samba - Aug 1997 - Printer settings and drivers from Samba server

Hi!
As far as I understand, when using a printer setup on an NT server, you
will automatically 'download' the printer driver installed on the NT
server
during the first printing (or setup?), and if that driver on the NT server
is updated, you will automatically get also the updated version to your
local machine the next time you print.
This sounds like a very nice feature for me!

- Is this somehow also possible to achieve via a Samba server instead?
- Along these lines: could one also set settings like A4 paper etc. on the
Samba server?

Thanks for your help!
Axel
_______________________________________________________________

  Axel Tanner
  IBM Zurich Research Laboratory    email: axs@zurich.ibm.com
_______________________________________________________________

Axel,

Did you ever get anywhere with this?

I have been working hard on it and have discovered the following:

1. You need to have a 'printer driver = xxx' in your smb.conf entry
for the printer in question:

[osgood]
; chmod 1777 /usr/spool/samba
   printer = osgood
   path = /usr/spool/samba
   comment = Test entry for osgood
   printer driver = IBM 4019 LaserPrinter PS39
   browseable = yes
   printable = yes
   public = no
   writable = no
   create mode = 0700

2. You need to have a 'print$' share containing something or other:

[print$]
   comment = Printer Drivers
   path = /afs/msc.cornell.edu/i386_windows/printer_drivers
   public = no
   writable = no
   browseable = no 

-------- Almost everything below this line is speculation. --------

3. One candidate for the 'something' which needs to go in the
'print$'
share is whatever WinNT puts in its 'print$' share when you share that
printer.  In my case (Unix view):

w32x86/
./w32x86:
2/             IBM39523.PPD*  PSCRIPT.GID*   PSCRPTUI.DLL*
HP3SI523.PPD*  PSCRIPT.DLL*   PSCRIPT.HLP*

./w32x86/2:
HP3SI523.BPD*  IBM39523.BPD*  PSCRIPT.DLL*   PSCRPTUI.DLL*
HP3SI523.PPD*  IBM39523.PPD*  PSCRIPT.HLP*

Unfortunately, NT still denies all knowledge:

"The server on which the printer resides does not have a suitable
IBM 4019 LaserPrinter PS39 printer driver installed."

However, other NT hosts _can_ access the printer _as reshared by an NT
host_!!  The only explanation I can think of for this (aided by
various hints from various places) is that if an NT host is accessing
a printer shared from another NT host, it will _use_ the driver
provided by the other NT host.  If an NT host is accessing a printer
shared from a non-NT host, it has to _install_ the driver provided by
the non-NT host.

This requires creating a custom '.inf' file for the Samba
'print$'
share.  I haven't tried this yet.

Any further information would be greatly appreciated.  The Samba
documentation is abysmally silent.

-Rick

-- 
|Rick Cochran		  			      phone: 607-255-7223|
|Cornell Materials Science Center			FAX: 607-255-3957|
|E20 Clark Hall, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853	      email: rick@msc.cornell.edu|
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