This exercise assumes that you have found a suitable PPD file for your Windows printer and installed it in /usr/share/cups/model. Read here for more information.
Before starting, go to your Windows computer and locate its machine name and the name of the shared printer. The printer name is the one-word identifier assigned by Windows. Look for it under the Sharing tab of the printer's properties.
Important! CUPS cannot deal with a printer name if it contains spaces. You have two choices. Rename the printer in the Windows Sharing dialog. Or replace the spaces with the code %20 when you enter the name in CUPS.
You can also use the Windows computer's IP address instead of its machine name.
You may need to modify your PC's firewall to allow network printing. Some users who are using a security package like Norton have a firewall running without knowing it. Forum member als123 reported this:
Now launch Puppy and verify that you have the file /opt/samba/bin/smbspoolIn the Norton's Personal Firewall: Trust Control, Active Tab. (This should be your home network) Select it and click on Properties Select "Allow All network activity on this network"
Then go to the folder /usr/lib/cups/backend
Inside this folder you need to make a symlink to the above smbspool file and name it "smb". In later versions of 4.x, this symlink may already be present. If not, open a console and type:
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ln -s /opt/samba/bin/smbspool /usr/lib/cups/backend/smb
Check again in /usr/lib/cups/backend and verify that the symlink has been created.
[Edit] Several users of 4.2.x have reported that although the symlink exists, it does not work properly. The solution is to manually delete and recreate it.
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rm /usr/lib/cups/backend/smb
ln -s /opt/samba/bin/smbspool /usr/lib/cups/backend/smb
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/etc/init.d/cups restart
Go to Admin Tasks and start adding a new printer.
At the bottom of the Device list you can now select "Windows Printer via Samba". (If this entry is not present, then your "smb" symlink is corrupted. Use the above steps to recreate it.)
Enter the device URI as
smb://PCNAME/PRINTERNAME
Select your printer manufacturer and model.
Go to Manage Printers and print a test page.
You may have problems if the Windows host denies access to the Puppy client. In that case, you should try a URI that provides authentication. For example,
smb://WORKGROUP/PCNAME/PRINTERNAME
or
smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@WORKGROUP/PCNAME/PRINTERNAME
or
smb://Administrator@windows_IP_address/printer_share_name
Also, member gerry has reported this:
Here is another troubleshooting technique. Go to a console and typeIf you are getting the CIFS problem, then (in 4.1.2) I have to open Pnethood and mount the printer with "Use CIFS" box ticked.
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smbclient -NL PCNAME
If you need to set up printing from a Windows machine to a Puppy printer, read here.