Overhauling CUPS: Pushing Windows Printer Drivers - page 3

The Easy Way: Buy The Right Printer

If you don't have a Samba server already running on your network, here is a complete example configuration. All of your Windows hosts must belong to the workgroup named in smb.conf. Linux and Mac OS X don't care about workgroups, so don't worry about them.

First create these two directories:

# mkdir -m 777 /sharedstuff
# mkdir -m 777 /var/spool/samba

Then create this smb.conf, using your own LAN address and workgroup name:

[global]
	workgroup = samba2
	netbios name = xena
	server string = lan file and printer server
	hosts allow = 192.168.1.
	security = user
	load printers = yes
	printing = cups
	printcap name = cups

[share1]
	path = /sharedstuff
	comment = files for everyone
	read only = no
	browseable = yes
	guest ok = yes

[printers]
	comment = All Printers
	path = /var/spool/samba
	browseable = yes
	printable = yes
        writable = no 
	guest ok = yes

[print$]
	comment = Printer Drivers
	path = /usr/share/cups/drivers
	browseable = yes
	guest ok = no
	read only = yes
	write list = root

Run the testparm command to check your syntax. If you get a "WARNING: passdb expand explicit = yes is deprecated" error, ignore it, it's a leftover meaningless bit of cruft. Restart Samba:

# /etc/init.d/samba restart

Now you should have a "share1" folder in Network Neighborhood and your other Samba browsers. Use this to copy the driver files between your machines, which we'll get to in a moment.