Network printer: remote jobs hang,print if requeued locally

[Kurt Pfeifle]

>
> Hello,
>
> On Jun 24 11:11 Kurt Pfeifle wrote (shortened):
> > If Samba's config contains "cups options = raw" this option will be
> > passed to CUPS, forcing unfiltered printing.
> >
> > If Samba's config contains "cups options = ''" this option will
> > force "auto-typing" of the arrived job file by cups, and then an
> > auto-configuring of the needed filtering chain.
>
> Since some time we use "cups options = raw" by default because
> in the past we had several customer "bug"-reports when printing
> from Windows client machines using the Windows printer driver
> doesn't work (because somehow the CUPS "auto-typing" didn't
> always result "raw"-printing

*Of course* "auto-typing" doesn't always result in "raw" printing!

On the contrary: it very rarely results in raw printing. The (nearly only) real world condition it results in raw printing is this:

 (a) auto-typing gives "application/octet-stream"
 (b) mime.convs configurtion file allows raw printing for "application/octet-stream"

> - I guess this might happen in
> particular when a Windows PostScript driver is used).
>
> Of course a default cannot be correct for any possible case
> but as far as I know usually a Windows printer driver is used
> when printing from Windows and then "raw" is correct.

Not quite right.

If a Windows client uses the Windows (or CUPS) PostScript printer driver (as *many* do), but the ultimate target print device is a non-PostScript one, then "raw" printing is definitely wrong and will lead to frustration.

Raw printing is only feasible if the Windows client has the native print driver for the target printer installed (PostScript or not), and if smb.conf also contains "use client driver = yes".

In cases were CUPS shares its printer (and the Windows PostScript driver alongside its own PPD) via Samba and the "cupsaddsmb" utility, it is definitely wrong.

> Shouldn't it be possible to keep the "cups options = raw" default
> in the general section and add whatever special "cups options"
> only in a particular printer section where it is required?

No.

First, "a particular printer section" is not always used. The most common setup in the field is to just have the general "[printers]" section.

I think that YaST should handle that (also because you can there explain in a side-paragraph what the setting means).

I definitely think it is a wrong thing to enable "cups options = raw" by default in smb.conf, because it will lead in many cases to a failure to print.

You can get a perfectly printing CUPS/Samba setup even without ever using "cups options" in smb.conf, even allowing "raw" printing, just by using the settings in "mime.types" and "mime.convs".

The reason why "cups options" were ever introduced into Samba (in version 3.0.3) was not because support for raw printing was missing in CUPS, but in order to allow admins to achieve raw printing by only editing smb.conf and not send them to mess with the CUPS configuration too...

Cheers,
Kurt

--
Kurt Pfeifle
System & Network Printing Consultant --- Linux/Unix/Windows/Samba/CUPS
Infotec Deutschland GmbH - A RICOH Company ......... Stuttgart/Germany