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#1 2011-08-09 19:35:14

Deemoney14
Member
Registered: 2011-07-27
Posts: 70

[SOLVED] Networked, firewalled/secured printers and CUPS...

So I'm based out of a university right now and I'm trying to get Arch set up to print to some of the networked printers around campus, including bigger bait like plotters and whatnot.  Problem is, our printers are networked via SAMBA, and the directions on the university's tech support page aren't all that helpful concerning more bare bones Linux installation (they have directions for Red Hat, but it assumes going through a GUI).  I'm not gonna bother to ask the tech support people, since I would bet a lot that they'd just give me blank stares and tell me to check the internet or something (they're student volunteers/employees, smug, unhelpful ones at that).

My KDE GUI for installing printers is broken, when I click "New Printer" it gives me a CUPS error message: "client-error-forbidden".  Guessing that's a PolicyKit issue (one of my other biggest issues that I'm hesitant to try to tackle).  I tried to set them up using the CUPS web interface, but the documentation there is lacking as well for SAMBA printers.  The Arch wiki doesn't seem to help much either (that could be stupidity on my end, this has confused me a lot).  My main concern is that I'm never asked for my authentication information at any point during the process (username and password), and as such when I "finish" the setup and try to print a test page, it fails.  I'm not sure where I'm supposed to put it, and it concerns me if I have to put my password somewhere in plaintext on an interface.

I don't know what information I can provide to help with this matter, but any suggestions or insight is greatly appreciated.

Last edited by Deemoney14 (2011-08-11 02:29:44)


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#2 2011-08-09 20:17:56

cybertorture
Member
Registered: 2010-05-05
Posts: 339

Re: [SOLVED] Networked, firewalled/secured printers and CUPS...

KDE and Gnome apps are optional for cups so its good start to stop relay on them

check http://localhost:631 with any webbrowser you have


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#3 2011-08-09 20:32:17

Deemoney14
Member
Registered: 2011-07-27
Posts: 70

Re: [SOLVED] Networked, firewalled/secured printers and CUPS...

That's what I meant when I said "web interface", I was using localhost:631.  I tried to follow along its steps for adding a printer, giving it as much as I could from the information I could glean from the university's help files, but I worry about where I'm supposed to provide my authentication (and that said authentication appears as plaintext in this interface).  I have a wireless printer already set up, but it was my own personal printer and it's an HP, so installing hplip pretty much did everything.

What can I give you guys from my CUPS web interface that will help?  I should also note that when off-campus I require a VPN to access university computers/resources, if that complicates things.  I have vpnc installed with the Networkmanager front end, and it works no problem.


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#4 2011-08-09 21:10:14

cybertorture
Member
Registered: 2010-05-05
Posts: 339

Re: [SOLVED] Networked, firewalled/secured printers and CUPS...

Sorry about that i maybe skip that line... but anyway why you concern your self with password as plaintext when you use vpn ?
anyway .. does those printers work from whitin web interface ?


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#5 2011-08-09 21:54:33

Deemoney14
Member
Registered: 2011-07-27
Posts: 70

Re: [SOLVED] Networked, firewalled/secured printers and CUPS...

I'm paranoid wherever I have to enter a password that could appear as plaintext.  Not sure where else it will appear as plaintext after I write it in, so if I bring it up by accident someone could screen peek.

If that's the case, then let me run this by you: from the CUPS interface, I choose "Add Printer", under the type I pick "Windows Printer via SAMBA", then in the connection I put something like:

"smb://user:pass@sambasrv.university.edu/specifcprinter"

Then follow the installation procedure the rest of the way.  Does that sound right?


UPDATE: I tried that approach and it failed.  I get this error message upon trying to print a test page:

"Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED"

I have a feeling that means I didn't set it up correctly.  Doesn't look like there's much room for user error though except in entering the printer information and user credentials.

Last edited by Deemoney14 (2011-08-10 15:47:22)


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#6 2011-08-11 00:18:43

Deemoney14
Member
Registered: 2011-07-27
Posts: 70

Re: [SOLVED] Networked, firewalled/secured printers and CUPS...

I probably should have bumped with my new information instead of just editing my previous post.

I also don't know if I'm supposed to have the samba daemon running when I try to do this.  It doesn't appear to make a difference.  Like I said, documentation appears to be lacking in this regard, not sure if it's because I'm dense or just because no one's encountered this problem before.  The Arch wiki page for CUPS says you need SAMBA installed to access printers shared this way, but I don't see much information on either CUPS or SAMBA pages about how to specifically go about setting it up, particularly with authentication and whatnot.


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#7 2011-08-11 01:32:45

cybertorture
Member
Registered: 2010-05-05
Posts: 339

Re: [SOLVED] Networked, firewalled/secured printers and CUPS...

Well if you are unhappy with arch wiki, then you should probably seek at cups wiki
anyway, thry diferent approach instead of samba use ipp or http
look here
also look at lpadmin man pages


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#8 2011-08-11 02:29:10

Deemoney14
Member
Registered: 2011-07-27
Posts: 70

Re: [SOLVED] Networked, firewalled/secured printers and CUPS...

Enough plugging and I finally got it.

So there's no easy way to explain why I ended up trying what I tried.  But I knew we used password managers when I set these printers up on Windows machines (read: the school-provided laptops).  It turns out you have to use a different variant of the username when connecting to the printer sections.  The server connection basically looked like:

smb://win/user:pass@pmanager.win.university.edu/specificprinter

It worked.  I sent a test page to it and it completed no problem.


I'm somewhat confused because I was able to actually ping the SAMBA server itself, which makes me wonder if I could natively connect to the printers using my standard credentials instead of the roundabout pmanager system.  I'd wager that the pmanager system is more secure though, or so the IT people at the university would have you think tongue.


I'll mark this as solved, but if there are other opinions/comments on how this all works I'll gladly listen.


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