Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Printer sharing under Kubuntu

I had an extraordinarily difficult time in trying to find a simple how-to for setting up printer sharing on Linux to Linux machines. There is plenty of information on setting up Linux to Windows and Windows to Linux printer sharing. So I thought I'd document my findings here. (This refers to the Lucid Lynx distribution, but should also work with earlier distributions).

Setting up the host
Open the System Settings utility and make sure that the printer to be shared is shared:

System>System Settings>Printer Configuration
Server Settings>Share published printers connected to the system
Local Printers>[your local printer's name]>Printer status>sharing

Make sure that port 631 is open on the firewall.

Setting up a Kubuntu client
Settings>System settings>New printer>Network printer>IPP
[enter host IP address] then find and verify.

I couldn't find any way under Kubuntu's tools to check the printer, so open a browser and go to:
http://localhost:631/admin
Select Manage printers, then the remote printer, then under Maintenance, select Print a test page.

Setting up an Ubuntu client
System>Administration>Printing
Add>Network printer>Find network printer
Host: [enter host IP address] then find.

The Ubuntu Printing applet gives you the option to print a test page.

Hope this helps someone :)