LAN printing to XP printer - SOLVED!

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wimpy
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LAN printing to XP printer - SOLVED!

#1 Post by wimpy »

I have a small home LAN. A Brother printer is connected to a XP Home. One of the PCs is a puppy(Lucid 5.2.8 ) With the help of the threads here I have managed to to get all the PCs to share files. The XPHome PC is set up to accept unix clients. The printer name is "Brother" which is different from the sharename, Macbeth(say). smbtree shows the printer as \\XPHome\Macbeth. I'm trying to add the printer via CUPS but I'm just not certain how to designate the connection given the choices below
Internet Printing Protocol (http)
Internet Printing Protocol (ipp)
AppSocket/HP JetDirect
LPD/LPR Host or Printer
Windows Printer using smbclient
Windows/Samba Printer
Backend Error Handler
I've tried various methods but without success. None of the editors offer the Brother printer as a possibility. Any help would be greatly appreciated
Last edited by wimpy on Sun 04 Nov 2012, 18:04, edited 1 time in total.

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rcrsn51
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#2 Post by rcrsn51 »

There are two issues here: getting the correct network protocol and getting the appropriate printer driver.

1. Since your Connection list includes "Windows/Samba Printer", the correct protocol is

Code: Select all

smbw://COMPUTER_NAME/PRINTER_NAME
Notice that it uses forward slashes, not backslashes.

In your case, it may be

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smbw://XPHome/Macbeth
Are those the correct names? Read the instructions here. under "Connecting to a Windows Shared Printer".

2. Since Windows shared printers are not auto-detected, you need to install the Linux Brother printer driver on the CLIENT machine. Have you read here yet?

What model do you own?

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wimpy
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#3 Post by wimpy »

Thanks for the quick reply. My confusion arises because Windows says the printer name is Brother and the sharename is Macbeth. I would have expected smbtree to return \\XPHome\Brother (it uses backslashes) but it returns \\XPHome\Macbeth. The Windows machines all see the printer as Brother. I'll have a read of the threads you gave.
The model I own is the HL-2037, which is the black version of HL-2035

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rcrsn51
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#4 Post by rcrsn51 »

Type this command:

Code: Select all

smbclient -NL XPHome
Do you get a list that includes the shared printer? What is its name?

It sounds like you are confusing the names of the Windows shared folder with the shared printer.

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wimpy
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#5 Post by wimpy »

I get 3 columns Sharename, Type and Comment.- Macbeth, Printer and Brother. I downloaded the debbi pet and the cupswrapper.deb for the HL-2030 ( it said to use it for the HL-2035) and ran them both (debbi first). It said there are no menu entries for either so I don't know what to do next.

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rcrsn51
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#6 Post by rcrsn51 »

Run the CUPS setup wizard again. Now you should see an entry under Brother for the HL2030.

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wimpy
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#7 Post by wimpy »

The Cups setup wizard takes me to a page with a lot of choices. The HL-2030 does not appear on the driver list. I tried the button "Find New Printers" - nothing found. The only printers on the printers tab are CUPS-PDF and PDF-Writer. Shall I add the network printer manually?

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rcrsn51
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#8 Post by rcrsn51 »

Just in case that the "debbi" installer method did not work for you, I have attached the HL2030 driver as a PET below.

Like I said above, Windows shared printers are not auto-detected. So here are the manual steps.

1. From the Connections list, choose Windows/Samba Printer.

2. For the URI, type in: smbw://XPHome/Macbeth
That's assuming that those are the correct names.

3. From the list of makes, select Brother.

4. From the list of models, select HL2030. It's farther down the list.

But I would recommend that you first connect the printer directly to your Puppy machine by USB and get it working. That will confirm that you have the correct driver.
Attachments
brother_hl2030-2.0.pet
(44.38 KiB) Downloaded 418 times

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wimpy
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#9 Post by wimpy »

Thanks for the driver. I printed a test page from the maintenance menu and it was perfect. Now I need to let all the editors know that they can print to the Brother. So far they will only offer a "print to file".

