samba - Feb 2002 - 2.2.3a printing problems: no printing from Word, spools taking up all CPU on clients

I'm running Samba-2.2.3a plus the printer defaults patch (samba-2.2.3a-5mdk
rpm) on a Linux 2.4.(Mandrake 8.X). This server has been upgraded from
2.2.3, from 2.2.2, which was upgraded from 2.2.1. Everything was working
with the same printer configuration at version 2.2.2 and 2.2.1 (although I
have moved the WINS server from a new machine since then).

The server is a PDC/WINS server, and shares two printers, a networked
HP2200dn, and an Epson inkjet on the parallel port. There are NT and 98
drivers available.

Since upgrading to 2.2.3a we have been unable to use or print from Word.
(Word will format each document that it opens for the current printer, which
can lock up the client machine.)

Client machines are a mix or Windows 2000 sp2 and NT4 sp 5 and sp6.

Printer configuration is still very mysterious to me, but as far as I can
tell, the printers are configured and controlled using CUPS, and typically
when the print job is opened a 0 byte file owned by that user appears in
/var/spool/samba, but the job never makes it in to the CUPS queue (checked
using the CUPS admin page).

Here are the symptoms when using the networked HP2200dn as the default
printer, as described by one of the users:
***===***
I can print from Excel if I print one page at a time and manually stop and
restart spoolss in between.

I cannot print anything from Word - I can load small docs into Word but if I
load a doc over about 150k (with no graphics in it other than tables), I
cannot load the file and I have to close Word from the Task Manager.

The problem always happens for me.

I am using NT 4 with sp 6a and Word 97.

I have reinstalled MS-Office and I have reinstalled the NT service pack 6
and 6a and nothing changes.

I am just not sure how much my dodgy machine is affecting this or if my
machine has been made more dodgy by this spoolss thing - my intermittently
dodgy disk which powers itself on/off does not help!

I have read stuff on google groups that says that spoolss starts to grab CPU
after about 20 seconds............
***===***

I've seen a couple of reports in the list archive of similar problems, but
no resolution.

Is anyone else having problems with this? Is it definitely a problem with
2.2.3a, or could it be an odd config issue?

Is there a patch??

Thanks for any help you can give me,
Steven

==Steven Mackenzie
Active Navigation Ltd
http://activenavigation.com/
+44 (0) 23 8074 2420
sjm@activenavigation.com

Thanks Dave,

I have W32X86/2 and W32X86/3 directories. The type 2 has drives for the
Epson on the parallel port and our networked HP, and the type 3 directory
only has drivers for the Epson.

I'll take the opportunity to see if it makes any difference which printer I
use before I try to upload more HP drivers.

Uploading the original set (with 2.2.1 server from Windows client) was
painful, and I ended up with corrupt drivers on the server when I did it the
first time, so I'm a little cautious to try it again ...

And the printing worked fine with the previous server version, and Windows
2000 is supposed to be able to use the NT drivers ... :(

Steven

----- Original Message -----
From: <Dave.Stevenson@durham.ac.uk>
> I 'm beginning to sound like a parrot but...
>
>
> Make sure you are using the type 3 drivers for the W2k stations
> (if you upload drivers to the server upload BOTH the NT4 and the W2k
> drivers (from a W2k client)) W2k will then use the type 3 and NT4 the type
2
> and everything is hunk-dory( well nearly everything)
>
> Solved it for me

Let me clarify my problem (I'm still sorting through what's been
reported to
me ...)

I have 2 printers, an HP2200dn (network laser jet) and an Epson Inkjet
(parallel port).
Both of them have drivers on the Samba PDC, and are shared by the Smaba
2.2.3a (plus printing defaults patch) PDC.

I am using a Windows 2000 sp2 client, although some other people on this
network use NT4 sp5 and NT4 sp6 and experience a similar problem.

I can still print to both printers of them using, for example, IE6, with no
problem, so I think that Samba/CUPS is correctly configured. Also, I am
using the same configuration that worked for 2.2.2, and that worked in all
cases too.

I've done the cups logging that you suggested, and I don't see anything
there that is bad. (In fact the only thing in there is a lot of lines
similar to this
d [27/Feb/2002:16:58:57 +0000] copy_attribute(0xbadf438,
compression-supported)
which appeared when I sent my first job after restarting.)

I can *not* print to either printer from Word 97. In fact, if I start Word
and chose File>Print ..., then Word will lock up for a long time.

CPU usage is maxed out on my P266MHz, split between winword.exe and
spoolsv.exe.

What kind of logging could I use to spy on the negotiation between Windows
and the Samba PDC that would offer a clue?


==
Hi again.

We did a check on 8.1 with both 2.2.3a-1mdk and 2.2.3a-5mdk. Everything
seems
to work fine.

our cups guy suggested this:
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
>>------ Can you edit /etc/cups/cupsd.conf setting the
"LogLevel" to
"debug2",
>>restart CUPS and see whether in the /var/log/cups/error_log appear error
>>messages in the moment when Samba should pass a job into the CUPS queue?
>>
If you don't find anything in /var/log/cups/error_log, it
must be a Samba problem.

Cheers
--
Sylvestre Taburet - Project Manager
Mandrakesoft S.A. - 43, rue d'Aboukir, 75002 Paris - FRANCE
+33 (1) 40 41 00 41 - http://www.linux-mandrake.com