discuss: Re: New submission: Printing with Debian and Windows Mini-HOWTO
Subject:
Re: New submission: Printing with Debian and Windows Mini-HOWTO
From:
Ian Ward ####@####.####
Date:
6 Apr 2003 23:03:42 -0000
Message-Id: <20030406232936.GA1239@badash.excess.org>
Hello Kurt,
Thank you for your prompt and detailled reply.
On Sun, Apr 06, 2003 at 10:03:16PM +0200, Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
> Ian Ward wrote on ####@####.####
>
> Hi, Ian,
>
> I've had a quick read thru this and here are my comments:
>
> You (wrongly) reduce the printer "driver" to a PPD. Actually
> the PPD is only working correctly if it is accompanied by the
> correctly installed "filter". (There are no filters needed
> for PostScript printers.) The required filter will be named
> in the PPD header, on the line beginning with the "*cupsFilter"
> keyword. In many cases this will be "foomatic-rip". foomatic-rip
> (or its predecessor, "cupsomatic") are only wrapper scripts
> around ghostscript. So you need ghostscript installed.
I have corrected the PPD/driver oversimplification.
cupsomatic is part of the foomatic-bin package in Debian. I don't
believe that I need to specify more information about configuring it as
the PPD file should reference it directly.. correct me if I'm wrong.
> You recommend the wrong ghostscript package. For Debian you
> need to use the gs-esp (or is it "esp-gs"?) version. This is
> ESP Ghostscript, containing the "cups" device. (ESP Ghostscript
> may be used in all other print and spooling systems too). Without
> ESP Ghostscript, you may not be able to print to Gimp-Print driven
> and some other printers. (You are likely to be able to print
> with the foomatic-rip, though. But it needs to be Ghostscript
> 7.05.x).
gs-esp is now recommended.
> This command is wrong:
>
> "lpadmin -p Laser -i parallel:/dev/lp0 -P /root/laser.ppd"
>
> It should read
>
> "lpadmin -p Laser -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -P /root/laser.ppd"
fixed.
> You wrote: "You may view the printer queue and check the printer
> status with the command lpq." -- With CUPS it is better to use
> "lpstat -o" and "lpstat -p". "lpq" is only there for backward
> compatibility. "lpstat" is more powerful.
fixed.
> You name the command
>
> "lpadmin -p RicePrinter -i smb://rice/INKJET -P /root/inkjet.ppd"
>
> This is largely correct (you again did use "-i" instead of "-v"),
> but I would suggest that you lat your reader check if there is a
> "smb" backend available at all:
>
> "ls -l /usr/lib/cups/backend/smb"
>
> If it is not there, it should be created by root using
>
> "ln -s `which smbspool` /usr/lib/cups/backend/smb"
fixed and added.
>
> The section where you quote the smb.conf file is plain wrong.
> Please read "man smb.conf" and the printing chapters of the
> Samba-HOWTO-Collection (use the latest 2.2.x versions, please,
> not the ones you find in the outmoded Debian package:
>
> http://de.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.html
> http://de.samba.org/samba/docs/man/smb.conf.5.html
> http://de.samba.org/samba/docs/man/smb.conf.5.html#PRINTCAP
>
> To be more specific about your mistakes:
>
> printcap name = lpstat
>
> # With CUPS, use "printcap name = cups". (See also "man smb.conf")
> # Also, make sure that in "cupsd.conf" there is a directive of
> # "Printcap /etc/printcap" set.
fixed.
> printing = cups
> security = share
>
> # "security = share" should not be used unless it is absolutely
> # necessary. Use "security = user" (or domain) instead.
I added a paragraph about how using this configuration would be a really
bad idea if your machine is on an untrusted network, like the Internet,
along with the security=user/domain suggestion and a pointer to the
Samba man page about configuring access.
> print command = /usr/bin/lpr -o raw -P%p -r %s
>
> # *If* you set "printing = cups" and *if* your smbd is compiled
> # against libcups (check with "ldd `which smbd`" -- then Samba knows
> # how to print to CUPS and no manually print command will work.
> # If Samba has no CUPS support compiled in, then the setting of
> # "printing = cups" is useless. *If* your Samba *does* have CUPS
> # support compiled in, but you desparatly want to use your
> # own print command, then use "printing = sysv". (But then you
> # are responsible for all the printing settings and you need
> # correctly defined commands all over...
>
> You say: "The most important part of this configuration file is
> the last line. It tells CUPS not to attempt to filter the documents
> sent to the printer. This is necessary because documents sent by
> Windows PCs have already been formatted for the destination printer
> by the Windows printer drivers."
>
> This is true. But it still will not work for most people!
>
> All these jobs are likely to get tagged as MIME type
> "application/octet-stream" by CUPS and as such are not allowed
> for printing by CUPS per default. This is a security feature,
> to prevent DoS attacks, where people might send binary data
> to the jprinter. To allow the "-o raw" printing of binary
> data (and this is what most Windows printer drivers produce),
> uncomment the last lines in "/etc/cups/mime.convs" and
> "/etc/cups/mime.types". (If you don't believe me, that this
> indeed *is* a very common problem, please google for "unable
> to convert file 0 to printable" or look it up at
> http://www.cups.org/faq.php?20 )
removed "-o raw" line, and added info about tweaking
/etc/cups/mime.convs.
> You are repeatedly referring to "smbclient" in the context of
> CUPS printing to Windows shared printers. This is wront. CUPS
> printing in these cases is done by the "smbspool" utility,
> symlinked to by "smb://" and shipping with Samba.
fixed.
> You say: "You should see a line that reads ``Scheduler shutting
> down due to SIGTERM''. This indicates that the CUPS server was
> restarted successfully."
>
> This line does signify the *shutdown* of the CUPS daemon. A
> successful (re-)tart is indicated by various other messages,
> especially in "LogLevel debug"...
fixed.
The updated doc is now online:
http://excess.org/docs/debian_windows_printing.html
Let me know if I missed anything.
-Ian
