It shows the print queue with zero items. The title bar says "HP970C on FAFNIR" which is the "comment" in the section for that printer in /etc/samba/smb.conf, as well as being the icon label in "Printers and Faxes". (If the logged-in user were not listed under "printer admin" or in a listed group, the title bar would say "access denied".) Print something moderately long, like a web page with graphics. It prints. In the queue display, hit view - refresh. Titlebar has appended "Failed to open, retrying", and no print jobs are shown. After printing finishes, eventually it retries yet again, and since there are zero items in the queue, the "failed" message vanishes. With "disable spoolss = yes", it would show what it calls a downgraded print request. On the Samba server, neither /var/log/samba/log.smbd nor syslog (at debug level) nor the CUPS log files show anything unusual. The print request appears, plus the CUPS logs show the queue display requests. As far as UNIX is concerned, it delivered what was asked for. WinXP is less than informative about just what it failed to open. If anyone has any idea what's going on here, and what is the "right" way to fix it, preferably using SPOOLSS MS-RPCs, I would appreciate some pointers. On a different topic, this could be considered as a request for an enhancement. To display the print queue, the user (by name on Windows) has to have a UNIX account on the Samba server which must be listed in /etc/samba/smb.conf [global] printer admin = (comma separated list of users and UNIX groups). Example: printer admin = root,@smbusers (with me in that UNIX group). It took me a while to figure that one out. It would seem logical for the person who enqueued the job to be able to see it. In other words, when a queue display request comes in, do the same authentication as for a request to print. If there are privacy issues, jobs for other users could be described in innocuously generic terms, e.g. the user is identified as "someone else" and the job title is blanked out. But do include the file size. James F. Carter Voice 310 825 2897 FAX 310 206 6673 UCLA-Mathnet; 6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095-1555 Email: jimc@math.ucla.edu http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key) ==== /etc/samba/smb.conf === # Global parameters [global] log file = /var/log/samba/log.smbd workgroup = CFT server string = CFT Gateway security = SHARE encrypt passwords = yes hosts allow = 192.9.200.193 192.9.200.194 192.9.200.195 192.9.200.196 192.9.200.197 127.0.0.1 # Interfaces: specify full IP address of interface / mask bits interfaces = 192.9.200.193/26 127.0.0.1/8 bind interfaces only = True browseable = Yes guest account = nobody printer admin = root,@smbadmin printing = cups printcap name = cups # This disables support of the SPOOLSS set of MS-RPC commands. Clients will # downgrade to LANMAN-style commands. This prevents showing the printer # properties, or downloading drivers via the Add Printer Wizard. But the # "list queue" function works for LANMAN; doesn't for SPOOLSS. # disable spoolss = yes [HP970C] comment = HP 970c on Fafnir printer name = lp path = /tmp guest account = ftp guest ok = Yes printable = Yes read only = Yes # lpr args: -r = remove after print, -s = symbolic link to file # (prevents -r; CUPS can't do this), -P = choose queue, -l # binary data, %s = file. Local hack: -v = REALLY binary data. print command = /usr/bin/lpr -P%p -r -l %s lpq command = /usr/bin/lpq -P%p lprm command = /usr/bin/lprm -P%p %j # This is deprecated after version 2.2. # printer driver = hp deskjet 970c series # printer driver location = c:\dj970\2kxpinf\enu\drivers\win2k_xp # printer driver location = \\fafnir\drivers\hp970c_xp\hpz970b.inf [homes] writeable = yes # Don't show the "homes" section explicitly, just the homedirs browseable = No create mode = 0755