Printer sharing help wanted

[Zeikcied]

I'm attempting to share a printer between two computers. Both run Kubuntu Hardy.

I've read the Kubuntu documentation that says you go to the Printer section on the System Settings menu, highlight the printer, then select Print Server, and hit the Share Printers on Local Network. The problem is that my Print Server menu does not have any such entry. In fact, neither computers have such an option. I can't find anything that explains what to do in the case of that not being an option.

Both are running KDE3, in case there are any differences in the KDE4 equivalents. I could really use some help in figuring this out as soon as possible.

[Snowhog]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

K Menu > System Settings > Printers > (click on your printer) > Print Server > Configure Server...

You don't have this?

[lykwydchykyn]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

Personally I find it easier to use the browser-based configuration utility. Point your browser to https://localhost:631 and click to the administration tab.

On the machine with the printer you want to check "Share published printers connected to this system". On the machine without the printer you want to check "Show printers shared by other systems". After that, the printer should automatically show up on your networked system.

[Snowhog]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

Cool. Thanks for the tip. Always like having alternate ways of doing a thing.

[Zeikcied]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

K Menu > System Settings > Printers > (click on your printer) > Print Server > Configure Server...

You don't have this?

I have that, but I can't really understand that configuration menu.

Personally I find it easier to use the browser-based configuration utility. Point your browser to https://localhost:631 and click to the administration tab.

On the machine with the printer you want to check "Share published printers connected to this system". On the machine without the printer you want to check "Show printers shared by other systems". After that, the printer should automatically show up on your networked system.

That's a lot for this tip. I had to make Firefox 3 accept the certificate (but since it is localhost, I doubt anyone can spoof it), but it came up and it looks a lot easier than the System Settings version.

[Zeikcied]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

Everything is working quite well. Thanks again for the help.

But there is one small problem. Evolution Mail, on the computer not directly connected to the printer, doesn't seem to want to cooperate. It shows the printer in the Printer menu, but it doesn't seem to send the print job to the main computer. Is this just an issue of a GTK app conflicting with a KDE configuration? (I doubt that, since CUPS is supposed to be independent, right?)

Anyway, it sees the printer, but when you hit Print, nothing happens. I don't see any dialog box come up that shows it's working. No print jobs show up on either computer. Adobe Acrobat Reader and KMail both sent print jobs perfectly. But Evolution isn't.

[Snowhog]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

Given that two of your apps print properly (Acrobat Reader and KMail), then the problem resides within Evolution. Have you checked the configuration settings for Evolution?

[Zeikcied]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

Given that two of your apps print properly (Acrobat Reader and KMail), then the problem resides within Evolution. Have you checked the configuration settings for Evolution?

I just discovered that Firefox 3 won't print on the other computer, either.

KDE apps will print using the remote printer, but GTK apps don't seem to want to print.

I used that CUPS web interface.

I should point out that the System Settings -> Printer -> Print Server menu does have Restart Server and Configure Server on both computers. It does not have Share Printer or Find Printers.

Also, when I used the web interface to find a printer on the other computer, it couldn't find it. I ended up using the KDE System Settings to specify the IP address for the host computer. It shows in the Manage Printers menu of the CUPS web interface, and it shows as an option in GTK apps, but GTK apps can't seem to print.

Is there a problem with how I configured this? I have no clue why the Print Server menu is apparently missing certain options (maybe it was removed in Hardy, or it is due to upgrading to Hardy as opposed to a fresh install, I don't know). And I'm lost as far as why GTK applications won't print. Firefox 3 is at least showing a dialog box that says it's attempting to print, and it appears to successfully send the print job. But neither CUPS on the client side or on the host side show any evidence of the print job from Firefox.

[Zeikcied]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

I still need help with figuring this out.

Evolution and Firefox 3 still won't print. Neither program has any print options in the Preferences menus. And it's becoming a nuisance to have to open the email or web page in KMail or Konqueror in order to be able to print.

I have no idea why it isn't printing, nor do I possess any advanced knowledge of Linux (just enough to run it, but nothing much more advanced than that).

[Objekt]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who's had a bit of trouble with printers in Kubuntu.

I want to do something quite different from the thread starter, however: share a printer over the local network with a Windows XP machine. The printer is connected to my machine, which has a dual-boot Windows XP/Kubuntu 8.04.1 setup, and I'd like for the other Windows XP machine to be able to use it while I'm running Kubuntu.

Also, I'd like the XP user to be able to use the scanner feature. The printer is a Canon MultiPass F60.

Is what I want to do even possible? Some of the software specific to the printer is of course Windows-only, so that's out, but I don't think you have to have Windows-based software to use the scanner part. When I'm running XP, I can access its scanner functions from within Photoshop, completely bypassing the Canon software suite.

[Snowhog]

Re: Printer sharing help wanted

It's an older post, but this Howto:Printer Brother MFC215C Install on Kubuntu Dapper might provide you with the help you are looking for.