I'll add my two cents to this. We're putting up 2.2.2 and I've been looking
at the print driver stuff.
To upload the drivers, 1st create the print$ share. I have the following:
[print$]
comment = Default Printer Driver location (2.2 config)
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
write list = ntadmin @smbsupport
create mask = 0775
directory mask = 0775
I setup the directories on Linux to have the "smbsupport" group which the
userid that load drivers belong to. I use Unix userid/groups so I've also
put the userid that will do this in smbpasswd and created a smbsupport
group. You might be able to user Window's userids and groups
but I haven't gotten into that yet.
To upload the drivers, I go into Network Neighborhood, Point to Domain,
Server. Then you get a list of shares that have been setup (printer and file
shares) along with a "Printer" folder icon. Double click the Printer icon.
Then you see all the printers that have been setup. Click on a printer that
you want to setup with a driver. You may get various messages about print
drivers and spoolers. Just click on OK. Go into Printer / Properties (you
may get some more message).
Click on New Driver - I usually click on HAVE DISK and select the INF file
for that printer. You will then be able to select a printer model (note:
I've omitted all the various Windows dialogue boxes you go through).
Note: I use "Have Disk" since I have access to drivers which are WinNT and
Win2000 compatible. Most of the drivers that comes with WinNT are not
Win2000 compatible. If this isn't a problem you probably don't need to
select "Have Disk".
You should now see the driver being copied to the Linux server (see the
"Coping to ... \\,linuxserver>\print$\W32X86...."). If you go to the print$
share directory (in my case - /var/lib/samba/printers), you will see a
W32X86 (where WinNT and 2000 drivers are kept). During the copy the files
are stored in that directory. After all the files are copied they are moved
to a W32X86/2 or/3 subdirectory). If you get errors during the copy process
you may have to setup directory permissions (or userid/group owners) for
these directories.
It isn't the quickest process to do this so just be patient. Once it is
done, you can see the driver listed in the Printer Properties window. You
can close the window. That will setup the driver and associate it with the
printer. Note: once you have uploaded a printer driver, it can be used by
other printer queues.
Note: you can also upload Win95/98 drivers by using the Printer / Properties
/ Sharing tab. Select Shared and Alternate Drivers / Win95. Note Win9x
drivers are kept in a WIN40 directory under the print$ share.
To see the configuration info for server, I use "rpcclient //<server> -U
<userid>" and the "enumdrivers" to see all of the drivers that have been
uploaded to Samba. "getprinter <printername>" to see if the driver has been
associated with that printer.
We were experiencing a problem with the driver configuration information
being lost after a shutdown/restart of Linux. We need to recompile Samba
2.2.2 (since we were installing from source, no RPM for Linux/390 yet) and
we hardcode all the directories where files are kept. Originally we were
using /var/printer/drivers but have moved it to /var/lib/printers. This
seemed to be a problem with the various .tdb files (now kept in
/var/lib/samba directory) since the windows printer files were still in the
W32X86 directories. This may not be the case for others but it might be good
to try a few drivers and then see if the information is still around after a
restart (using rpcclient to verify the configuration information).
One real benefit of this is that this works with WinNT and Win2000 clients.
We're still rolling this out, so we might experience other problems.
I haven't looked at imprints but may if we move production usage of samba.
One other possibility if copying the various configuration files (smb.conf,
printcap, .tdb files, printer drivers, etc.) onto a new samba server. Not
sure how well this will work.
Also under the Network Neighborhood .... Printer icons there is an "Add
Printer" icon. The documentation says that this can be used to start a shell
script that with add the information to /etc/printcap (and smb.conf??). I
have yet to try this and they only "add printer" script that I've found is
written to work with CUPS. This would be quite useful in handing support for
this over to Windows only support groups. This uses the "add printer
command" in smb.conf and has info in the smb.conf help file. I'm quite
curious as to how this will work. Our goal is to provide tools to the groups
doing Print Server support to have GUI tools that they can use rather than
having to understand Linux.
Grahame Perry
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 15:36:29 EST
From: Dave Myers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Samba 2.2.2 - Load Printer Drivers question
Why was the PRINTER_DRIVER.txt doc moved to
/usr/local/samba-2.2.2/docs/textdocs/outdated
I am trying to understand how to load printer drivers to the
Samba Server for subsequent usage by the clients.
Is this document no longer valid with 2.2.2 ???
If so, what HOW-TO doc should I reference.
TIA
Dave
