Linux Reality Episode 29: Printer Networking
Extra Notes

Install the CUPS server with your package manager. You do not
necessarily have to use Samba to share printers. You only need Samba
if you have a printer on your Windows machine that you want to print
to from Linux.

To start/stop/restart CUPS, do one of the following as root, depending
on your distribution:

/etc/init.d/cups start|stop|restart
/etc/init.d/cupsd start|stop|restart
/etc/init.d/cupsys start|stop|restart

1. Printers attached to a Linux machine that you want to connect to
from Windows or other Linux machines.

Edit /etc/cups/cupsd.conf - back it up first using cp!!

Edit cupsd.conf as follows:

<Location />
Order allow,deny
Allow 127.0.0.1
Allow 192.168.0.* <--this is your LAN subnet
</Location>

Then, enable Windows PCL drivers. PCL drivers send raw data to the
print server. To enable raw printing on CUPS, you need to edit
/etc/cups/mime.types and uncomment the line application/octet-stream.
Then you need to edit /etc/cups/mime.convs and uncomment the line
containing application/octet-stream:

edit /etc/cups/mime.types
(Uncomment the following line so that the file contains:)

application/octet-stream

edit /etc/cups/mime.convs
(Uncomment the following line so that the file contains:)

application/octet-stream
application/vnd.cups-raw 0

Restart CUPS.

Make sure your software firewalls either allow port 631 or turn them
off temporarily.

Open up a web browser and go to http://localhost:631

Click on "Administration" then "Add Printer."

Name: (give it a short name that you will use on the network. No
spaces. E.g. hp1300
Location: optional
Description: optional

Click continue.

At "Device for _____" click drop down box and select where the printer
is located, e.g. usb

Then select manufacturer, model, and driver.

Back at main screen, print test page and see if it works.

Then, if it works, you'll want to connect from other machines.

A. Connecting from another Linux machine.

Install CUPS, go to http://localhost:631, add printer, then at "Device
for _____" select "IPP". Then, at "Device URI", look at examples
below the box. Usually, you will need to enter a syntax like:

ipp://hostname/printers/printername
or
http://hostname:631/ipp/queue

hostname = Linux machine where printer is
printername = the short name you gave the printer, e.g. hp1300

B. Connecting from Windows machine

Go to "Add Printer" wizard and select "network printer" and then enter
in the URL with this syntax:

http://hostname:631/printers/queue

2. Printers attached to a Windows machine that you want to access
from Linux

Make sure the printer is shared in Windows.

On the Linux machine, install samba and CUPS.

Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf as follows:

[global]
workgroup = YOUR_WINDOWS_WORKGROUP
printers = cups
printcap name = cups

[printers]
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
guest ok = yes
browseable = no
public = yes

Generally, must use Samba to share Windows printers. Windows does not
serve printers with CUPS.

Then, use the CUPS web-based GUI administration tool (localhost:631)
to add the Windows-shared printer to your Linux machine.
Click "Administration" then "Add Printer" and then when you
get to the screen where you select where the printer is
attached, there should be a "Windows printer via SAMBA" (or
something like that) in the drop-down box. Select that, and then
when you get to the screen where you enter the URI, use one of these
two syntax:

smb://username:password@WORKGROUP/server/printername
smb://server/printername

That is your Windows username and password. WORKGROUP is your Windows
workgroup name, and server is the name of your Windows computer and
printername is the name of the Windows printer.

Updated: Tue Apr 10 20:06:36 EDT 2007