Topic: SME Printer Sharing.

[Arnie]

Hello all,

I have a Canon Pixma4000 Bubblejet printer that I have connected to my 6.0.1-01 server. The printer driver has print manager software that runs in Windows and tells me about ink levels, paper outs etc. When the printer is shared out on the SME box, the print manager can't communicate with the printer and won't work (it comes up with a "Cannot communicate with the printer" error), but jobs print out O.K. If I connect the printer to a Windows box and share it out, the print manager works.

I guess this is a problem with Samba and bidirectional printing. Has anyone come across this problem before and fixed it?

[irian]

No fix that I know of.
You will just have to live with it.
It has to do with the Canon Software.

MdV

[dmac]

I have run across this problem with Epson printers as well.  If the printer is shared across the network, the software will not work.  The software is looking for a directly connected printer, not a network setup.

Unless the manufacture has a version that works across the network, you are probalbly out of luck.

Darin

[Arnie]

dmac:

This is not the case. If I connect the printer up to another Windows box and share it out, the Print Manager works from a client machine. The problem is that the version of Samba on SME 6.0.1 does not handle bi-directional printing.

[dmac]

dmac:

This is not the case. If I connect the printer up to another Windows box and share it out, the Print Manager works from a client machine. The problem is that the version of Samba on SME 6.0.1 does not handle bi-directional printing.

But the catch is you have hooked it up to another Windows Box that can run the Software using the Windows API's I'm assuming.  I have an EPSON printer connected to a Linksys Print server with Bi-Directional printing enabled and the Epson Software can not connect because 1) not a Windows Box and 2) not a direct connection.

Darin

[Arnie]

I see your point. So what your saying is, the software probably uses RPC to communicate between the print managers installed on the windows boxes. So it seems the problem is not with Samba after all.

That is unfortunate. I will need to install VMWare GSX and a version of Win2K on the SME box just to get this fracking printer working.

I am preturbed.