I currently own two computers, one is a Windows and one is an openSUSE linux. My one printer is hooked up to the Windows PC. Is it possible to share my Epson printer between my Windows and linux system? I heard somewhere that you can set up a shared printer from your windows system, and then all other computers on the same network will recognize it. Does that apply to linux too? My computers are on the same network, but it’s not wireless and my printer isn’t wireless either. The other thing I tried once was to plug my printer into my linux computer. It connected, but Epson doesn’t provide the necessary drivers for that printer, for linux. If I don’t have a driver, is network sharing even possible? If so, how?
On Thu October 14 2010 05:06 pm, timwhudson wrote:
>
> I currently own two computers, one is a Windows and one is an openSUSE
> linux. My one printer is hooked up to the Windows PC. Is it possible
> to share my Epson printer between my Windows -and- linux system? I
> heard somewhere that you can set up a shared printer from your windows
> system, and then all other computers on the same network will recognize
> it. Does that apply to linux too? My computers are on the same
> network, but it’s not wireless and my printer isn’t wireless either.
> The other thing I tried once was to plug my printer into my linux
> computer. It connected, but Epson doesn’t provide the necessary drivers
> for that printer, for linux. If I don’t have a driver, is network
> sharing even possible? If so, how?
>
>
timwhudson;
This HowTo will help you set up the sharing:
http://opensuse.swerdna.org/susesambaprint.html
However you need a linux driver for the printer. Even if your model is not
listed a similar model’s driver may work. You can look at the Openprinting
site for a driver.
http://www.openprinting.org/printers
Some printers just do not work yet with Linux. Without knowing your model it
is impossible to recommend a driver.
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
Ok, I set everything up and was able to install my driver from Openprinting.org. However, my model number (CX7800) is not listed in the set up process for CUPS. There is an option to upload a PPD file of the printer model also. However, I’m not sure where I can get the PPD file. Can I get it off of Openprinting.org also? If so, how? Thanks for your help 
On Thu October 14 2010 09:36 pm, timwhudson wrote:
>
> Ok, I set everything up and was able to install my driver from
> Openprinting.org. However, my model number (CX7800) is not listed in
> the set up process for CUPS. There is an option to upload a PPD file of
> the printer model also. However, I’m not sure where I can get the PPD
> file. Can I get it off of Openprinting.org also? If so, how? Thanks
> for your help
>
>
timwhudson;
You should not need the PPD file if you install the Gutenprint driver. This
driver should be in your list of available drivers in CUPS under:
“Epson Stylus CX7800-Cups-Gutenprint5.0.x simplified (en)”
It should have been part of the distribution, be sure you have added the CUPS
drivers.
I generally install printers directly with the web interface of cups:
http://localhost:631/
Just follow the instructions in YaST and use the above driver.
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
On Thu October 14 2010 10:13 pm, PV wrote:
> On Thu October 14 2010 09:36 pm, timwhudson wrote:
>
<snip>
> timwhudson;
>
<snip
>
> It should have been part of the distribution, be sure you have added the
CUPS
> drivers.
>
<snip>
Note: gutenprint is a separate package, just be sure you’ve added it. In
YaST–>Software–>Software manager just search for “gutenprint”.
–
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
I checked, and yes, the driver is installed. Which make should the driver be listed under though? It’s not listed under Epson.
On Fri October 15 2010 06:06 pm, timwhudson wrote:
>
> I checked, and yes, the driver is installed. Which make should the
> driver be listed under though? It’s not listed under Epson.
>
timwhudson;
As far as I know it is just as I stated in my earlier post. That was from
11.2, if you have ll.3 the version may differ. You may just need to scroll
down farther to find it. If someone else knows better perhaps they can post.
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
I do have 11.3, and I can’t find it. Do I need to do something else after I install gutenprint? I mean, isn’t gutenprint meant for several different printers? If so, do I need to do some configuration in order for it to work with my printer? I don’t know, I’m just wondering if that may be the problem.
On Sat October 16 2010 09:06 am, timwhudson wrote:
>
> I do have 11.3, and I can’t find it. Do I need to do something else
> after I install gutenprint? I mean, isn’t gutenprint meant for several
> different printers? If so, do I need to do some configuration in order
> for it to work with my printer? I don’t know, I’m just wondering if
> that may be the problem.
>
>
timwhudson;
Did you install the generic gutenprint from Openprinting or the Opensuse 11.3
package. If the former, try the later. If you installed from Opensuse you
should see the ppd (gz) in the following directory:
/user/share/cups/model/gutenprint/
with a name something like stp-escp2-cx5800.5.x.sim.ppd.gz. There is a second
without the sim. Not sure which you need or want. I’m fairly sure you need
the ppd, but I think all Epson color printers use the same one (not sure
about that though).
