Subject: AppleTalk HowTo?

From: Tobias Weber <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 19:36:39 +0100 (CET)

Hi,
I'm sitting in front of my Linux (Mandrake 7.1) Box and next to a broken
printer. But there's an unused iMac + USB printer in the next room...

Well, I really missed something like the excellent samba howto on
AplleTalk, and with the rpm itself came almost no documentation. The
#lines in /etc/atalk/* might mean sth to a Mac user, but not to me.

In short: What do I have to configure in MacOS 9 / netatalk to print
from lpd to the usb printer?

Thanks for any hint!

-- 
  Tobias Weber

---

From: BWS - Offwhite <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 13:39:13 -0600 (CST)

My best guess is that you need to get the iMac to share that
printer.  Then you can use nbplkup to see the name for that printer.  It
may be possible to use the netatalk printing tools and documentation to
take it from there.

My experience has been that printing with Netatalk is very scary, but with
Linux you get many useful printer filters which may make it a breeze.

Good Luck!

Brennan Stehling - web developer and sys admin
projects: www.greasydaemon.com | www.onmilwaukee.com | www.sncalumni.com

Do you ever find it is easier to explain an idea if you put it into
Star Trek terms?

---

From: Tobias Weber <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 22:22:22 +0100 (CET)

On 28 Nov, BWS - Offwhite wrote:

Hello,

> may be possible to use the netatalk printing tools and documentation to

I already managed to export the printer via "USB Sharing", but it
doesn't show up in the Mac's "Network Browser". Don't iMacs see their
own shares or did I do sth wrong?

I fetched atalkconf, but it's lookup function doesn't see anything,
either.

BTW I found the HowTo by now (anders.com), but one has to be familiar
with the protocol to understand that, too.

-- 
  Tobias Weber

---

From: BWS - Offwhite <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 16:09:52 -0600 (CST)

Sharing a printer from an iMac may require a print server on the iMac.  I
am not sure if that requires the AppleShare server for apple or not.

But before you spend the money on that, be sure that sharing is on for the
Mac.  It would help to confirm this if you had another mac on the network
to see if you can see that mac.  But with a Unix/Linux server you can
simply run "nbplkup" to see what machines have registered themselves with
the network.

So if you sharing turn on for the iMac and then also have the printer
shared you may be able to see the printer with nbplkup.  I currently do
not have a printer connected to my iMac here.  I can try it at home later
tonight.

Another way to attack this would be to get the printer to simply connect
to the network directly with an ethernet connection.  If you can configure
the printer to run as it's own printer server you would have a much easier
job, but I do not think that is like for a USB printer.

I will try later tonight if you need more help.

---

From: Tobias Weber <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 22:57:43 +0100 (CET)

> am not sure if that requires the AppleShare server for apple or not.

USB Sharing seems to be Peer-to-Peer and a protocol of its own.

Doesn't AplleShare work for PS printers only? I read sth about the
Macintosh's printing system being hopelessly backwards (like control
language and hardware interface being handled by one driver, so you need
different drivers for Serial/USB connection of the same printer).

> simply run "nbplkup" to see what machines have registered themselves with

As mentioned, atalkconf (which runs nbplkup) didn't show anything. I
don't have access to another Mac, but this one doesn't see anything,
either and even complains about a "zone" being "not available".

BTW When I wanted to transfer a file via ftp, as I previously did with
the Network Browser, the login dialog looked different and afterwards I
had "TheVolumeSettingsFolder" in my home on the Linux box. So I suppose
netatalk is working now...

> job, but I do not think that is like for a USB printer.

As I wrote in a parallel posting, it isn't even a real USB printer but
connected with an adapter. And it was to cheap to have a JetServer slot.

-- 
  Tobias Weber