USB Printer Sharing

bobw

bobw

The Late: SuperMacMod
Need a little help.

Have a G4 with an Epson 925 connected to the USB, replaced an 820.
I had the 820 connected to the Mac via USB and a WindowsXP machine with a Parallel cable. Now, the 925 doesn't have a Parallel port, only USB. Been trying to share the printer from the Mac to the XP, but haven't had any luck

Printer Sharing is on in OS X (Panther), and the driver is installed in XP and it shows up on the XP machine in the Printers box as
Stylus_Photo_925 on g4desktop

So, I'm assuming the XP box sees the printer, just won't print.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks
 
Check out http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28050 and read wiz's post. I have one here along the same lines somewhere, but I can't find it. The problem is alot of USB printers end up getting the device file wrong in the CUPS configuration. It ends up using /dev/null, which just sends it no where. It thinks it is sharing the printer, it has all the configuration, and the remote boxes think it's sharing a printer, but after the mac gets the print job from the PC, it then tries to send it to the printer, which ends up going to /dev/null. By replacing /dev/null with the proper device name (which wiz's post describes) it will start printing to the correct place.

Brian
 
Thanks

I read that earlier and was hoping there might be anb easier way. Guess I'll have to try it.
 
After printing that post and trying, I'm lost.
I've been playing with Macs for a long time, OS X since before Jag, and just a we bit of Terminal commands, and I'm lost here. I can't imagine an average user doing this. Must be an easier way.
 
I think the problem only crops up on some models of printers. If you see the /dev/null in the file, it's an issue, most likely with the driver files for the printer, or installer, or something. If it happened to every printer, then we'd have dozens of these posts every month I do believe. But I have had it happen to both my HP printers, a DeskJet 845c and a Photosmart 130. I haven't upgraded my main box to panther yet, so not sure if it's an issue still or not...

Brian
 
Ok, I've followed the instructions to the letter and still can't print from the XP machine.

/dev/null isn't there
 
Ok, got it going now. Rather than selecting my Epson 925 as the printer in the driver setup in XP, I selected an Apple PS laserwriter and that worked. Prints fine to the Epson now.
 
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