Print from Linux to Windows Server

Sometimes a Linux workstation must print to Windows or Samba Server. Between Linuxes, it’s better to use CUPS Servers. Often it’s possible to print directly to printer too.

Below we use

Windows Username: “wuser”
Windows Password: “wpassword”
Windows Workgroup: “WGROUP”
Windows Server: “wserver”
Windows Printer: “wprinter”

Save this as /etc/cups/printers.conf:

 # CUPS printers.conf for Samba (c) 2005 Tero Karvinen
 <DefaultPrinter wprinter>
 Info
 Location
 DeviceURI smb://wuser:wpassword@WGROUP/wserver/wprinter
 State Idle
 Accepting Yes
 JobSheets none none
 QuotaPeriod 0
 PageLimit 0
 KLimit 0
 </Printer>

Restart CUPS service to load printers.conf:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

Now it’s installed, print a test page trough web interface. Login “root”, password is your root password (should be changed).

# x-www-browser http://localhost:631/printers/foo

Choose “Print test page”.

You can also test it in OpenOffice. Close all OpenOffice windows, then start OpenOffice Writer, write something and choose print.

If your document was printed, well done, you have successfully installed a Windows SMB printer queue on Linux CUPS.

Tested with Debian Sarge on 2005-05-16t1907, Tero

Troubleshooting

If printing fails, check your logs:

$ tail -f /var/log/cups/*_log

If nothing else helps, get sniffer log:

$ sudo wireshark

Use display filter like

proto == smb a ip.addr==10.0.0.1

If problem is related to SMB login, test connectivity with smbclient. Logon problems ( NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE or NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED) can often be fixed by adding workgroup or domain to user name part. Problems with SMB name service can be solved by using DNS names instead.

Try again until you get the list of shared printers, for example:

$ smbclient -L server.firm.com -U FIRM/user

For example, once I’ve had to change:

DeviceURI smb://FIRM/user:pass@FIRM/server/printer

DeviceURI smb://FIRM/user:pass@/server.firm.com/printer