Getting a windows network printer going?

[homer]

Successfully set most of my new Knoppix machine up now, getting Internet via ICS from an xp machine on the LAN, email, browsing the ms machines quite happily with smb, & using them to browse the Knoppix machine on which I've set up samba.

Still pretty blown away by Knoppix, interested to discover it's a form of Debian.. downloaded a copy of that distro just a couple of weeks ago not expecting to be diving into it so soon though! Might chance my hand at a HDD install see if my luck holds out!

just one thing to make me truly happy, something I couldn't see a FAQ for - sorry if I've missed one - how can I send a test document from my Knoppix machine to a printer attached via USB to a windows xp client laptop.workgroup.net on the local LAN? what should I be looking at setting up to do that.. if it's relevant, LinNeighborhood seems to be absent from my Knoppix 3.1 CD..

I have a designed-for-windows-xp lexmark x73 printer, installed to the xp client laptop machine with a designed-for-windows-xp driver.. am I worrying unduly.. will I need to set up some kind of linux driver arrangement either on laptop.workgroup.net or Knoppix.workgroup.net or will the network magically cope with things itself /-: ? bit lost here :(

My network is using DHCP if that's of consequence. Thanks for any hints..

[eco2geek]

Here's how you can do it from the live Knoppix CD -- I don't have Knoppix installed to my hard drive. (I'm assuming your Knoppix box and your laptop are both on a local LAN.)

First, on the WinXP side, create a user account and password just for your printer, if for no other reason than that username and password will be sent unencrypted by CUPS over the local network. Make sure your printer is shared, and give it a sensible name -- more than 4 letters long, no weird characters, no spaces.

On the Knoppix side, from the KNOPPIX menu, click "Start Samba Server." (The password you give it doesn't matter to this discussion.) You can verify that your Windows network is being "seen" by typing


smbclient -L servername -U username%password

at a console prompt, replacing "servername" with the XP box's sytem name, "username" and "password" with, well, you know.

Then, also from the KNOPPIX menu, click "Configure | Configure printer(s)."

Under "Backend Selection," choose "SMB shared printer (Windows)." Click Next.

Under "User Identification," unclick "Guest account" and put in the username you created on XP for your printer, into the "Login:" box, and the corresponding password into the "Password:" box. Click "Next."

Under "SMB Printer Settings," put in your workgroup name, the name of the XP computer (its system name), and the printer's name (the sensible one you gave it when you shared it).

The rest of the process is self-explanatory. (You're in luck; a driver for your Lexmark is there.)

[homer]

Thanks, help very much appreciated. Feels like 'so near yet so far' here at the moment! I've been through it 3 times now, and everything comes up hunky dory all the way through. Can see the printer's host computer just fine in the console using the command line suggested.. yes did have to change the printers name, I had both spaces and weird characters in there.. but changing it to 'lexmarkonlaptop' made it visible straight away. If I now try and print a test page, I receive a success message. If I go to Konqueror and try printing off a webpage, ... success message! If I look at the printer jobs list on the Knoppix machine, I can see the job in progress, complete with the size in kilobytes..

only one thing.. although everything seems perfect on Knoppix.workgroup.net, nothing actually comes out of the printer lexmarkonlaptop, attached by USB to XP machine laptop.workgroup.net (which yes is on the same local LAN).. aargh!

I stumbled across something called 'export printer driver to windows client', tried it, and it errored out saying some files were missing. Whether this is relevant I don't know, or maybe I'm messing with something irrelevant and dangerous there 8-|

Wondering if perhaps I shouldn't update my Knoppix CD to the latest version? the 3.1 I have here was downloaded probably the best part of a year ago.

Thanks again for the tips, feel like I have a fighting chance now, I was pretty much 100% lost before ;-)

[eco2geek]

Wondering if perhaps I shouldn't update my Knoppix CD to the latest version? the 3.1 I have here was downloaded probably the best part of a year ago.

Definitely -- they're continuously updating the quality of their printer drivers! (If you have Knoppix installed to hard disk, one would think you could use "apt-get" to upgrade the CUPS packages.) Also, you could take a look for your printer at LinuxPrinting.org (http://www.linuxprinting.org/) to see what they suggest. And finally, Lexmark did release a couple of Linux drivers, just not for your printer...bug them. :)

Another interesting thing: CUPS evidently polls the network for other printers. Once I had Knoppix going on two computers, and had configured the printers attached to them. Lo and behold, the printer attached to the one automagically showed up on the other computer, and vice versa.

[homer]

Right.. I shall keep on pressing on then :-) dog-with-a-bone mentality has taken over here hehe

[homer]

OMG 3.3 is even better looking!

My XP box is beginning to look rather forlorn in comparison. Beginning to feel a bit sorry for it :cry:



Quick note for anyone using Nero on Windows to burn bootable ISOs.. watch out for hobbled OEM versions. My copy of Nero came bundled with my CD burner & although it proudly displayed a 'burn image' option, fooling me into a false sense of security, whatever pig's ear of burning the ISO it was doing wasn't working. I ended up with 3 knackered CDR's before finding a post somewhere via Google highlighting the problem. Uninstalled the OEM Nero & downloaded the trial full-version from Nero's site - worked a dream straight away.

Celebrated upgrading with a quick internal monitor refocus. Blue sparks :-( wonder I'm still alive

Good to see Bash on the menu :lol:

[homer]

query deleted.. digging deeper before squealing for spoon-feed ;-)

[homer]

Ok, lost I'm afraid. I'm comfortable with the command line in DOS but certain things a printer driver download is asking me to do under Knoppix have me a bit troubled.

Under Windows, you download a driver, click install and -bling- your hand is held and everything is done for you, including, I guess, the installation of god-knows-what in addition to the driver you want ??!

I can see the process is a little different in Linux. I have downloaded a driver which claims to support my printer, that appears to contain a collection of C language program files, in addition to scary looking things with names like configure, configure.ac, Makefile.in etc.. I have to compile this driver before installing, right? - I need to understand the use of 'make' etc..?

The main exhortation in the INSTALL text file is



./configure && make && make install


I tried diving in with a few random commands ('make install.. make install-sh.. make configure..') but (unsuprisingly) was met by complete failure to accomplish anything. Many will laugh at the noob (feel free) but hey, I dunno what I'm supposed to be doing here at all :lol:

Sorry for the newbie question - can someone direct me to a good, straightforward tutorial which I can work through to begin to understand the compilation process (if that's what I have to do).. and the general methodology of Knoppix.. so I can spend some time 'in the wilderness' getting to know the ins & outs of the system as well as I knew DOS.

I feel just like I did when I was twelve and first sat down at the C:\> prompt here.. hopelessly in the dark ;) but I feel pretty determined to learn though & having a working Linux system courtesy of Knoppix to begin with really helps. Especially since at the end of the day, If I screw things up horribly I can always just eject and reinsert the CD & start over.

[rusty]

Hi,

This thread tells how I managed to get to print to my windoze Me box, from hard drive installed debian box. I think I got it to work from the live cd as well. Have a look, good luck!

http://knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5566&highlight=&sid=787ea3c333e25b6d99cc6d52f0911071