lpd/lpr printing... do I need to allow access?

L

Lazarus18

In debt medical student
I am trying to configure my Linux box to be a print server for OSX. Everything seems setup on the Linux side, it prints fine, and I followed instructions on linuxprinting.org to set up lpd and lpr.

When I enter the IP address as an LPR printer in the print center and then try to print something it just sits there telling me it's connecting to printer... and nothing ever happens.

Is there some simple thing I'm overlooking in Linux that tells it what to allow and what to refuse? A port to open? Something?
 
Typically, you need to add the client machine to /etc/hosts.lpd on the server. Also, if your server is running a firewall, make sure it allows port 515 (IIRC) access from your client.
 
The port is open, and I had no hosts.lpd so I created it. I just put the names of the computers in it:
name1
name2

I restarted lpd, but still nothing.

I do get an error message in OS X that the printer is not responding... not sure if that's new or if I was just too impatient to wait for it to come up before.

I'm running Red Hat 7.2 and am having a heck of a time getting Samba configured. Not figured out yet, but one problem was that RH7.2 uses xinetd instead of inetd. Do I need to add anything to xinetd for printing?
 
Hmm... if you restarted lpd, that implies lpd is running as a separate service, not under xinetd. If it were running under xinetd/tcpwrappers, you would need to modify your hosts.alllow. You could try adding them to /etc/hosts.equiv. I don't think it RedHat 7.2 will care, but some old BSD systems would. I assume you can route between the two machines (i.e. ping).

I have a similar setup at work, I'll look at it and see if I did anything else.
 
That may be. I restarted xinetd and added the computer name to hosts.allow. Now when I tell it to print something it brings up the printer icon on the dock, and then it goes away, as if it were done sending the info, but nothing prints. Also looking carefully at it if I print a multi page document it doesn't count down the numbers like it should.

Yes, all is well with the network, I can ping and ssh and all that.
 
You might need to modify the permissions in /etc/lpd.perms, although I am quite sure the default permissions worked for me. Take a look at the logs on the server and client. Try running lpd (on the server) in foreground (debugging) mode and try again. That should give you a better idea of what is going on.
 
I double-checked my config and all I had done was add the hosts.lpd entry and create a firewall rule allowing my TiBook access to lpd. To run lpd in foreground mode, kill the existing daemon and run /usr/sbin/lpd -F ( I think. It is worth checking the man page.) Log in from a terminal on your OS X box, run lpd in the foreground and send a print job from OS X. That will at least tell you if youo are reaching the lpd listener. Hopefully it will also tell you what is going wrong.
 
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