Contributor: Unknown Date: Unknown Status: Current Subject: Dubugging Printing Problems ============================================================================= This is a short description of how to debug printing problems with Samba. This describes how to debug problems with printing from a SMB client to a Samba server, not the other way around. For the reverse see the examples/printing directory. Please send enhancements to this file to samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au Ok, so you want to print to a Samba server from your PC. The first thing you need to understand is that Samba does not actually do any printing itself, it just acts as a middleman between your PC client and your Unix printing subsystem. Samba receives the file from the PC then passes the file to a external "print command". What print command you use is up to you. The whole things is controlled using options in smb.conf. The most relevant options (which you should look up in the smb.conf man page) are: print command lpq command lprm command Samba should set reasonable defaults for these depending on your system type, but it isn't clairvoyant. It is not uncommon that you have to tweak these for local conditions. On my system I use the following settings: print command = lpr -r -P%p %s lpq command = lpq -P%p lprm command = lprm -P%p %j The % bits are "macros" that get dynamically replaced with variables when they are used. The %s gets replaced with the name of the spool file that Samba creates and the %p gets replaced with the name of the printer. The %j gets replaced with the "job number" which comes from the lpq output. When I'm debugging printing problems I often replace these command with pointers to shell scripts that record the arguments, and the contents of the print file. A simple example of this kind of things might be: print command = cp %s /tmp/tmp.print then you print a file and look at the /tmp/tmp.print file to see what is produced. Try printing this file with lpr. Does it work? If not then your problem with with your lpr system, not with Samba. Often people have problems with their /etc/printcap file or permissions on various print queues. Another common problem is that /dev/null is not world writeable. Yes, amazing as it may seem, some systems make /dev/null only writeable by root. Samba uses /dev/null as a place to discard output from external commands like the "print command" so if /dev/null is not writeable then nothing will work. Other really common problems: - lpr isn't in the search path when Samba tries to run it. Fix this by using the full path name in the "print command" - the user that the PC is trying to print as doesn't have permission to print. Fix your lpr system. - you get an extra blank page of output. Fix this in your lpr system, probably by editing /etc/printcap. It could also be caused by incorrect setting on your client. For example, under Win95 there is a option Printers|Printer Name|(Right Click)Properties|Postscript|Advanced| that allows you to choose if a Ctrl-D is appended to all jobs. This will affect if a blank page is output. - you get raw postscript instead of nice graphics on the output. Fix this either by using a "print command" that cleans up the file before sending it to lpr or by using the "postscript" option in smb.conf. Note that you can do some pretty magic things by using your imagination with the "print command" option and some shell scripts. Doing print accounting is easy by passing the %U option to a print command shell script. You could even make the print command detect the type of output and its size and send it to an appropriate printer. If the above debug tips don't help, then maybe you need to bring in the bug gun, system tracing. See Tracing.txt in this directory.