What is the address of the printer? [SOLVED]

[Bladeforger]

Hello, all.

I have one printer installed. When I go look at in the printing properties, I get "usb://Brother/HL-5240%20series"

When I try in a Windows virtual machine to use the "net use" command

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net use lpt1: \\keith-desktop\usb:\\Brother\HL-5240%20series mememe  /user:keithxp

then I get this error:
"The network resource type is not correct."

This command works for the file share works fine.

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net use \\keith-desktop\Documents mememe /user:keithxp

On Ubuntu, the following worked great:

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net use lpt1: \\keith-desktop\HL-5240-series mememe /user:keithxp

So, Mint put a space where Ubuntu had a dash--hence the "%20".

I've tried /dev/lp0 and any number of variations of addresses. None work. It is probably something simple.

I've already set up the Samba share and the users and the password "mememe". It works for the shared file directory; therefore, the password is okay.

Any help is appreciated!!!

Keith

[Bladeforger]

I solved the problem, but first the question I had asked, (which wasn't really the problem).

Thanks to Scott Granneman and his great book, Linux Phrasebook, here's how to find the printer(s):

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lpstat -p
lpstat -d 
lpstat -s

More available in the man pages.

Now, on to making the linux printer work with the XP VM... I've only done this twice and both times muddled my way through. Once the Samba shares are all set up, preferably with the Samba Server Configuration graphical tool, which works splendidly and beats trying to do it all from Bash, then the next part comes inside the virtual machine itself.

The "net use" statement is a Windows statement, issued from inside the Windows environment. Therefore, it only makes sense that it would be using what Windows thinks are your printers. Aha! The way to determine the resource names there is to use

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net view

. Thus, the actual script (batch file) that I need to run each time I open the VM is:

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:: sets network document folder to be accessible, uses "mememe" creative passwd

net use \\keith-desktop\Documents mememe /user:keithxp

:: sets lpt1 to printer in resource list (use "net view" to see)

net use lpt1: \\keith-desktop\HL-5240-series mememe /user:keithxp

:: print new.txt /d:lpt1

:: Comment out above line after a few days of use! 

If the lpt1 is a persistent assignment, which happens sometimes, or if it was knackered, I now have another batch file:

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:: get rid of the old setting

net use lpt1: /delete /y

:: reset the rascal

net use lpt1: \\keith-desktop\HL-5240-series mememe /user:keithxp

Hope this helps save someone else some hours of frustration. Having muddled through the process once over a year ago and once recently, it'll be a snap next time I have to do it... hopefully not before Spring 2013. LTS versions, I love ya.

Keith