If under Epson you can find a similar model try that driver. You may just
need to use trial and error. I’m quite surprised that 11.3 would not have
the cx7800 driver cited in my earlier post. It has been part of the
distribution for ages (at least back to 10.2 and very likely earlier than
that.)
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
Venzkep, thank you soooo much!!! It all works great now, I just had to install from OpenSUSE and not OpenPrinting…that did the trick
On Sun October 17 2010 02:06 pm, timwhudson wrote:
>
> Venzkep, thank you soooo much!!! It all works great now, I just had to
> install from OpenSUSE and not OpenPrinting…that did the trick
>
>
timwhudson;
Glad to hear you have it working. Enjoy your printer.
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
Hi, I am a SUSE newbie.
I have spent more than 20 hours trying to get openSuse 11.3 to use an HP LJ 1100 printer on a W-XP Pro machine via a wifi LAN. A Linpus Light machine does it faultlessly (same LAN, same printer). Linpus uses a Foomatic driver. But openSuse can get through only occasionally after resetting via CUPS and using the smb:// address (also used by Linpus) but fails 95% of the time.
11.3 has no trouble accessing the XP’s shares via samba (so nmb, smb, etc are working). I have tried all the CUPS drivers and downloaded a Foomatic PPD and tried that. I have found, read and followed Swerdna’s otherwise excellent instructions. I have carefully examined the working Linpus connection and copied it as far possible. I have also examined the CUPS access, error and page logs. They often report success when in fact no printing occurred. I have watched the Windows spool applet and see jobs arriving (some say 0 Bytes) and then they disappear without printing.
I am about to copy the Linpus PPD and try that (but I am not sure what I am doing). As you all know the HP 1100 is great SOHO workhorse and behaves fabulously. I used to know PCL insideout but 22 years later things are very different.
I can add to the above: I installed the Linpus PPD via CUPS but there was no improvement. The CUPS jobs error message is usually:
“Error writing spool. Call timed out: server did not respond after 10000 milliseconds”
On Fri October 22 2010 12:06 pm, pacolaser wrote:
>
> Hi, I am a SUSE newbie.
>
> I have spent more than 20 hours trying to get openSuse 11.3 to use an
> HP LJ 1100 printer on a W-XP Pro machine via a wifi LAN. A Linpus Light
> machine does it faultlessly (same LAN, same printer). Linpus uses a
> Foomatic driver. But openSuse can get through only occasionally after
> resetting via CUPS and using the smb:// address (also used by Linpus)
> but fails 95% of the time.
>
> 11.3 has no trouble accessing the XP’s shares via samba (so nmb, smb,
> etc are working). I have tried all the CUPS drivers and downloaded a
> Foomatic PPD and tried that. I have found, read and followed Swerdna’s
> otherwise excellent instructions. I have carefully examined the working
> Linpus connection and copied it as far possible. I have also examined
> the CUPS access, error and page logs. They often report success when in
> fact no printing occurred. I have watched the Windows spool applet and
> see jobs arriving (some say 0 Bytes) and then they disappear without
> printing.
>
> I am about to copy the Linpus PPD and try that (but I am not sure what
> I am doing). As you all know the HP 1100 is great SOHO workhorse and
> behaves fabulously. I used to know PCL insideout but 22 years later
> things are very different.
>
>
pacolaser;
Can you clarify a few points:
- Every now an then, albeit rarely, printing works?
- Have you tried the hplip drivers? (sounds like yes but just checking)
- Are you configuring via YaST or directly with the CUPS interface?
–
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
Thanks BP. I was stuck for a while, with some upgrades. Here are the answers:
- Every now an then, albeit rarely, printing works?
Yes, it’s really weird. I managed to print two small docs from OOo consecutively and then (without me changing anything) it refused to do more. Ditto for another. - Have you tried the hplip drivers? (sounds like yes but just checking)
Yes. - Are you configuring via YaST or directly with the CUPS interface?
I tried both, repeatedly, but lean towards CUPS, which seems a little more functional.
My gut feeling is that openSuse and/or CUPS is sending some sort of configuration parameter that jams the spooler on the XP.
paco laser
(my usual alias belongs to someone else)
Work lasts longer than life - Lao Tze c.500 BCE
On Fri October 22 2010 09:06 pm, pacolaser wrote:
>
> Thanks BP. I was stuck for a while, with some upgrades. Here are the
> answers:
>
> 1. Every now an then, albeit rarely, printing works?
