Setup Home Network printer

[tainted4ever]

Hi everyone. I'm new to Linux (using Mint 13 Cinammon 64 bit), and am enjoying it for the most part.

I'm having trouble setting up my printer for home network use. I've been reading lots about setting up my printer with Samba and CUPS, but it is getting quite complicated (for me), and I don't think it needs to be; so here's what I have setup right now:

Canon IP3500 printer connected directly by USB (not a wireless printer) to my Desktop PC running Mint 13. I have a Laptop running Mint 13 as well, and I'm trying to share the printer over my network. I have created a home network that works, but am not sure how to share the desktop printer. I've tried just going to Printers in System Settings, but there is no share option, so I'm assuming it has to be setup with Samba and/or CUPS, but I'm not sure what (or how) to configure them.

Let me know what other info you might need.

Thanks for your help.

[altair4]

Mint13 represents a perfect storm of things that are out of it's control but do not work. Mint13 uses Ubuntu 12.04 and there is problem with samba and cups talking to each other properly. In addition the Gnome3 utility that handles Printing might just as well be thrown out since it's useless.

Give this a shot:

On the server
=============

[1] Install a printer utility from the before time:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install system-config-printer

[2] Then in a terminal run the application:

Code: Select all

system-config-printer

BTW, now would be a good time to modify the printer name to one that does not have spaces in it if it is so inflicted.

[3] Set your printer to be shared:
Right click the printer > Properties > Policies > Shared

[4] Set the cups server to publish the shared printer:
Server > Settings > Publish shared printers connected to this system

On the client
=============

[1] Install the same package: system-config-printer and run it.

[2] Click the "+" button to add a printer > Enter URI >

Then add the location of the server and it's printer name using one of the following formats:

ipp://altair9.local:631/printers/HP970-Draft
ipp://192.168.0.100:631/printers/HP970-Draft
ipp://altair9:631/printers/HP970-Draft

Change "altair9", or the ip address, and "HP970-Draft" to their appropriate values for your setup.
EDIT: I'm shutting down for the day and notice that something may be confusing in my post. "altair9" is the host name or machine name of the server that has the printer attached to it. It's not a user name.

[tainted4ever]

Will give it a try later on, and will let you know.

Thanks.

[tainted4ever]

Okay. making progress!

I got a little confused on the last step, but I tried the second option for the ipp (just so happens my server ip is the same as what you listed). Not sure what altair9 is (user name?) so didn't try that.

Here's my Settings on the server (desktop):

Desc: CanoniP3500
Location: ipp://192.168.0.100:631/printers/CanoniP3500
Device URI: usb://Canon/iP3500%20series?serial=00FC81
Make and Model: Canon PIXMA iP3500 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.8-pre1
State: Idle
Under Policies I have Enabled, Accepting Jobs, and Shared checked.
Under Access I have allow everyone checked

Here's my settings on the client (laptop):

Desc: CanoniP3500
Location: ipp://192.168.0.100:631/printers/CanoniP3500
Device URI: usb://Canon/iP3500%20series?serial=00FC81
Make and Model: Canon PIXMA iP3500 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.8-pre1
Printer state: Processing - Waiting for printer to become available
Under Policies I have enabled, Accepting Jobs checked, but not shared.
Under Access I have allow everyone checked

It would appear that the laptop sees the printer, but still can't access it.

[altair4]

I got a little confused on the last step, but I tried the second option for the ipp (just so happens my server ip is the same as what you listed). Not sure what altair9 is (user name?) so didn't try that.

That's my fault. "altair9" is the actual hostname of my server and it's too close to my username so I should have rewritten the instructions rather than explain it.

This should have done it on the client:

Location: ipp://192.168.0.100:631/printers/CanoniP3500

You might want to see if the firewall is getting in the way. Just disable it on both the server and the client and see if things work. If you haven't done anything with the firewall then it's not in the way so the issue is something else.

[tainted4ever]

I've turned both firewalls off, no luck. I've tried to print a test page from the client, but just says processing (over 5 mins).

[altair4]

Did you change the driver for the printer on the client machine?

Open up system-config-printer.
Then right click the printer and select Properties.
Then click the Change button on Make and Model and install the driver for that printer on the client.

EDIT: Forget that. This information on the client isn't correct:

Desc: CanoniP3500
Location: ipp://192.168.0.100:631/printers/CanoniP3500
Device URI: usb://Canon/iP3500%20series?serial=00FC81

I'm not sure what it's doing but the device URI should read as follows:

Device URI: ipp://192.168.0.100:631/printers/CanoniP3500

Having it set at "usb://something" means it's pointing to something attached to the client itself not the remote server and there isn't anything attached to the client.

Worst case on the client: start system-config-printer again , delete the printer , then add a new printer with device URI here:

[tainted4ever]

I've had to reinstall Maya on my client, so when I get that going I'll give your suggestion a shot.

It looks like the Location and Device URI fields are the same, does that seem right?

[altair4]

The location field is a comment like "Chem Lab" - I usually just leave it blank, the important field is the URI.

[tainted4ever]

Well my printer stopped working yesterday, so now I have to get another one. So I'll have to put this on hold for awhile. Regardless, thanks for your help.

[blendenzo]

altair4, thanks for the helpful info. I was at a loss as to how to get my printer sharing from my Mint 13 desktop to my wife's Mint 11 desktop to work. The "Printers" thing in System Settings is rather featureless, with no networking settings at all. Running "system-config-printer" (which was already installed) gave me the options I needed, and my wife is now happily able to print over the network again.

[kiwi]

Adding my thanks for this explanation. Finally I have printer sharing working with Mint 13.

And Mint 14