Hi all;

First, if anyone who responds would cc: to swanberg at umn.edu, that would be
great, as I'm subscribed via digest. There is a linux question embedded
below, I'm just trying to give enough detail...

I have an NT print server serving my networked printers so I can use some
third party software to do printer accounting (PAS, from
www.metrics.com) Therefore, my HP Laserprinters (4000N, 4100N, etc) only
allow print jobs from the IP of the print server. I have macs and pc's
printing just fine, using the standard print queues of the NT server.
I have tcp/ip print server service running. 

I now have a linux user (running SUSE) who wants to print to the printers.
I see doing this with one of two methods: printing directly to the printer
(opening the HP jetdirect to his IP, which is fine) or having him send the
print job to the print server.

The user is creating the files (either Postscript 2 or 3, depending) by a
command such as: $ groff -Tlj4 -ms cv.6 > cv6_lj.ps, and sending them to
the printer or the print server with:  $ lpr -Plp206 cv6_lj.ps

If the user send the job to the print server, the job prints out as the
postscript commands, rather than the formatted postscript output. If he
sends it directly to the printer, he gets postscript jibberish or nothing
at all.

We've tried a bunch of different printcap configurations, some of which
are below. No luck with any of them.

# /etc/printcap: printer capability database. See printcap(5).
# You can use the filter entries df, tf, cf, gf etc. for
# your own filters. See /etc/filter.ps, /etc/filter.pcl and
# the printcap(5) manual page for further details.

# Notes by Karen.
# The print queue's are called:
# PAS-104-Laser - an HP 4100N
# PAS-206-Laser	- an HP 4000N
# PAS-800-HPGL2 - an HP DesignJet 800PS using the GL2 drivers
# PAS-800-PS	- The same Designjet using the PS (level 3) drivers
# PAS-Tek-850DP	- Tektronix Phaser 850DP
# The print server is named graphite.my.domain.edu / AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD
#	:sd=/var/spool/lpd/pas206:\

lp206|HP LaserJet 4000N in Computer Lab:\
	:lp:\
#	:rm=graphite.my.domain.edu:\
#	:rp=PAS-206-Laser:\
	:rm=IP.of.printer.here:\
	:rp=raw:\
	:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp206:\
	:lf=/var/log/lp-errs:\
	:mx#0:

# Tektronix Phaser 850DP Color Printer
color2|Phaser 850DP:\
	:lp=:\
	:rm=graphite.my.domain.edu:\
#	:rp=AUTO:\
	:rp=PAS-Tek-850DP:\
	:mx#0:\
	:af=/var/log/lp-acct:\
	:lf=/var/log/lp-errs:\
	:sd=/var/spool/lpd/color2:\
	:sh:

I'm in the rough here. I'm unsure how to integrate LPR printing into my
Win print server (although I'm assured by the tech support on the 3rd
party printing system that it works, but they don't know how to do it),
but at this point I'd be happy to completely bypass the print server and
go straight to the printer. Unfortunately, I have even less of an idea how
to do that then printing to the server. I've heard rumblings about port
9100 printing, but that means nothing to me.

I do have a samba server I could use to catch the lpr print jobs, and send
them onto the win server, but boy do I *not* want to do that.

I'm told by others "I don't think printcap / lpr is the problem... at
least, not on the client machine.  Lpr just ships files off to the print
server: it's the server's job to interpret the job correctly," but if so,
I don't understand why my NT serer isn't translating this correctly.

Has anyone done this? Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm
still a bit leary on the whole blackbox printing thing...

Sincerely,

-Karen

-                                                                  -
    Karen Swanberg | Sys Admin | Dept. of Geology and Geophysics    
206 Pillsbury Hall | 310 Pillsbury Ave. SE | University of Minnesota
     Minneapolis, MN 55455  (612) 624-6541  (612) 625-3819 (f)

              * <---- Tribble   . <--- Tribble.tgz