Thursday, May 2, 2013

Using windows-shared printers on Linux

With Ubuntu 13.04 (possibly also with any of the lower versions I guess), having Linux to use printers shared for Windows is never easier. Just go to your Printers preferences, add a new printer with SMB sharing protocol. Finally type in your printer's IP address there. (eg. for my school's one it's like smb://crux.cs.washington.edu/ps022) and Voila! It lists you all the printer drivers available. Pick one (or pick Generic, if it is not listed) and things should work right away.

One caveat is that if you're printer is of a specified DOMAIN, put it as part of the user name. For example, my school's undergraduate Windows domain (or I guess it's called Workgroup?) is CSEPCLAB, so I'd put CSEPCLAB\username as my username when connecting to the printer through SMB protocol. It's a bit hacky to do the same thing with Mac. But I believe I have a post for it somewhere in this blog.

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