Hi

I don't know if this is a windows question or a Linux question so please
bear with me if it's the wrong group :-)

I've used APS filter to setup my Deskjet 950 on my PC running slackware.
I've used Samba to share it on a windows network.
Problem is it takes at least 1 minute for the server to return 'all ok' to
the PC's running windows.
Windows print manager hangs at 'initializing' for about a minute and then
starts to print.
Is it possible to speed up the 'All ok' signal from Samba?
Second, if I use APSfilter is it then the settings from APSfilter or the
settings from the windows driver that is used?
I would like to be able to pass on the driver settings from windows :-)

Thanks
Morten

--
Replace .hej with .com in my e-mail prior to sending e-mail.

Morten Lundstrøm wrote:

> Hi
>
> I don't know if this is a windows question or a Linux question so please
> bear with me if it's the wrong group :-)
>
> I've used APS filter to setup my Deskjet 950 on my PC running slackware.
> I've used Samba to share it on a windows network.
> Problem is it takes at least 1 minute for the server to return 'all ok' to
> the PC's running windows.
> Windows print manager hangs at 'initializing' for about a minute and then
> starts to print.
> Is it possible to speed up the 'All ok' signal from Samba?
> Second, if I use APSfilter is it then the settings from APSfilter or the
> settings from the windows driver that is used?
> I would like to be able to pass on the driver settings from windows :-)
>
> Thanks
> Morten
>
Well, don't know about the linux part (lol - I'm still learning a lot about
Linux, especially printers configuration systems), but I used to have the
same problem when I had 2 Win98 connected through a direct cable (ethernet
connection), with resources (and, of course, the printer) shared. It might
be a Windows thing (it could be configuration, but as Linux /really/ runs a
network better, didn't bother. Soon changed all Linux and left Wintendo on
a dual boot in one of the machines ).

Morten Lundstrøm wrote:

[...]

> I've used APS filter to setup my Deskjet 950 on my PC running slackware.
> I've used Samba to share it on a windows network.
> Problem is it takes at least 1 minute for the server to return 'all ok' to
> the PC's running windows.
> Windows print manager hangs at 'initializing' for about a minute and then
> starts to print.
> Is it possible to speed up the 'All ok' signal from Samba?

Not really sure about this part, but maybe making the change I suggest
below will help...

> Second, if I use APSfilter is it then the settings from APSfilter or the
> settings from the windows driver that is used?

Both...Windows will format the job according to what driver you have
installed, then it will get to the queue on Linux, which will apply any
of it's formatting/filtering, etc. This *may* be the reason for the
slow response, since APSFilter has to format already formatted jobs...

> I would like to be able to pass on the driver settings from windows :-)

I'd suggest creating a second queue on Linux that does no
formatting...IE no APSFilter. then print only to that queue via Samba.
You can do this by removing the [Printers] section from smb.conf, and
adding a share just for your "raw" queue...Have the share name match the
queue name you set up in CUPs, LPRng, whatever lpd flavor you're using...
So, for example, I have a HP LaserJet 4l attached to a Samba server,
with 2 entries in my printcap. the "lp" queue is for printing directly
from *nix. I added an "lpwin" queue, which points to the same printer,
but does no filtering. then in my smb.conf I have :
[lpwin]
comment = HP Laser 4l
path = /var/spool/samba
guest ok = Yes
printable = Yes
browseable = Yes

Tweak settings as needed. Samba clients "see" only the lpwin share, and
can connect and print just fine, using only the Windows 4l drivers.

You can also try telling Windows the printer is a generic text device,
so it ( WIndows ) would hopefully do less formatting. Then continue to
print to the queue that's using APSFilter...but I've had limited success
with that approach...YMMV.


--
- Matt -

<snip stuff I wrote>
> Well, don't know about the linux part (lol - I'm still learning a lot
about
> Linux, especially printers configuration systems), but I used to have the
> same problem when I had 2 Win98 connected through a direct cable (ethernet
> connection), with resources (and, of course, the printer) shared. It might
> be a Windows thing (it could be configuration, but as Linux /really/ runs
a
> network better, didn't bother. Soon changed all Linux and left Wintendo on
> a dual boot in one of the machines ).
Both PC's experiencing it are running win2k with SP4 :-)
Heh, maybe my mothers Win2k PC should have an accidental 'crash' and then I
should set her up on a linux desktop as all she use is mail and MSoffice,
perhaps that would make her stop nagging about the slow printer if it speed
things up. ;-)
However I'm afraid it'll cause some incompatibilities with the encryption
scheme used by her bank...
I am a bit of a gamer myself, so I'll stick with windows for a little
longer, however I have thought of setting up Linux on another partition to
make it my work-only system, that way when windows needs a reinstall(again)
I have the ability to do my homework without reinstalling everything.
I'll see when my HD returns from Hitachi (Yep I managed to get it replaced
under warranty even though it was a result of a bad PSU, flicking on and off
every second for an entire day is bad for harddrives.. Thunderstorms suck!)

