Re: [gentoo-user] Sharing printers via Cups

[Dan Egli]

On 2/8/2021 5:01 PM, Michael wrote:
> On Monday, 8 February 2021 19:08:11 GMT Dan Egli wrote:
>> On 2/8/2021 2:14 AM, Wols Lists wrote:
>>> This is typical. In my linux setup, the printer is always busy. Stuff
>>> still prints fine, though.
>> Mine won't print. Says the printer is busy, and nothing else happens. It
>> just sits there. Let me give better names because even I can get
>> confused. So, we have three machines. Win10 Home = IRIS, Linux Server =
>> Athena, Linux Workstation = Janus
>>
>> If I print directly from Iris, it obviously works fine. If I print from
>> Athena it works fine. If I print from Janus, it never goes anywhere.
>>
>>>> How can I set this up correctly? To describe exactly what I'm trying to
>>>> do, let's just use four computers in this example. A is the central
>>>> print server. B is the windows client with the printer. C and D are
>>>> linux machines. What I want is if either C or D print something, they
>>>> both send it to A, and then A sends it to B.
>>> I'd try moving the printer to A, or configuring C & D to print directly
>>> to B. I dunno how you set up smbprint, but that should send straight to
>>> a shared printer on B no problem.
>> Unfortunately, moving the printer is a no-go right now, for various
>> reasons. Otherwise I'd just move it to be a network printer. The printer
>> itself is designed to be network capable. But Iris is technically not MY
>> Computer, and the printer isn't technically MINE either. They belong to
>> someone else in the house, and I simply have permission to use them.  So
>> my only two options are 1) Configure EVERYTHING to print to Iris. That's
>> doable I suppose, but really not what I want, or B) Use Athena as a
>> central print server just as it already acts as a central file server.
>> That is FAR more preferable because then if something changes instead of
>> updating EVERY computer I update ONE.
>>
>> --
>> Dan Egli
> Some ideas:
>
> 1. If the printer is network capable, why don't you connect it to the router
> and they it will accessible directly by all devices over the LAN, irrespective
> of their OSs?
>
Like I said, not my printer or my computer. I just have permission to 
USE them. So making a config change like that is out. Besides, that 
defeats the point I made at the end of what you quoted above. "That is 
FAR more preferable because then if something changes instead updating 
EVERY computer I update ONE.

> 2. Last time I set up a Windows XP as a printer-server, I installed-enabled
> Unix Print Service Windows Component (really an LPD/LPR service).  Then Linux
> PCs were able to print directly to it.  No need to configure SMB and what not,
> just for printing.  This randomly selected article describes the principle:
>
> https://support.printmanager.com/hc/en-us/articles/202835449-Linux-printing-via-the-Windows-Print-Server-

Actually tried that. Got LPD installed, sent a test page. Test page 
appeared in the Windows Queue, then disappeared without any 
acknowledgement from the printer. I finally got it working in samba mode 
so I'm good with that. And that, again, would skip the whole point of 
having a central print server. :)


> 3. If the current setup is the right thing for you, increase CUPS log
> verbosity and check the logs on Athena to find out what it isn't happy with
> when Janus sends a print job to it.  First check the CUPS driver and printing
> protocol is the same on Janus as on Athena and the CUPS' config on Athena
> allows inbound connections from your LAN, or your Janus' IP address.

I can check on those. Thanks. I do notice one thing strange. Maybe a 
cups bug. In the web interface when I created the printer in Athena, I 
checked the box to say it was a shared printer. But when I look at the 
status it says "not shared".


-- 
Dan Egli
On my test server