Printer sharing

[UnixT]

Dear Gurus,

I have a local printer attached to a Windows machine and now I want to share that printer to Linux Server also so that we could print the output from Linux machine also. Could you please share me the steps for that. Please let me know the steps. Points will be assigned as soon as I get reply. Thanks.

[UnixT]

HI,

My os is rhel 5.3 .

[Dennis Handly · Accepted solution]

What version of Windows?
Have you installed Print Services for Unix there?

[UnixT]

Hi Dennis,

Windows Xp it is. No, I have not done anything so far. Could you please assist me more on this as I hv to configure it soon.

Thanks

[Dennis Handly]

>Could you please assist me more on this

Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components.
Then select Other Network File and Print Services.

If you click on Details you should see "Print Services for Unix" already selected.
Then hit OK then Next and finally Finish.

[UnixT]

Dear Dennis,

What is to be done on the linux server side to print.

[Dennis Handly]

On HP-UX you would configure the printer as a remote printer, mentioning the name of the Windows machine and printer.

For Linux, these URLs may help:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-networking-3/samba-and-cups-linux-and-windows-printing-327528/
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/printing-howto.xml
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/print-remotely-over-windows-pc-356941/

[Matti_Kurkela]

RedHat has clear documentation about configuring a printer to RHEL 5.x:

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Deployment_Guide/ch-printing.html

If you configured the "Print Services for Unix" to your Windows system, the printer should be accessible in Linux as printer type "LPD/LPR Host or Printer".

By selecting the "Networked Windows (SMB)" printer type, you could connect to a regular Windows shared printer even without the Print Services for Unix component, but the "LPD/LPR Host or Printer" method seems to be more robust.

MK

[Alzhy]

Using a Windows Printer from Linux is no different from UNIX (AIX, HP-UX or Solaris).

The requisite is simply:

- Enable TCP/IP Printing on your Windows Server hosting the printer (sometimes this is called UNIX Printing Services)

You simply go to Control Panel, Add / Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components. Then navigate to "Other Network File and Print Services" and tick "Printer Service for UNIX".

Once that is done... use lpadmin to create a printer queue on Linux pointing to your Windows Host.

One caveat: Your Text Prints may have that "stair casing" effect as you will find out. Google for guidance on the issue.

If your Prin Job however is Postscript or the printer's native language -- i.e. PCL or PCL2 -- then it will gladly be interpreted by the printer.

Cheers/