[ale] Samba tricks?

[Chris Ricker]

On Mon, 3 Mar 2003, Robert L. Harris wrote:

> 
> 
> I've been asked to help the Windows admin set up samba to push out
> drivers for different versions of windows.  Currently its set up to only
> share out for windows98 but supposedly there is a method to share out
> for multiple OS versions by changing the directory structure.
> 
> Anyone have any information on this structure, etc?  I'm poking around
> samba.org but it's pretty obscure if it's there.  

The sanest way to do it (and the easiest for your Windows admin) is to
configure Samba to support the Windows Add Printer wizard.

Modify your smb.conf:

[global]
# support the windoze print wizards
   show add printer wizard = yes
# define authenticated user who can run wizards
   printer admin = username_of_windows_admin

[Print$]
# special share (note the $) which is used by the wizard to store the drivers
   path = /var/samba/print-drivers # or wherever
   read only = yes
   write list = username_of_windows_admin
# probably want more permissions options here as well

Bounce Samba.

Now, create the dir being shared as Print$

# mkdir -p /var/samba/print-drivers

You also have to make subdirs for the various Windows versions

# mkdir /var/samba/print-drivers/{W32X86,WIN40}

(W32X86 is used for NT and derivatives, WIN40 for 9x/ME. I don't think the
3.x stuff supports doing this, but could be quite wrong since I don't
really do Windows ;-)

These have to be readable by all and writable on the Unix side by
username_of_windows_admin, so adjust perms.

Now, define your printers on the Unix side (/etc/printcap, or
/etc/cups/printers.conf, or whatever).

>From a Windows client, log in as username_of_windows_admin and browse
your Samba-shared printers. They currently don't have drivers associated
w/ them. Right-click on one and poke around through the properties. On one
of the tabs, you'll find a New Driver button. Use it to start the Add Printer
wizard and upload a driver (it gets written to the Print$ share). Once
you've defined one, if you poke around you'll find an Additional Drivers
button where you can tell it to upload for other versions of Windows.

I haven't messed with this in a while, so the above is just what I
remember / that looked important from the smb.conf file on the server
where I've got this running. I've probably forgotten something, but those
are hopefully the key points ;-)

You can manually put the drivers in the Print$ share, but this method
seemed far better to me.

You can also, I think, give username_of_windows_admin the ability to
create new printers. I've not done that, though.

later,
chris
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