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Nichollan

Member

From: Stavanger, Norway

Registered: 2010-05-18

Posts: 110

[Samba] Immensely slow printing dialogue on Windows

I am new to Samba, and haven't really managed to do anything useful with it before – so please bear with me.

The Samba server shows up in the "Network" folder on the Windows machine, and I am able to see the printer when I click the server. I am also able to "add" the printer, but the moment I select "Print" from Notepad, Notepad becomes unresponsive for a very long time before the printing dialogue finally shows up.

The dialogue tells me in a field called "Status" in the Norwegian version, that it was unable to connect to the printer. However, if I do click print with the Samba-shared printer selected I do get the document printed, after quite a bit of waiting.

The nature of the problem has been varying a lot, presumably because of my experimentation with smb.conf. Yesterday Notepad would keep being unresponsive after I clicked "Print" for a time that I didn't stick around to see how long was – I think I waited at least 5 minutes.

Anyway, here's the output from testparm:

Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
rlimit_max: rlimit_max (1024) below minimum Windows limit (16384)
Processing section "[homes]"
Processing section "[printers]"
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE
Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions

[global]
   workgroup = MYGROUP
   server string = Samba Server
   log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
   max log size = 50
   smb ports = 139
   printcap name = cups
   dns proxy = No

[homes]
   comment = Home Directories
   read only = No

[printers]
   comment = All Printers
   path = /var/spool/samba
   read only = No
   guest ok = Yes
   printable = Yes
   use client driver = Yes
   browseable = No

Unlike the output of testparm, the configuration in /etc/samba/smb.conf has no "read only = No" entry in the printers section, currently has no "browseable = No" entry in the printers section but instead a "browseable = yes" entry. In the global section testparm omits

netbios name = KJELLERN
printing = cups
passdb backend = tdbsam

ADDENDUM:

In /var/log/errors.log, variations of these four lines shows up a lot:

Nov 27 15:58:52 localhost smbd[2055]: [2010/11/27 15:58:52.138879,  0] lib/util_sock.c:474(read_fd_with_timeout)
Nov 27 15:58:52 localhost smbd[2055]: [2010/11/27 15:58:52.139021,  0] lib/util_sock.c:1432(get_peer_addr_internal)
Nov 27 15:58:52 localhost smbd[2055]:   getpeername failed. Error was Transport endpoint is not connected
Nov 27 15:58:52 localhost smbd[2055]:   read_fd_with_timeout: client 0.0.0.0 read error = Connection reset by peer.

Here's /var/log/samba/arbeidsrom-pc.log, which I believe is a log of occurences related to the Windows client.

http://pastie.org/1328077

I really hope you can make some sense of this.

Last edited by Nichollan (2010-11-27 15:18:15)

dschrute

Member

From: NJ, USA

Registered: 2007-04-09

Posts: 183

Re: [Samba] Immensely slow printing dialogue on Windows

First, is Cups working from the local host ?  Don't want to forget the obvious...

Another thing to check is the permissions on your Samba print spool folder - /var/spool/samba .  I'd start by making it world read/write/executable.  You can always go back and tighten it up later if necessary.  At the very least, I think the user you're connecting to Samba as needs read/write to that directory.

Finally you shouldn't overlook the "official" Samba documentation.  It's usually the most complete and accurate source, and it's rare I haven't found what I needed there.  You may want to check the Samba CUPS page here

Nichollan

Member

From: Stavanger, Norway

Registered: 2010-05-18

Posts: 110

Re: [Samba] Immensely slow printing dialogue on Windows

Today I have discovered that it goes much faster on a different Windows system running Windows 7. The system I was complaining about earlier was Windows Vista. I haven't had the opportunity to test any other as of yet. I take it that the problem may have little to do with the server.