Mac Os Xsamba Printing

Mac Os Xsamba Printing

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How to setup a printer queue using our samba print server in Mac OS X 10.2 or later.

These instructions have been taken and adapted from http://www.cs.indiana.edu/Facilities/FAQ/PC/osxprint.html

Enable SAMBA Printing

You will now need to configure CUPS to enable SAMBA printing on OS X. Open a Terminal window, and at the prompt type the following two lines, pressing the "return" key after each line:

cd /usr/libexec/cups/backend 
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/smbspool smb

(This is a sudo command, so you will be prompted for your password). You will now need to reboot for the change to take effect. After the system is back up, you should now be able to configure SAMBA printing.

While it is possible to configure printers via the CUPS system using a web browser (more on this below), or at the commandline, it's recommended that you use OS X's Print Center located at: Applications/Utilities/Print Center. With the switch to CUPS by Apple for printer services, Print Center in now informed about printing services via the CUPS system, and vice versa.

Configure a Printer

You may now configure your printer(s) of choice by doing the following:

Open Applications/Utilities/Print Center

While holding down the "Option" key, click on the "Add" icon. It might take a while, but eventually a printer configuration box will open.

At the top of the box, you will see some protocol listed. It may be AppleTalk, IP Printing, or others, depending on the last printer configuration you may have done.

Drop down the protocol configuration menu, and at the bottom you should now see "Advanced" as an option. Choose it.

A new box will open, and there will be a "Device:" button, with a drop down menu for various protocols. Drop down this menu, and select "Windows Printer via SAMBA".

In the "Device Name:" box, print the name of the printer you are configuring. Example: pr1-g70

In the "Device URL:" box, you should type: smb://Username:password@it/itsmb.it.usyd.edu.au/ps-printername substituting your username, password and the name of the printer.
Example: smb://ronald:mypassword@it/itsmb.it.usyd.edu.au/pr1-g70 (The password will show as clear text when you do this step. See also PrinterNamingScheme)
Go to the "Printer Model:" menu at the bottom, and select the printer driver for the model printer you are configuring. You will see several brand names for printers. Select the printer model. In most cases this will be HP. A new box opens listing several HP printer drivers. In most cases this will be "HP LaserJet 4050". Look for that model number, and select it.

Extra Information

Printer configuration: From the Print Center application, you can fine tune the configuration of your printers. Select the printer by clicking on it's name, go to the "Printers" menu, and select "Show Info". There are fields for printer Name & Location, PPD files, and Installable Options.

CUPS: As mentioned above, it is possible to configure printers via a web browser using the CUPS system using this URL: http://127.0.0.1:631 This will open a webpage interface to the local CUPS system, allowing for complete printer adminstration, including adds, deletes, and other options, and a link to online help for using CUPS.

While you can use CUPS via a browser to easily configure printers, it appears to be severely limited on available drivers. For that reason, it's recommended that you use Print Center, as Apple has many more drivers available through this application. Any printers you configure via Print Center will show up in the CUPS system, and vice versa.

Hint: For some people cupsomatic seems to fail when getting a PDF job. Changing debug to "1" (my debug="1") in cupsomatic is said to help.

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