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Migration of Classical Printing to Samba
The basic NT-style printer driver management has not changed considerably in 3.0 over the 2.2.x releases
(apart from many small improvements). Here migration should be quite easy, especially if you followed
previous advice to stop using deprecated parameters in your setup. For migrations from an existing 2.0.x
setup, or if you continued Windows 9x/Me-style printing in your Samba 2.2 installations, it is more of
an effort. Please read the appropriate release notes and the HOWTO Collection for Samba-2.2.x. You can
follow several paths. Here are possible scenarios for migration:
-
You need to study and apply the new Windows NT printer and driver support. Previously used
parameters
printer driver file
,
printer driver
,
and
printer driver location
are no longer supported.
-
If you want to take advantage of Windows NT printer driver support, you also need to migrate the
Windows 9x/Me drivers to the new setup.
-
An existing printers.def file (the one specified in the now removed parameter
printer driver file
) will no longer work with Samba-3. In 3.0, smbd attempts
to locate Windows 9x/Me driver files for the printer in
[print$]
and additional settings in the TDB and only there; if it fails, it will
not
(as 2.2.x used to do) drop down to using a printers.def (and all associated
parameters). The make_printerdef tool is removed and there is no backward compatibility for this.
-
You need to install a Windows 9x/Me driver into the
[print$]
share for a printer on your Samba
host. The driver files will be stored in the “WIN40/0” subdirectory of
[print$]
, and some other settings and information go
into the printing-related TDBs.
-
If you want to migrate an existing printers.def file into the new setup, the only current
solution is to use the Windows NT APW to install the NT drivers and the 9x/Me drivers. This can be scripted
using smbclient and rpcclient. See the Imprints installation client on the
Imprints web site for example. See also the discussion of
rpcclient usage in
CUPS Printing.
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