Re: Printer setup - help please

[José Luis Gómez Dans <nospam [at] sheffield.ac.uk>]

On Sat, Apr 15, 2000 at 10:00:59AM +0100, Ian Wright wrote:
> Help!  I'm struggling trying to set up to print from Linux to a windows
> machine. I have been through the HOWTO's and tried to follow what they

	OK, so you want to print from Linux on to Windows, so when you
issue a lpr -Pgold file, it goes into Windows.

> I have tried to set up lp0 on 'brass' to be a Deskjet 4 (which Jose says the
> Brother will operate as) but I think something must have gone wrong here as,
> when I do this through printtool the /etc/printcap file doesn't include any
> reference to smbclient and trying to print does nothing at all. When I
> modified this file by hand to make the relevant line refer to smbclient as
> in one of the HOWTOs I can get some response from a command line instruction

	IIRC, you need to filter your file first through linux, and then
send it with smbclient. You need two printcap entries: one for
converting your file into a PCL (brother readable) file, and another one
to actually send it. Have a look at the Printing to Windows mini HOWTO
in
<http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/unmaintained/min/Print2Win>

	Actually, going through my notes, there's a full solution given
in the SMB Howto (Sec. 9). See the bit on using MagicFilter, and
disregard the stuff above it (perl scripts and all that).

> I can't get any print response from any of the apps - the files just go into
> the print spooler and stay there.
> I am also a bit confused in that Wordperfect 8 which I have installed does
> appear to support the Brother HL10h printer directly whilst Mandrake and
> RedHat don't, so, if I'm using Wordperfect, what printer should this be set
> up for?

	This is fine, your printer understands PCL, so WP just have
bothered putting an extra entry. Remember, it's ljet4 that you're after
(the PCL driver is there!).

	Sorry I cannot be more explicit, but I did this a long time ago,
and can't really remember.

	To sum up: you need to printcap entries: one "printer" is just
what magicfilter outputs from the file you want to print, and which
subsequently is passed on to the other "printer", which is the smbprint
client proper, which will transfer your job to your Win Printer.

José
-- 
José L Gómez Dans			PhD student
					Radar & Communications Group
					Department of Electronic Engineering
					University of Sheffield UK
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