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rcrsn51
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#10 Post by rcrsn51 »

wimpy wrote: Now I need to let all the editors know that they can print to the Brother. So far they will only offer a "print to file".
This should be automatic. Is the Brother printer not showing up in the application Print menus?

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wimpy
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#11 Post by wimpy »

No, It isn't. CUPS's printer.conf lists all three printers - the Brother, Cups-PDF and PDF-writer - but all the editors only show a "Print to File" and the Location and Status tabs are "greyed" out.. I wonder where they are getting their info from if not from the CUPS printers.conf file.

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rcrsn51
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#12 Post by rcrsn51 »

wimpy wrote: but all the editors only show a "Print to File" and the Location and Status tabs are "greyed" out.
What editors are you talking about?

In situations like this, you need to test from a clean install.

Boot Puppy using the "puppy pfix=ram" option.

Install the HL2030 driver.

Install the Windows printer.

Check your applications.

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wimpy
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#13 Post by wimpy »

The editors that I was referring to are Geany, Nicoedit and Abiword. I've tried rebooting but it made no difference. When you say a clean install I'm not sure how to proceed., especially the puppy pfix =ram bit.
You've really been most kind in helping me . I'm sorry that it is taking so much of your time.
PS. I've got a really bad cold and I'm off to bed now, but I expect to be back to the fray in the morning. (it's 10.30pm here).

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rcrsn51
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#14 Post by rcrsn51 »

Boot off your Lucid 528 Live CD. At the short initial pause, type "puppy pfix=ram". This will get you a temporary fresh install.

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wimpy
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#15 Post by wimpy »

I did the clean install - this is being written from it. I downloaded and ran the samba-full-utility. I installed the Brother driver. I did run into a snag but I started the clean install again and this time it seems to be going through. Will keep you posted.
Update: I installed the printer and it now shows up on the text editors.

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rcrsn51
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#16 Post by rcrsn51 »

wimpy wrote:Update: I installed the printer and it now shows up on the text editors.
Excellent. It's hard to know what caused the previous corruption. So as you add more packages into your install, you should check that the text editors still correctly list the printers.

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wimpy
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#17 Post by wimpy »

Does this mean that I should abandon my frugal install completely? I'll do as you suggest - the packages I have added in the frugal install which are not in the "clean" one are Thunderbird, flashplayer 10.3, an Nvidia driver package and pwidgets. i'll add them one by one to the "clean" and see what difference they make. I did have wine in the frugal install but I uninstalled that today. along with debbi and the cups wrapper. It made no difference. Is there a way to uninstall CUPS and reinstall it in the frugal (if it is CUPS that is broken).

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rcrsn51
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#18 Post by rcrsn51 »

wimpy wrote:Does this mean that I should abandon my frugal install completely?.....Is there a way to uninstall CUPS and reinstall it in the frugal (if it is CUPS that is broken).
Trying to repair this situation is almost impossible. You would be better off deleting your current save file and starting again.

Are you still booting with "puppy pfix=ram"? If so, mount the partition that contains the save file and delete it.

Do a shut-down and create a new save file. If you are lucky, all the stuff you have installed in your temporary session should be saved into it.

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wimpy
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#19 Post by wimpy »

I've now put all the additional packages in the frugal install on to the "clean" and the "clean" is still OK. The only difference, now that I remember, is that at some time during the frugal I was told that my personal storage was getting low and I opted to increase it.
I've not been using pfix=ram but I have been saving the "clean" sfs to a 16GB USB stick. I'm not sure how to continue if I want to keep to a frugal install. If I copied the "clean" sfs over the old frugal one on the HD would that be as good?

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rcrsn51
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#20 Post by rcrsn51 »

wimpy wrote: If I copied the "clean" sfs over the old frugal one on the HD would that be as good?
It should be, but it's risky to copy a save file while it's in use. Boot using "puppy pfix=ram" and do the copy.

BTW, "sfs" is the extension of the main Puppy file. Your save file will be "2fs" or "3fs".

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