/Morten


--
Replace .hej with .com in my e-mail prior to sending e-mail.

<snip>
> > Second, if I use APSfilter is it then the settings from APSfilter or the
> > settings from the windows driver that is used?
>
> Both...Windows will format the job according to what driver you have
> installed, then it will get to the queue on Linux, which will apply any
> of it's formatting/filtering, etc. This *may* be the reason for the
> slow response, since APSFilter has to format already formatted jobs...

You have a point, that might be what's doing it, afterall it's only a celly
400 with 128 megs of RAM.

> > I would like to be able to pass on the driver settings from windows :-)
>
> I'd suggest creating a second queue on Linux that does no
> formatting...IE no APSFilter. then print only to that queue via Samba.
> You can do this by removing the [Printers] section from smb.conf, and
> adding a share just for your "raw" queue...Have the share name match the
> queue name you set up in CUPs, LPRng, whatever lpd flavor you're using...
> So, for example, I have a HP LaserJet 4l attached to a Samba server,
> with 2 entries in my printcap. the "lp" queue is for printing directly
> from *nix. I added an "lpwin" queue, which points to the same printer,
> but does no filtering. then in my smb.conf I have :
> [lpwin]
> comment = HP Laser 4l
> path = /var/spool/samba
> guest ok = Yes
> printable = Yes
> browseable = Yes
>
> Tweak settings as needed. Samba clients "see" only the lpwin share, and
> can connect and print just fine, using only the Windows 4l drivers.
>

I see, I have to look into configuring CUPS as I've never done that before,
I was instructed to use apsfilter when I set up samba (Maybe because I'm a
clueless slackware newbie? ;-)) I found apsfilter very easy, but if CUPS is
just a matter of editing a few config files then it shouldn't be too much of
a hassle :-)

<snip>

/Morten

--
Replace .hej with .com in my e-mail prior to sending e-mail.

Morten Lundstrøm wrote:

[...]

>
> I see, I have to look into configuring CUPS as I've never done that before,
> I was instructed to use apsfilter when I set up samba (Maybe because I'm a
> clueless slackware newbie? ;-)) I found apsfilter very easy, but if CUPS is
> just a matter of editing a few config files then it shouldn't be too much of
> a hassle :-)

Which lpd server you use shouldn't really matter. APSFilter is just
that...A filter, which may be used by the lpd daemon to format jobs.
And it does that reasonably well, and includes a nice script front-end
to set up queues.

So, assuming you're not using CUPS, I'd guess you have LPRng
installed...And rather than messing with CUPS just yet, I'd recommend
trying to get it going with the existing setup...You can always switch
to CUPS later, should you decide to.
In that case, you can just add an entry to /etc/printcap something like...

lpwin:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lpwin:\
:mx#0:\
:sh:\
:sf:\
:lp=/dev/lp0:

Then run checkpc -f which should create the spool directories for you,
with the correct permissions.
Note that the above assumes the printer is connected to lp0, and I'm
pretty sure sf is depricated in later versions of LPRng...I just haven't
gotten around to changing it. So again, tweak as needed. Then restart
Samba if needed, and point the Win clients at the new share.

My point really is, it should be simple to add a queue to your existing
setup, to test if *not* using a filter on the Linux side improves Samba
printing performance.

--
- Matt -

<snip>
>
> Which lpd server you use shouldn't really matter. APSFilter is just
> that...A filter, which may be used by the lpd daemon to format jobs.
> And it does that reasonably well, and includes a nice script front-end
> to set up queues.
>
> So, assuming you're not using CUPS, I'd guess you have LPRng
> installed...And rather than messing with CUPS just yet, I'd recommend
> trying to get it going with the existing setup...You can always switch
> to CUPS later, should you decide to.
> In that case, you can just add an entry to /etc/printcap something like...

Thanks, I'll try your ideas when I have time in the weekend :-)

Once again thank you for your time
/Morten