[CentOS] Re: SMB server with CentOS 4

Wed Dec 7 20:05:33 UTC 2005
Feizhou <feizhou at graffiti.net>

Josh Kelley wrote:
> On 12/7/05, Feizhou <feizhou at graffiti.net> wrote:
> 
>>>With a Postscript print queue, you can configure printer defaults on
>>>the server, using CUPS.  With a raw print queue, you can configure
>>>printer defaults under an administrator account on a client, using the
>>>Windows print driver, then it writes those defaults back to the server
>>>for others to use.
>>>
>>>Raw print queues really don't have the shortcomings in functionality
>>>that you seem to be saying they do.
>>
>>How exactly does a Windows generic postscript driver communicate with
>>the cups system on printer settings through samba?
>>
>>Even the cups postscript driver for windows does not appear to offer that...
> 
> 
> I'm confused.  I'm afraid that we may have misunderstood each other in
> the last round or two of emails.  If I've misunderstood or
> communicated poorly, I apologize.

Most probably we have misunderstood each other.
> 
> Bryan said that with Postscript queues, you can configure printer
> settings through CUPS.  With Postscript queues, you use a generic
> Postscript driver for Windows (such as the one provided by CUPS - I
> didn't mean to imply a distinction between a generic driver and the
> CUPS driver), and the Postscript driver gets its printer settings from
> the PPD that you configure through CUPS.

ok.

> 
> With raw queues, it's my understanding - please correct me if I'm
> wrong - that the printer drivers run on the client and can store the
> device mode and printer driver data on the server.  In this case, CUPS
> has no knowledge of any of the settings, and Samba doesn't really
> understand them either - it treats them as opaque data structures that
> it provides to Windwos clients upon request.

Nope, the device mode and printer driver data stay on client. raw queue 
is really just, client sends file over, samba feeds file to raw queue 
which then feeds the file straight to the printer.

> 
> At any rate, though, it works, and I've found it to be a simpler setup
> than Postscript queues.  YMMV.

For a single workstation yes.

For an office with lots of desktops sharing a standard laser, the 
install a postscript driver ( Windows don't speak postscript, so the 
postscript driver is convert Windows print data to postscript) on the 
desktops and then configure the printer settings once on the samba box 
is really a great help.