Linux printing question

[Michael Gizzi]

I have a question for the many linux guru's on the list, hopefully someone
can help me.

When I finished grading for the semester on Monday I had an itch to turn a
spare unused PC in my office into a linux box.  I downloaded a ISO of the
Fedora 5 core and gave it a go.  Its running on an old Athlon XP 1800 with
1GB of RAM; and runs fairly well.  The X Windows interface is not the
fastest thing, but it is a nice change from windows.

My biggest challenge has been with networking it within my home network.  I
have a firewalled/vpn-capable linksys router/switch, a few 5 port switches
in different parts of the house, and a 80211G access point.  The machines
(all Windows XP Pro) connect in a workgroup and file sharing and printing
works well.  The laserjet is shared through my wife's pc, which is always on
so there is no problem there.

My initial problem was that while linux could see the windows machines, it
refused to connect to them.  I double-checked that samba was running, it
was.  The problem was related to the old workgroup name - @HOME, that dated
back to when AT&T @HOME was the cable modem provider.  Linux DID NOT like
the @ character.  Once I renamed the workgroup, it could see the machines
fine, and I can now access files from my other machines on the linux
machine.

BUT I can not figure out how to get linux to connect to the laserjet.  It
does not show up as a share, and I can not figure out how to make it one.

Would this issue go away if I just got a Linksys USB print server, and
controlled the printer through the network instead of through one of the
windows pc's?

Ultimately this is not that critical, as I am not eliminating the windows
machines; but I know this should be able to work, and I just want to figure
it out.

Any suggestions?

Michael Gizzi
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[Russell Standish]

It probably works better to serve the printer from the Linux machine,
rather than have the Linux system as a client.

Since you are running XP on all your 'doze clients, you could install
lpr printer drivers on your 'doze machines, and avoid the whole SMB
thing altogether (it can be rather confusing setting up SAMBA when
you're not too au fait with the Windows way fo doing things).

(I have this problem at the moment, where one of my home computers
runs Win ME, and using the lpr protocol is not feasible, so I need to
bite the bullet with Samba at some point. For the time being, I use
sneaker net via floppy disks - crude, but effective.)

Cheers

On Tue, May 23, 2006 at 09:51:15PM -0600, Michael Gizzi wrote:

> I have a question for the many linux guru's on the list, hopefully someone
> can help me.
>
> When I finished grading for the semester on Monday I had an itch to turn a
> spare unused PC in my office into a linux box.  I downloaded a ISO of the
> Fedora 5 core and gave it a go.  Its running on an old Athlon XP 1800 with
> 1GB of RAM; and runs fairly well.  The X Windows interface is not the
> fastest thing, but it is a nice change from windows.
>
> My biggest challenge has been with networking it within my home network.  I
> have a firewalled/vpn-capable linksys router/switch, a few 5 port switches
> in different parts of the house, and a 80211G access point.  The machines
> (all Windows XP Pro) connect in a workgroup and file sharing and printing
> works well.  The laserjet is shared through my wife's pc, which is always on
> so there is no problem there.
>
> My initial problem was that while linux could see the windows machines, it
> refused to connect to them.  I double-checked that samba was running, it
> was.  The problem was related to the old workgroup name - @HOME, that dated
> back to when AT&T @HOME was the cable modem provider.  Linux DID NOT like
> the @ character.  Once I renamed the workgroup, it could see the machines
> fine, and I can now access files from my other machines on the linux
> machine.
>
> BUT I can not figure out how to get linux to connect to the laserjet.  It
> does not show up as a share, and I can not figure out how to make it one.
>
> Would this issue go away if I just got a Linksys USB print server, and
> controlled the printer through the network instead of through one of the
> windows pc's?
>
> Ultimately this is not that critical, as I am not eliminating the windows
> machines; but I know this should be able to work, and I just want to figure
> it out.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Michael Gizzi

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