Topic: Update: Mac print jobs failing

[Robert Devantier]

This is an update to a previous post I made back a few months ago.  You can reference it here: http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=11952.msg44941#msg44941
I'm posting this because there were several people that had contacted me in the last few months to see how things were going.  I figured this would help the SME community as a whole if I put it here rather than to a few individuals.

I have since upgraded to SME v5.1.2, and things do seem to be better with Mac printing, but not perfect (yet!).  I did have some more jobs fails from the stock 5.1.2 install, so here is what I have done above the stock 5.1.2.

1) Updated LPRng to the latest, version 3.8.9-1.  You can get it from http://www.lprng.com/downloads.html (current version today is 3.8.10-1 for RedHat).

2) Switched the netatalk printing over to binary for each printer, by using the -b and -h switches in the /etc/atalk/netatalk/papd.conf file.  Since these get re-written at times, I had to make a template for this.

How?
2a) Make directories for the entire path of /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/atalk/netatalk/papd.conf
2b) Copy the current 20printers template in this path.  #cp /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/atalk/netatalk/papd.conf/20printers /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/atalk/netatalk/papd.conf
2c) Edit the new 20printers file.  I added the ppd info line and added the "-b -h" to the lpr command.
    foreach my $account (keys %accounts)
    {
        my ($type, %properties) = db_get(\%accounts, $account);
        if ($type eq 'printer')
        {
            $OUT .= "\n";
            $OUT .= "$properties{'Description'}:\n";
            $OUT .= "\t:pd=GENERIC.PPD:\n";
            $OUT .= "\t:pr=|/usr/bin/lpr -b -h -P$account:\n";
        }
    }
2d) I also put the PPD files for my printers (took them from the PC, ran dos2unix on them, and then ftp'd them to the primary ibay) into the /etc/atalk/netatalk folder.  I could then edit the papd.conf file and change "GENERIC.PPD" to what I need.  Eventually, I'd like to write a template that could be added to the add printer panel that could store the proper PPD, so it isn't lost every time the configuration is re-generated.

3) Netatalk on SME 5.1.2 is now 1.5pre8-1.  They have since gone to a final version 1.5 (1.5.3.1) as of this writing.  One of the fixes is that papd now tells the Mac client it supports binary printing.  I would be interested in seeing this version make it into SME, either via a blades update or contrib.

[Robert Boerner]

Thanks for the update. I am glad to hear that things are going better. I can only assume that with the next point release of SME that LPRng will be updated as will Netatalk.

I know many people on the Wish List forum have asked for greater control over printers and the qeues themselves (and maybe PPD files for Postscript printers). Hopefully that is on Mitel's todo list.

This is one of the few products that does seem to get better over time. I am just glad to see that the Mac side of things are coming together in addition to the Windoze.

As a side note, are you using OS 9 or OS X on the Macs?