Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

rcrsn51 · Last edited by rcrsn51 on Sun 05 Jul 2009, 17:23; edited 41 times in total

Puppy 4 has the CUPS printing system built-in. However there is a small bug that must be fixed before it can access a Windows shared printer.

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:

HairyWill · Joined: 26 May 2006 Posts: 2949 Location: Southampton, UK

Even if the shared printer is not linux compatible it is possible to get it to work using the instructions here:
http://puppylinux.org/wiki/how-tos/general/genericsharedpostscriptprinteronwindows

tata888 · Joined: 10 Jun 2008 Posts: 16

rcrsn51 · Posted: Wed 11 Jun 2008, 06:19 Post subject:

To find a PPD file for your printer, go here.

Look up your BJC-1000 printer in the database.

The results can be confusing, but the best recommendation for a driver looks like the BJC600. Scroll down the page to its entry and click on "Directly Download PPD".

Copy this file to /usr/share/cups/model and continue with the instructions.

However, before attempting the network setup, it would be a good idea to connect the BJC-1000 directly to your Puppy machine and get it working as a local printer. This will give you some practice working with CUPS.

tata888 · Joined: 10 Jun 2008 Posts: 16

Hi rcrsn5,

Thanks to your advice now I know what PPD is, but the problem starts here.

I managed to download the PPD for BJC 265 in the form of BJC 250 then I ensured that I had this smbspool.
The next instruction was to copy the ppd file in//share/cups/model.
Then I create a symlink by using the command given and I managed to add printer, but when I tried to print the test page I couldn't even print it in my local printer.

What did I do wrong?

rcrsn51 · Posted: Thu 12 Jun 2008, 07:29 Post subject:

Turn the printer OFF and send another test page. Then check under Jobs. Is the print job queued up?

Turn the printer ON. Check again under Jobs. Did the job get sent? If so, it sounds like you have the wrong printer driver.

tata888 · Joined: 10 Jun 2008 Posts: 16

Sorry to trouble you again.

I'm not sure if I did right or wrong. I'll just tell all the steps in detail.

1) I install the smbspool and copy paste it into the
/usr/bin/smbspool
2) download and install CUPS
http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Printing/cups-install-v0.3.pup∞
3) Then I went to your link to get the ppd for bjc 250 as it was the closest to bjc 265sp
4) I folloewed the next instructions which was to install it in /usr/share/cups/model.

5) /opt/samba/bin/smbspool ( is this the same with my smbspool?)

Then go to the folder /usr/lib/cups/backend

Inside this folder you need to make a symlink to the smbspool file and name it "smb". Open a console and type:

ln -s /opt/samba/bin/smbspool smb ( I did this)

Restart CUPS with the following command (or reboot Puppy):

/etc/init.d/cups restart

Open the CUPS web interface at http://localhost:631/

Go to Admin Tasks and start adding a new printer. ( Yup I did this, too)

but when I try to print test page I see this :

Canon Canon BJC-250 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.0.0
Description:
Location:
Printer State: idle, accepting jobs.
Device URI: parallel:/dev/lp0

Then I tried to print test page ......then sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't now. why is it unstable ?

Is it because I use the different CUPS instead of just mere ppd file?

rcrsn51 · Posted: Thu 12 Jun 2008, 23:07 Post subject:

What version of Puppy are you using? The latest version 4 already has CUPS installed, so there was no need to download anything other than the PPD file for your particular printer.

gerry · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 971 Location: England

Works perfectly, even for my set-up with the Canon proprietary driver. It's important to know how to configure your firewall on the Windows machine to give Puppy access. If you get a message saying "Unable to connect to CIFS host, ....", then that's probably the problem.

Gerry

exProphecy · Posted: Mon 28 Jul 2008, 05:13 Post subject:

I'm getting this error:

"Tree connect failed (NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED)"

What does it mean?

gerry · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 971 Location: England

After not needing to print to the Windows printer for a couple of weeks, I suddenly find that it doesn'nt work any more. Before I get down to finding why, here are some observations that I've noted when it WAS working:

When I set it up, at the "re-start CUPS or re-boot" stage, I re-booted.

Firewall: I use a third party security suite, that takes care of virus/malware/firewall, so I keep the windows firewall OFF. So be aware that if you've configured your third party firewall ok, and the Windows firewall is still active, Puppy may not be able to get through.

Your Windows machine: I use XP.

You need to be logged in. On my machine:

EDIT: further experience shows this is WRONG- you don't need to be logged in.

EDIT: several lines deleted here:

Now to find out why it's stopped working........

Gerry

gerry · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 971 Location: England

@tata888- the device URI is wrong. At the stage where you have the device list on screen, at the bottom you should see the "Windows Printer via SAMBA" option, and you then put in smb://...........

Gerry

mpierrat25 · Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 106 Location: France (25)

@gerry,

Thanks for your reply.

No my XP account is not password protected. Account is 'Propriétaire' should I mention account name in the URI ?

Could a wrong driver give the same message about CIFS ?

This is because I discovered that I'm not be able to print with this driver directly to the usb printer.

So I get a debian package for MFC210C , but I do not known how to install it in Puppy env. Could you help

regards,
mp

rcrsn51 · Posted: Tue 29 Jul 2008, 11:56 Post subject:

Here are some other URI's you can try:

smb://WORKGROUP/PCNAME/PRINTERNAME

smb://guest@WORKGROUP/PCNAME/PRINTERNAME

smb://user:password@WORKGROUP/PCNAME/PRINTERNAME

gerry · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 971 Location: England

@mpierrat25

Menu > XArchive archiver

includes a facility for unpacking a .deb package. I've never tried it.........

Gerry