> YES, IT’S REALLY WEIRD. I MANAGED TO PRINT TWO SMALL DOCS FROM OOO
> CONSECUTIVELY AND THEN (WITHOUT ME CHANGING ANYTHING) IT REFUSED TO DO
> MORE. DITTO FOR ANOTHER.
Does printing a test page from CUPS also fail? Could it be just an OOO thing?
> 2. Have you tried the hplip drivers? (sounds like yes but just
> checking)
> YES.
> 3. Are you configuring via YaST or directly with the CUPS interface?
> I TRIED BOTH, REPEATEDLY, BUT LEAN TOWARDS CUPS, WHICH SEEMS A LITTLE
> MORE FUNCTIONAL.
I also lean to CUPS.
>
> MY GUT FEELING IS THAT OPENSUSE AND/OR CUPS IS SENDING SOME SORT OF
> CONFIGURATION PARAMETER THAT JAMS THE SPOOLER ON THE XP.
>
> paco laser
> (my usual alias belongs to someone else)
>
> Work lasts longer than life - Lao Tze c.500 BCE
>
>
paco laser;
At this point, I’m thinking there is a network problem between OpenSuse and
the Windows machine. You might try disabling firewalls on both OpenSuse and
XP just to eliminate that possibility, I seriously doubt it’s a firewall
problem, but just in case.
Have you tried connecting the printer directly to OpenSuse? If this is
possible you might give it a try. If it works this way you’ll know it is a
network problem and not the driver. If it doesn’t you’ll know there is a
driver/CUPS problem.
When you enter the URL in CUPS do use IP or netbios name? If by netbios name
you might try IP. If you are using IP could the IP of the Windows machine be
changing? (i.e. set by dhcp)
I assume this is a simple workgroup environment, but if it is a domain that
could be important. Is it a domain environment? If so what type? (AD, NT or
Samba)
These two HowTos might give you some clues (Not sure if you read both
already):
http://opensuse.swerdna.org/suselanprimer.html
and
http://opensuse.swerdna.org/susesambaprint.html
As a last resort try posting the [Global] section of /etc/samba/smb.conf.
You can conceal any sensitive values with substitute values (i.e. public IPs
or Domain names.)
Finally, unless absolutely necessary, it is best not to copy drivers etc.
from one distro to another (i.e. Linpus and OpenSuse).
–
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
Venzkep
Hey man, thanks for the creative reply. Here’s the answers:
Test Page: it never printed a test page (CUPS, Yast applet, etc). The Linpus machine prints a test page. The LJ1100 is on LPT1. I also tried printing from FF and other apps.
Firewall/network: I have both firewalls deactivated (for this problem). The XP has a static IP and the Linpus machine prints with the firewalls on. I tried both the name and IP configurations. Samba file sharing works best with the IP address (probably I need to tweak the LAN settings). No domain (just three physical machines and an occasional visitor). The XP is a workhorse machine I put together with an Aopen mbd about 7 years ago (XP Pro SP3, solid as a rock except for a buggy OS based on a registry), the SUSE 11.3 x32 machine is a Dell laptop (no LPT port).
Direct connection to printer: excellent idea. But the laptop has no LPT port, I don’t think I have a USB>LPT connector and I am in a remote location. Still . . . it’s worth pursuing.
Swerdna: yeah, he’s good. I read and reread. Valuable advice.
Samba.conf: here it is:
smb.conf is the main Samba configuration file. You find a full commented
version at /usr/share/doc/packages/samba/examples/smb.conf.SUSE if the
samba-doc package is installed.
Date: 2010-09-15
[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
netbios name = BABEL
name resolve order = bcast host lmhosts wins
passdb backend = tdbsam
printing = cups
printcap name = cups
printcap cache time = 750
cups options = raw
map to guest = Bad User
include = /etc/samba/dhcp.conf
#logon path = \%L\profiles.msprofile
#logon home = \%L%U.9xprofile
#logon drive = P:
usershare allow guests = Yes
ldap suffix =
wins server =
wins support = No
OT: when I upgraded the LAN last night, the Linpus machine adapted immediately but the XP was a hassle (disfunctional Linksys applet) and the Suse machine is still not connected (Network Manager woes). The Linpus user is looking very smug . . . .
On Sat October 23 2010 05:06 am, pacolaser wrote:
>
> Venzkep
> Hey man, thanks for the creative reply. Here’s the answers:
>
> Test Page: it never printed a test page (CUPS, Yast applet, etc). The
> Linpus machine prints a test page. The LJ1100 is on LPT1. I also tried
> printing from FF and other apps.
>
> Firewall/network: I have both firewalls deactivated (for this
> problem). The XP has a static IP and the Linpus machine prints with the
> firewalls on. I tried both the name and IP configurations. Samba file
> sharing works best with the IP address (probably I need to tweak the LAN
> settings). No domain (just three physical machines and an occasional
> visitor).
