Thank you for the excellent writeup. I was tied up over the weekend, but will try it all today.
I have that very book, although it maybe not be the most current version. Mine is Version 2. It was always my favorite because it was the first place I ever found a good writeup of the boot process. Also, in the spirit of "giving back to the community", I'm writing a How-to. It's almost the opposite of the existing How-to's. I'm one of the worst students. I've 20 years of DOS/ OS/2 and Windows experience. That means not only to I have to learn new things, I have to unlearn old things, or at least break old patterns. To say the least, with the moderate amount of time I have, and the old skills to unlearn, I've had a hard time. Installing has always been very easy, with the possible exception of X. So, with that in mind, my how-to is basic steps to install and/or configure basic additional services, post install. Nothing fancy, I prefer to install something first and then play with it to learn it. If it's working you can tweak it and break it but you can always get back to a known working state. I find this far preferable to reading a pile of manuals, prior to the installation. I prefer to have it working and then read the pile of manuals, testing and playing as I go. So, I've a skeleton with a few sections filled out so far. It's geared toward RH 7.1, with specific installation steps to get a very vanilla Samba, FTP, SSH, Apache, etc service running. If anybody feels inclined to chip in, feel free. I'll be very happy to donate it to GNHLUG (and any other local LUG's). The Author can be GNHLUG. I've a skeleton and a few sections filled out. I keep getting side tracked. This is all just a thought. If anybody feels like this is a good idea, great. If not, no problem. Thanks again for the detailed help. I really appreciated it. GGK Paul Lussier wrote: > In a message dated: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 15:24:18 EDT > Greg Kettmann said: > > >First, sort of an apology. I ask for a fair amount of help and I really > >appreciate those that answer. > > Well, we appreciate the appreciation. Additionally, we also expect > that as you learn this stuff, that you will also help us answer these > types of questions when they pop back up in the future. > Pay it forward, as the movie title indicated :) > > >My job does NOT require that I have any > >hands on Linux skills, although I'm very well versed on how and where to > >use Linux and how to build clusters. > > Neither do the jobs 98% of the Linux using population :) > > >I try to learn Linux because I want to, somewhat as a hobby. > > Hmm, hobby, no, this is a chore, a hobby is kite flying or something :) > > >Despite a room full of books and the Linux Documentation Project it can > >be a very daunting task. > > Absolutely, especially when you consider a lot of the docs there are > out of date, written by people who had little more knowledge of the > subject than you, and in many cases, speak english as a second or > third language! > > That being said, it still remains the best source of information > in many, many cases! > > >I know that I should first read the How-to's, etc. I do. Unfortunately > >this often leads to greater confusion, not less. > > Well, a good foundation in Unix is a big help when learning Linux. > Also, being well versed in system administration also helps immensely, > since you are in fact a system administrator for your home systems > (unless you have the spare cash to pay someone to do this for you at > home. If you do, please let me know, I'll gladly be your personal > sysadmin for the right price :) > > Short of already being a sysadmin or having a strong foundation in > all things Unix, the best 2 things you can do are read and do. > > Those are the only ways you'll actually learn and retain all this > stuff. Sometimes you need to read many, many times :) > > I've found that in many cases the best course of action is to find > documentation distributed with the software you're dealing with. In > most cases, these docs are better than what you'll find at the LDP. > > Also, for "generic Unix things" like printing, modem connection, etc. > I HIGHLY recommend "The UNIX System Admistrator Handbook" by Evi > Nemeth, et. al. This is perhaps the single most useful book I've > ever read, and 99% of it applies to Linux as well as commercial > variants of Unix. With this one book, you can figure out how to do > almost anything at the system level (i.e. not 3rd party add-on sw > config e.g. samba). > > >I've a fairly simple task ahead. I'm trying to retire my old NT box. > >However it still has a printer attached. My network is one W2K box, one > >WinME box and about 5 Win98SE boxes. The Linux box is a server and I've > >never worried about printing from it. I'd like to attach a Lexmark > >Laser Printer up to the server. If I read the Howto's they talk about > >the "print$" share for printer drivers. However, I find nothing in any > >of the sample SMB.CONF files, nor anything comprehensible in the files > >included with Samba. Could someone outline the basic steps needed to > >attach and share a printer to my Linux Samba server (which is up and > >running), starting right after I connect the parallel cable? > > Okay, this is fairly straighforward: > > 1. Set up said printer on Linux and get printing working here > first. Once you do this, everything else will "Just Work"(tm) :) > > 2. Set up a printer share under samba server > 3. Restart samba > 4. Set up Windows clients > > Let's tackle #1 first. > > This is going to be fairly straightforward for either RH or Debian > since the methods are the same. If you have something else like SuSE > or Mandrake, I can only say "see your distribution specific > documentation!" :) > > For either RH or Debian, make sure that printtool is installed. > > For RH, install the printtool and all associated rpms. > For Debian, apt-get install printtool > > As root, run printtool, configure printer appropriately[1] > > You should probably get a window with an empty list of printer queues > unless you already have a /etc/printcap file with