CUPS and Vista

[Wo Waijme]

> On Mon, 13 Aug 2007, Helge Blischke wrote:
>
> > Michael Sweet wrote:
> > > Helge Blischke wrote:
> > >
> > >> Does anyone know if/when an analogon to the CUPS6
> > >> driver stuff for XP/2000/2003 will be available for Vista?
> > >
> > >
> > > Unless somebody steps up to write it, not soon.  We're still working
> > > on 64-bit XP drivers... :(
> > >
> > > That said, adding support for the existing Vista PostScript driver
> > > *should* be feasible in the near term - we just need to update the
> > > Samba export stuff accordingly.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of Vista loaded on any of my
> > > systems, so I don't have the resources to do this work myself.
> > >
> > > I assume that the XP printer drivers are not compatible with Vista?
> >
> > ... at least the default Vista installation nowhere contains
> > the PSCRIPT... files so that even a set up with .INF files which
> > works for XP,2000,2003 fails on Vista. It seems Vista (as preinstalled
> > on newly bought PCs) only supports XPS, nothing of PostScript.
>
> I guess it would be the UNIDRV.DLL, UNIRES.DLL, unidrv.hlp and
> unidrvui.dll that are in the "Windows/System32/spool/drivers/x64/3/"
> directory on the Vista NTFS partition. Though, these files (in fact the
> entire spool directory) don't seem to be accessible directly from within
> Vista. But if you take a look at the partition from Linux, you'll find the
> files there. I am not sure, but I guess they support PostScript, since
> they are the obvious replacement and word PostScript is mentioned several
> times whithin them. But the name is different, and I don't know if they
> would work the same way as the old drivers in XP's did.
>
> But making CUPS cooperating with Vistas would be a nice thing to have.
>
> Martin
>

I managed to print to a Samba printer configured with CUPS on Windows 7 64 bit on a printer with no 64 bit support. I got the HP universal print driver x64 which contains 64 bit postscript drivers.

* Get the printer ppd file and create a new directory
* Extract upd-5_0_1-ps_winxp-vista-x64.exe and copy the following files from hpcu091v.cab: ps5ui.dll, pscript.ntf and pscript5.dll
* Create a new file witht the name <printer>.inf

The following is the file I created for Canon i550:

[Version]
Signature="$Windows NT$"
Class=Printer
Provider=%MS%
ClassGUID={4D36E979-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
LayoutFile=layout.inf

[Manufacturer]
"Canon"=Canon,NTamd64

[Canon]
"Canon i550 PS PPD"=i550.ppd

[Canon.NTamd64]
"Canon i550 PS PPD"=i550.ppd

[i550.ppd]
CopyFiles=@i550.ppd,PSCRIPT
DataSection=PSCRIPT_DATA

[PSCRIPT_DATA]
DriverFile=PSCRIPT5.DLL
HelpFile=PSCRIPT.HLP
ConfigFile=PS5UI.DLL

[PSCRIPT]
PSCRIPT5.DLL
PSCRIPT.HLP
PS5UI.DLL
PSCRIPT.NTF

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir=66000

[Strings]
MS="Microsoft"
CLASSNAME="Printer"
PS_MONITOR="PostScript Language Monitor,PSMON.DLL"

Edit "Canon"=Canon,NTamd64 as needed. Change @i550.ppd under [<yourprinter>.ppd] to your ppd file.

Add the printer as a local printer -> new port -> local port -> port name: \\<server>\<printername> . Add the driver with "have disk" and point to the directory with .inf, ppd and postscript files.
No success so far with ipp printing (add network printer->The printer I want isn't listed-> shared printer by name: http://<server>:631/printers/<printername> -> Have disk, etc.

The i550 works quite good with the BJC-8200 cups+gutenprint ppd file.