samba - Dec 2012 - Windows 8 Point-and-Print

Hello everyone,

I'm aware that the new level-4 printer drivers are not supported by
Samba. But level-3 drivers, that are used by Windows 7 and earlier,
should also work with Windows 8.

Unfortunately, if you try to use a level-3 driver from a Windows 8
client using the point-and-print mechanism, you will always get the
message, that there's no driver available.

I couldn't find a solution on the web, so I've taken a look into the
sources and network traces. It turns out, that Windows 8 asks for
level-4 drivers, which the Samba server doesn't have. Then, if
available, Samba should offer a level-3 driver with the same name, but
it only searches for level-2 drivers. Am I getting this right?

I've tried to fix that. Maybe it isn't the right solution, but it works
for me. I'm using Samba-3.5, but it seems to be the same code in 3.6.

Regards,

Frank Lascheit


-- samba-3.6.9.orig/source3/rpc_server/spoolss/srv_spoolss_nt.c
2012-10-29 10:05:46.000000000 +0100
+++ samba-3.6.9/source3/rpc_server/spoolss/srv_spoolss_nt.c 2012-12-05
09:54:23.000000000 +0100
@@ -5531,7 +5531,9 @@ static WERROR construct_printer_driver_i
      }

      /* Yes - try again with a WinNT driver. */
-     version = 2;
+     /* version = 2; */
+     /* [fl] also try to find a level-3 driver for Windows 8 */
+     version--;
      result = winreg_get_driver(mem_ctx, b,
                  architecture,
                  pinfo2->drivername,

Hi

I suggest you post this patch to samba-technical.

On 5 December 2012 12:02, Frank Lascheit <fl at seh.de>
wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm aware that the new level-4 printer drivers are not supported by
> Samba. But level-3 drivers, that are used by Windows 7 and earlier,
> should also work with Windows 8.
>
> Unfortunately, if you try to use a level-3 driver from a Windows 8
> client using the point-and-print mechanism, you will always get the
> message, that there's no driver available.
>
> I couldn't find a solution on the web, so I've taken a look into
the
> sources and network traces. It turns out, that Windows 8 asks for
> level-4 drivers, which the Samba server doesn't have. Then, if
> available, Samba should offer a level-3 driver with the same name, but
> it only searches for level-2 drivers. Am I getting this right?
>
> I've tried to fix that. Maybe it isn't the right solution, but it
works
> for me. I'm using Samba-3.5, but it seems to be the same code in 3.6.
>
> Regards,
>
> Frank Lascheit
>
>
> -- samba-3.6.9.orig/source3/rpc_server/spoolss/srv_spoolss_nt.c
> 2012-10-29 10:05:46.000000000 +0100
> +++ samba-3.6.9/source3/rpc_server/spoolss/srv_spoolss_nt.c 2012-12-05
> 09:54:23.000000000 +0100
> @@ -5531,7 +5531,9 @@ static WERROR construct_printer_driver_i
>       }
>
>       /* Yes - try again with a WinNT driver. */
> -     version = 2;
> +     /* version = 2; */
> +     /* [fl] also try to find a level-3 driver for Windows 8 */
> +     version--;
>       result = winreg_get_driver(mem_ctx, b,
>                   architecture,
>                   pinfo2->drivername,
--
Michael Wood <esiotrot at gmail.com>