. The test page started printing while
> still showing connection failures.

I wonder if the CUPS project has a bugzilla report on this too. If not,
it'd be nice if you'd file one (or two!).

> I don't understand all of the components involved in
> samba and cups. Their are so many configuration files
> and spoolers, etc. I am sure that I could make it
> work better, if I were smarter. However, at least for
> now I can print. One tiny step forward.

You should be proud of yourself. According to the Samba-3 HowTo and
Reference Guide, "Network printing is one of the most complicated and
error-prone day-to-day tasks any user or administrator can encounter.
This is true for all OS platforms". More so with Linux, methinks. BTW,
the named reference contains a very good description of how printing (lp
and CUPS) works. The book's online at
http://us3.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/index.html

> Thanks one
> and all especially Eric for your attemp to help me. I
> appreciate the moral support.

You're welcome. Sometimes all we need is a sounding board.
Thanks for posting your solution!

> Marshall

<snip>
-- 
-Eric 'shubes'
"There is no such thing as the People;
  it is a collectivist myth.
  There are only individual citizens
  with individual wills
  and individual purposes."
-William E. Simon (1927-2000),
     Secretary of the Treasury (1974-1977)
  "A Time For Truth" (1978), pg. 237

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