The ever cunning Linux dances the Samba

David M Williams
Wednesday, 24 October 2007 19:33

Business IT - Open Source

TCP/IP, the lingua franca of the Internet, was developed on UNIX systems. As such, Linux has benefited from this heritage by naturally fitting in to any TCP/IP network. Yet, sometimes you still need to deal with computers whose operating system has distinctly non-TCP/IP legacy networking components. A case in point is sharing your printer to Windows users.

And this is something reasonable to do; sharing a single printer among all the computers in your household or workplace – irrespective of their operating system – can save money and add convenience. Although Microsoft made TCP/IP the standard network protocol from Windows 2000 on, its Windows operating systems still use a proprietary protocol – SMB, or Server Message Block – to communicate amongst its sibling systems. (TCP/IP stacks were available right back to Windows 3.1 and DOS, but these were not the default protocol until Microsoft made TCP/IP a fundamental part of Active Directory.)

Not to worry; Linux is multi-lingual and, as usual, gobbles up interoperability in its stride. It provides an SMB implementation which is named Samba and which can make any printers attached to your Linux computer be visible to, and usable by, the Microsoft Windows computers on your network. Here’s how to get it going.

Note first, your printer must work under Linux already. If it doesn’t print on the Linux system it is directly plugged into then there’s no point attempting to share it. Unfortunately, actually getting printers to print in the first place is a big and complex issue and not our topic for this time. Suffice it to say, if you can’t yet print – or are still choosing a printer to purchase – be sure to check out the Linux Foundations open printing guide. Here you’ll find lists of printer models known to have Linux drivers, as well as downloads for any drivers not included as packages for your flavour of Linux.

Make sure your printer is plugged in and powered on and that your Linux machine has detected it and can send test pages. Use the Printer Configuration applet to correct any problems or install new drivers.

Also, use the Printer Configuration applet to adjust server settings; several check boxes will show with options ranging from auto-detecting printers shared by other computers through to letting people cancel someone else’s print jobs and gathering debugging information. The one we’re keen on, though, is “Share published printers connected to this system” or words of similar effect on your distribution. Check the box for this option – and the word "check" is bad here; tick or cross the box; don't just visually inspect it.

Click on the name of each specific printer listed under the Local Printers section of the applet. You’ll also find a Shared check box here. Make sure this is also checked. (And, if you have multiple printers and only want to share one or some, be sure the ones you don’t want to share do not have this box checked.)