Jonathan's Contribution

Linux Configuration

Henry's Printer Server Setup

Printer Server Setup

Henry has a printer connected to it and provides printing services for the local network in addition to all its other tasks. It server both Unix clients using remote printing, and MS Windows clients using Samba.

References

Printing Usage Howto

Samba (SMB) Howto

RedHat Getting Started Manual

Samba's smb.conf man page
Setting Up the Printer

This job involves creating a /etc/printcap file. The syntax of this file is rather cryptic and terse.   RedHat's printtool, does a fine job in making this file creation simple. As root simply run up printtool, and follow the instructions in the Getting Started guide. We create three logical printers for the one physical printer installed. (This is analogous to printer drivers in the MS Windows world).   The Logical Printers are:

hp850c            - normal draft printing

hp850c-2up - prints to pages side by side on one sheet of paper.

hp850c-hi      - higher quality output.

The resulting /etc/printcap file should look something like:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>/etc/printcap
# /etc/printcap
#
# Please don't edit this file directly unless you know what you are doing!
# Be warned that the control-panel printtool requires a very strict format!
# Look at the printcap(5) man page for more info.
#
# This file can be edited with the printtool in the control-panel.

##PRINTTOOL3## LOCAL cdj550 300x300 letter {} DeskJet550 3 1
hp850c:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/hp850c:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sh:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :if=/var/spool/lpd/hp850c/filter:
##PRINTTOOL3## LOCAL cdj550 300x300 letter {} DeskJet550 24 1
hp850c-high:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/hp850c-high:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sh:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :if=/var/spool/lpd/hp850c-high/filter:
##PRINTTOOL3## LOCAL cdj550 300x300 letter {} DeskJet550 3 1
hp850c-2up:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/hp850c-2up:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sh:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :if=/var/spool/lpd/hp850c-2up/filter:
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<</etc/printcap
We choose to make hp850c our default printer. I use bashas my shell program. I add the following lines to my bash initialization file /etc/bashrc:

PRINTER=hp850c

export PRINTER

You can use printtool to restart lpd, the line printer daemon, or you could do it manually with:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd restart

Finally we can print a test page, use printtool, or pipe a file such as /etc/passwdthrough lpr.

lpr /etc/passwd

For other Unix boxes to be able to spool to this print server, we need to advise this print server of the hosts that can spool here. We do this by entering the names of all permitted Unix hosts, one per line, in a file /etc/hosts.lpd.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>/etc/hosts.lpd
hercules
homer
henry
hal-9000
beatroot
hershel
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<</etc/printcap
Setting up Samba

This is not a serious samba setup, this configuration sets up a Unix printer for "MS Windows printer sharing" as a bonus, if one MS Window's login matches a unix login, the home directory of that unix login is visable to "MS Windows file sharing", and readonly access to the whole unix directory structure (that permits access, can't see files that you do not have rights to see).

Ensure you have samba installed (rpm -qi smb). If not you can retrieve it from rpmfind.net.

The following is the config file I use, it is not rocket science, however a read of the smb.conf man page will not hurt.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>/etc/smb.conf
[global]
        workgroup = Novatek
        server string = Henry Resource Sharing

        security = share        
        guest only = yes        
        hosts allow = 192.168.0. localhost

        log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
        max log size = 50
        socket options = TCP_NODELAY  

        printcap name = /etc/printcap
        printing = bsd
        load printers = yes

        case sensitive = no
        short preserve case = yes
        preserve case yes

[homes]
        comment = Home Directories
        read only = No
        create mask = 0750
        browseable = No

[printers]
        comment = All Printers
        path = /var/spool/samba
        public = Yes
        printable = Yes
        browseable = No
        writeable = No
        create mode = 700

[root]
        comment = Henry root
        path = /
        read only = yes
        public = yes
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< /etc/smb.conf
Checking things out

Windwows Clients

If TCP/IP Networking is installed correctly, and DNS points to Henry's IP address, Henry should appear as a folder in the Explorer's Network Neighborhood. Opening this folder should show the root directory, the user directory if the MS Windows user matches, and a printer icon for each of the printers configured on Henry.

Unix Hosts

This is covered in the common configurations.

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