On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 22:07, Bill Ryce <billshorn at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I have a HP LaserJet attached to my Fedora server with typical
> parallel/Centronix interface. Users of the Linux box have no trouble
> printing to it (Web browsers, Emacs, a2ps, etc.). This Fedora 12 Box is a
> Samba server to my network. My problem with Samba is that shares work fine
> except for printer shares.  I can browse directory shares with ease from a
> Windows (Vista) machine.
>
> From windows explorer, I can see the printers configured on the Fedora Box,
> but all attempts to connect give me a permissions error.
>
> I am now trying samba-swat, with its copious help text, but so far no luck
> on the printer.
>
> I could go into more details, but this is a pretty vanilla set up, and I
> hoped maybe someone else has already navigated around this problem.

Ahh, printing with samba, always a delight  :)

are you using cups or lpr*?
you need to tell samba something like:
printing = cups
printcap name = cups

you also need to define two special shares, the [printers] share is a
special share that automatically creates a share for each printer on
your system. nifty eh?
[printers]
   comment = All Printers
   browseable = no
   path = /var/spool/samba
   printable = yes
   guest ok = no
   read only = yes
   create mask = 0700

you also need the [print$] share, which is were windows drivers can be
saved so that subsequest windows clients can install the printer
without having to install the drivers
[print$]
   comment = Printer Drivers
   path = /var/lib/samba/printers
   browseable = yes
   read only = yes
   guest ok = no

you just need these two for basic printing to work, if you want to
install the drivers create an smb password for your root user
(smbpasswd -a root), and use that username to login to windows. now
when you browse to the server you will see the printers listed and a
"Printers" share, if you browse to the "Printers" share you will see
the printers listed again, the difference is that these 2nd printers
are on the server, right click on them and go to properties, in the
driver tab ( i think, its been a while) you can add a windows driver
for this printer. now when you browse to that printer from another
windows workstation it should just add the printer without asking for
the drivers.

This really only works with the basic drivers, if the driver has a
requirement for some application or other it will not work. most
decent printers have an option to only install the network drivers.