Leave the firewalls down when testing. The fact that name resolution is not
working for file sharing is more problematic. More on that later. But make
sure that nmb is set to run at start up: YaST > System > System
Services(Runlevel).
> The XP is a workhorse machine I put together with an Aopen mbd
> about 7 years ago (XP Pro SP3, solid as a rock except for a buggy OS
> based on a registry), the SUSE 11.3 x32 machine is a Dell laptop (no LPT
> port).
>
> Direct connection to printer: excellent idea. But the laptop has no
> LPT port, I don’t think I have a USB>LPT connector and I am in a remote
> location. Still . . . it’s worth pursuing.
>
> Swerdna: yeah, he’s good. I read and reread. Valuable advice.
>
> Samba.conf: here it is:
>
> # smb.conf is the main Samba configuration file. You find a full
> commented
> # version at /usr/share/doc/packages/samba/examples/smb.conf.SUSE if
> the
> # samba-doc package is installed.
> # Date: 2010-09-15
> [global]
> workgroup = WORKGROUP
> netbios name = BABEL
> name resolve order = bcast host lmhosts wins
> passdb backend = tdbsam
> printing = cups
> printcap name = cups
> printcap cache time = 750
> cups options = raw
> map to guest = Bad User
> include = /etc/samba/dhcp.conf
> #logon path = \%L\profiles.msprofile
> #logon home = \%L%U.9xprofile
> #logon drive = P:
> usershare allow guests = Yes
> ldap suffix =
> wins server =
> wins support = No
>
> OT: when I upgraded the LAN last night, the Linpus machine adapted
> immediately but the XP was a hassle (disfunctional Linksys applet) and
> the Suse machine is still not connected (Network Manager woes). The
> Linpus user is looking very smug . . . .
>
>
pacolaser;
As long as netbios name resolution is working, printing to a Windows machine
is up to CUPS and does not really involve Samba. There is nothing in your
smb.conf that should keep netbios name resolution from working with a few
caveats. Make sure that the workgroup of the Windows machine and Samba
agree and no other machine has the name BABEL. You have the workgroup
parameter set to: WORKGROUP, is it the same on Windows? If not change the
workgroup parameter above so that they agree.
Once you get your network operating here are a few more tests to try. If they
fail there is some network problem. From a terminal try these commands:
nmblookup -B BABEL WORKGROUP
This should return the IP of your Opensuse machine. If it fails then most
likely nmbd is not running.
smbclient -L //<PC_netbios_name> -Uguest%
This should return a list of shares on the PC, including the printer. If this
fails there is a problem with the connection between Samba and the PC.
nmblookup -M WORKGROUP
This should return the IP of the master browser. If it fails there may be an
election problem when your OpenSuse machine connects. Try waiting a few
minutes to let the network settle down and try again. If it still fails try
adding this to your smb.conf to insure that an election takes place when you
connect to the network.
preferred master = yes
Once you have name resolution working if the problem persists it is most
likely CUPS. You may want to do a fresh install of CUPS to see if that
resolves the issue.
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
Hi Venzkep,
I had already covered most of your latest suggestions before posting. In fact the netBios name does work most of the time. But I want to try your commands. BABEL/SUSE refuses to stay connected to the new ADSL router so I have to fix that first. Network Manager just keeps asking for the WEP passphrase and is most unhelpful. The other machines are connected. BABEL’s connection was stable with the old router, which was used for my printer testing so far.
BABEL is a Dell Inspiron 6000 with a new HDD. It is stable and up to date but there were initial problems connecting to the old router earlier this year and we had to reinstall SUSE 11. Could these things be related? It also corrupts the wifi setup if you close the lid before shutdown ends. The power options are correct so I guess it’s bug that eventually will be fixed or a BIOS setting (haven’t looked).
I have an assignment to get out by Sunday nite so no more testing right now. Then I’ll fish out my long ethernet cable . . .
Thanks again.
Venzkep,
Happy news! The printing problems were indeed related to the wifi access problems. After I changed from WEP 128 to WPA-PSK and used CUPS to switch back to the standard PDD, the printer suddenly produced all the test pages I had not cancelled. [File-sharing via Samba was working before and after the CUPS changes.] It’s 2am here so I’ll defer more testing until tomorrow.
As you will remember, the Linpus Lite machine used WEP and printed faultlessly at all times so it looks as though Network Manager has a bug. Would you agree? If so, is there anything I can do to help others? (eg, a bug report).
Thanks for your support and thanks for what I have learned with your help.
pacolaser