entries in it. > The following actions are based on printtool 4.5-3 on Debian, if you > have a RH7.x system, you should be able to extrapolate the > approptiate mouse clicks. > > Select add (a new window will pop up) > Select Local printer and hit okay > - a new window will pop up > - The defaults should be fine, > change them if you wish and > understand what you're doing. > Click on the 'Select' button > - yet another window will pop up > - find the closest description of your printer > - If you have RH6.x and an HP LaserJet, we've found > that the Generic Postscript filter works best > if you don't find a "Type" that matches exactly. > - Select any other options you are aware of that you'll > need (don't worry, you can always come back and fix them > later). > Select 'Okay' in the "Printer Filter" window > Select 'Okay' in the smaller Printer Config window > (the one with no title bar) > From the menu-bar in the main window select 'lpd->restart lpd' > Highlight the printer you just added > Select Tests->Print ASCII Test Page > Watch for test page > If it works and it's a PS printer: > Select Tests->Print Postscipt Test Page > Watch for test page > If it works: > Select PrintTool->Quit > If it doesn't: > Select the printer and edit the > filter until things work. > If it doesn't work: > Select the printer and edit the filter > until things work. > > Setting up a share under Samba: > > I'm assuming that you're familiar with the smb.conf file, so here's > an example of what you could do. I'm not going to go into any detail > since this is excellently and verbosely documented in the O'Reilly > Samba book with is also freely available from samba.org and shipped > with Samba. The Samba man pages also document it quite well also. > > In the [global] section if you have one specified: > > # Global Printer Section > load printers = yes > printcap name = /etc/printcap > [2] printing = bsd > print command = lpr -r -P%p %s > lpq command = lpq -P%p > lprm command = lprm -P%p %j > > Create a [printers] section: > > [Printers] > comment = printers > path = /tmp > create mask = 0700 > print ok = yes > public = yes > browseable = no > printable = yes > [3] printer driver = "HP LaserJet" > > Obviously you should customize this to fit your printer. > > Restarting Samba: > > RH6.x: /etc/rc.d/smb restart > RH7.x: /etc/init.d/smb restart > Debian: /etc/init.d/samba restart > > Setting up the windows client: > > I'm assuming that you know how to find the Samba server > from the Windows clients, therefore[4]: > > - Start->Administration (or whatever it is)->Printers > - Double-click "Add Printer" > - Browse Network Neighborhood > - Find your Samba server and expand it to see it's shares > (if you don't see the printer you added, go back > and test the config with testparms and testprn under > Linux.) > - Select the printer and follow the appropriate prompts. > - If you didn't set up a 'printer driver' selection > in smb.conf, then select the appropriate driver > - Change the name of the printer to something more meaningful > than: > > "Longwinded Windows Printer Name Specifying Nothing > More Than The Model Name Of Said Printer" > - Print a test page[5] > > > [1] Printtool will be slightly different between RH6.2 and 7.1, > since they've completely changed the interface from tk to gtk, > and things are slightly different, but it's still pretty intuitive. > If you get stuck, let me know. > > [2] If you're using RH7.x then 'printing=LPRng'; see samba docs/ > website/FAQ for more info on the rest of this section. > > [3] The 'printer driver' directive will allow each client to > automagically detect the "proper" driver. However, for this > to work, the quoted string needs to be *exactly* as Windows > would look for it. You can obtain this information from > looking at the printer properties under Windows after > you have manually configured one such client. > > [4] These windows directions are completely from memory, since I > don't have a windows box handy, actually, I don't have a windows > box! Hmm, just when I thought I had nothing to be thankful for, > I'll have to remember that come Thanksgiving :) > > [5] If things don't work, then there's something wrong with either > you're printing under Linux, which you should have successfully > tested already; or with your samba config, which you should now > go and re-tweak, and see the Samba docs to help debug the > situation. There's little I can do at this point. > > Also, turning debugging on in smb.conf and tail -f'ing the samba > logs and watching them while attempting to print should prove > to be immensely helpful! > > >By the way, if the correct answer is to install something like SWAT or some > >other Samba tool that's fine. > > IMO, installing something like SWAT (linuxconf, or any other > relatively crippled GUI abstraction layer) is seldom the answer. > > I recommend printtool because it actually does a fairly good job of > getting things set up correctly. Ideally there'd be an easier way > to do this too (well, there is, but I'm lazy, and, surprisingly, I > actually trust printtool to "do the right thing" :) > > SWAT and Linuxconf I have no trust for at all, since they completely > hide what they're doing, and what they're doing is almost always > broken in one way or another! > > I *really* hope this ridiculously long e-mail helps you some. I have > not told you anything here which is not, to my knowledge, covered in > all the documentation, so if you have questions, concerns, etc., I > really encourage you to hit the docs, it's all there. If something > I've said doesn't make sense, feel free to ask, I'll see what I can > do. > > ********************************************************** > To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the > *body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter: > unsubscribe gnhlug > ********************************************************** ********************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the *body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter: unsubscribe gnhlug **********************************************************
