Here we give detailed instructions on how to print on Windows shared printers from the Mac OS X version of Serendipity Blackmagic and Megarip. Instructions are also given for using the printer with the Terminal program as well as any application on Mac OS X. These instructions are for Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) or later.

Creating the printer on Mac OS X

1. Check the name of the printer being shared by windows. You can do this by checking the share tab of the printer using the windows printer control panel.

2. On Mac OS X login as a user that has administrative rights. This is normally the user you created while installing Mac OS X.

3. Launch “Printer Setup Utility” from the Applications/Utilities folder.

4. For Mac OS X 10.3.9 or earlier hold down the Option key while clicking on the Add button. For Mac OS X 10.4 or later click on the “Add button” and then hold down the Option key while clicking on “More Printers”. Select Advanced from the first pop-up menu and “Windows Printer via SAMBA” from the “Device” pop up menu. In the device name field enter any name you wish. This will be used later to access the printer from any application. It is a good idea not to use spaces for the device name as it can cause confusion later.

5. in the “Device URI” field enter smb://username:password@servername/printername where username is a valid login for windows, password is the password for

that user, servername is the name or tcp/ip address of the windows computer and printername is the share name as discovered in step 1. For example if your username was tom, your password was piper, the windows computer was called printerhost and the printer was shared as printershare you would then enter smb://tom:piper@printerhost/printershare in the “Device URI:” text box.

6. From the “Printer Model” pop-up menu select your printer model if available. It is OK to use Generic for printing from Serendipity Blackmagic and Megarip since the printer will only be used to transfer data to the remote printer.

7. Click on the “Add” button and a printer with the name entered in the “Device Name:” text box will be created. You may now quit the “Printer Setup Utility” as it is no longer required.

Accessing the printer from Serendipity Blackmagic and Megarip

To use the newly created printer with Serendipity Megarip or Blackmagic you will need to perform these additional steps.

1. Bring up the “Workbench” window of “Serendipity Client”. Click on Output and create a new Output that uses an “Output Driver” appropriate for the printer connected to the Windows computer. Change the “Destination Driver” to local print queue. In the “Path” text box enter the name you entered for the “Device Name” when creating the printer earlier in step 7. Save the newly created output and then create a pagesetup with appropriate settings. You should now be able to submit jobs to that pagesetup an they will be printed on the Windows shared printer.

Simply print as usual from any Application and the job will appear on the Windows remote printer.

Accessing the printer from Terminal and the command line

You can also use the newly created printer to send files from the command line to the Windows shared printer. Just open the terminal program and type in

lpr -Pprintername filename

where printername is the name you entered for the “Device Name” when creating the printer earlier in step 7 and filename is the file you wish to send to the remote printer.

For the printer created in this document, the command

lpr -Pto_windows_shared_printer /tmp/test.ps

would print the file called /tmp/test.ps to the shared printer printershare on the windows computer called printerhost.

Technorati Tags: macosx, printing, windows