Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

[Liam]

I have a Panasonix KX p700 printer currently connected to my Windows XP machine with a USB cable

Sometime ago I connected my Kubuntu machine to the Windows machine via Ethernet and I have been using Samb shares to move files between the machines.

I now want to connect the printer to my kubuntu machine and have it as the default printer for both machines and all applications

Is this possible?

Can someone point me in the right direction on how to do this. (warning although I set up both machines and connected them to the network initially I am almost Kubuntu illiterate - to date I have need very little knowledge to run Kubuntu - and of course I enjoy not having to pay for upgrades and bug fixes.

Many thanks in advance for any help.

[dibl]

Re: Need help connecting my printer.

The basic Kubuntu printer setup utility is found in KMenu > System Settings > Printers. Click on "Add > Printer/Class" to initiate the printer installation routine.

If it happens that your particular printer model does not show up in the menu (and many don't, since Feisty), then post again and there are several other options to get a driver and install it. It's not too tough -- this noob did it recently.

[Liam]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

Ok I have gone to the printer set up utility and started the process. I have selected the option 'Local Printer (Parallel, Serial. USB)

The printer is connected via the USB port. So I have clicked on this option but now I get asked to enter the URI. I have hit the help button but info provided leaves me none the wiser as to what the URI might be?

[dibl]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

Hmmmm -- I have no idea! I don't remember having to answer that question when I installed my little Epson C84.

Can you verify that your printer is "seen" on the USB bus by entering, in the console,

lsusb

?

Just want to verify that it's connected and the OS should see it.

[Liam]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

Thanks for you help thus far.

Yes it would seem the printer is seen and identified on the USB bus.

~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 045e:0047 Microsoft Corp. IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04da:0f40 Panasonic #&%$a)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

So the printer is seen by lsusb as being connected via the USB port. I have gone back to the printer set up utility and started the process again. I have selected the option 'Local Printer (Parallel, Serial. USB). So again I have clicked on this option but no printer is identified as being connected to the USB port and I am still getting asked to enter the URI.

[Robin T Cox]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

The set-up described in this tutorial works for me:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202605

[penguin.ch]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

http://openprinting.org/show_printer...sonic-KX-P7105 (?)

[dibl]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

Yes it would seem the printer is seen and identified on the USB bus.

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04da:0f40 Panasonic #&%$a)

Great -- that much is not a problem!

I am still getting asked to enter the URI.

This I don't understand -- after I click "Local printer (parallel, serial, USB)", then click "Next", I get a graphical dislpay of my local system's parallel, serial, and USB ports, with the candidate printer showing on the USB port. You are running Kubuntu Feisty, or is it an earlier version?

Hmmmm ... did you click the "Administrator Mode" button at the lower right of your screen, after you clicked on "Printer"?

And another thought -- since we know you intend to share that printer, probably you should be choosing one of the network printer choices under the Backend Selection menu, i.e. "SMB Shared", or "Network Printer (TCP) -- depending on how you are planning your network. If it's a Samba network, then you want SMB Shared, I would think (you'll soon learn I'm no networking expert ...).

[mchuskie]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

The dialogue reads, "Select a valid detected port, or enter directly the corresponding URI in the bottom edit field".

Note the use of the word "or" there. You should select the option from the long list in the big box corresponding to wherever your printer is plugged in to (should be listed under USB). I attach a screenshot, just to be completely clear about what you should be seeing.

Don't worry about all those glittering "network printer" options yet. Those are options for connecting TO an already networked printer. Once you are able to print locally, then we can worry about getting Samba set up to share the printer with your more operating-systemally-challenged machines.

[dibl]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

Give a double-click on your printer, which should show up connected to the USB "port". I'll attach what you see on mine. I hope it can proceed without seeing the connection -- is your printer turned on?

I now recall that this is where this particular KDE routine gets a little irrational. When I double-click on my Epson C84, the next screen pops up a list of printer manufacturers and model numbers, and asks me to pick. So, first it knows the make and model, and then it makes me tell it anew. And then it gets even weirder, because there's no C84 model listed under the Epson printers, and I had to go out where UnicornRider pointed you and get a driver that was for rpm package systems, and convert it to a deb for Kubuntu. But, it is all manageable.

[Liam]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

James, Dibl many thanks for your help thus far. When I go to the screenshot you have shown me there is nothing shown as being attached to the USB port as in Dibl's screen shot. Yes I am in administrator mode.

While my printer is shown as being connected by lsusb command it is not appearing in the printer wizard window box.

BTW that's a neat trick being able to "screen shot' and attach the windows dialogue box, how do I do that so I can show you what I see?

Once again I really appreciate the help thus far.

[mchuskie]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

The closest match on the OpenPrinting database (your fountain of knowledge for all things Linuxy and printery) is the KX-7105... (Google turns up no results for KX-P700 so I'm hoping it's not too wide of the mark...)

http://www.openprinting.org/show_pri...sonic-KX-P7105

<pre-post edit: UnicornRider seems to have already linked there... />

It suggests the HP LaserJet 5100 driver, but has "no known autodetection signatures" which is probably why it's not showing up. So what I would suggest - and this is, as with so many things in computer science, mostly educated guesswork - is choosing the "HP Printer" option in that dialog (if you don't have it, install the "hplip" package) and select the driver for the LJ 5100. And hope...

As for the screenshots - as in Windoze, it's all down to the Print Screen key. Pressing it will launch KSnapshot, where you can configure your capture options and snap away The option to attach them here is hidden under "Additional Options" when you post.

[Liam]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

Thanks for the help with screen shotting. I was trying to use the shift + print screen as windows.

"It suggests the HP LaserJet 5100 driver, but has "no known autodetection signatures" which is probably why it's not showing up. So what I would suggest - and this is, as with so many things in computer science, mostly educated guesswork - is choosing the "HP Printer" option in that dialog (if you don't have it, install the "hplip" package) and select the driver for the LJ 5100. And hope..."

I already have hplip installed. However my problem still is that windows wizard does not detect anything connected to the USB port as per attrached screen shot.

I don't seem to be able to get past this stumbling block.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

In this case, you may want to forget about KDE's additional interface (at least for the time being) and revert to CUPS' own interface instead (http://localhost:631/) - in order to (hopefully sucessful) proceed as described e.g. on this page (?).

--

Further reading: CUPS on Linux

[Liam]

Re: Can anyone give me guidance on sharing a printer beteen XP and Kubuntu PC's?

UnicornRider, thanks for this suggestion. I tried this but got struck again with the same problem that no printer device is seen as being attached to the USB bus. I think that I am beginning to think that I have a USB port hardware incompatibility issue with Ubuntu/Kubuntu not being able to see anything connected to the USB port despite a connection being shown by lsusb command in kconsole.

Has anyone else out there who has a printer connected by the USB port tell me their URI?
It might be that I can try manually entering this.