Jan 19, '02 09:55:17AM • Contributed by: William McCallum
If you'd like the step-by-step instructions, read the rest of the article.
First install Samba X on your OS X machine. You can get it here . There is a Samba web administration tool with documentation on your local machine at http://localhost:901. There is also a comprehensive discussion of using Samba to share files here on macosxhints. Make sure your Samba server is working by setting up a share and checking that you can access it from your PC.
Next, return to your OS X machine and execute the command at_cho_prn as root to find and set up the AppleTalk printers attached to your network. Test this by trying the command
cat file.ps | atprinton some Postscript file.
Then use the Samba web administration tool to set up a printer. The only option you need to change from the default settings is the print command, available in advanced view. This should be set to
cat %s | atprintFinally, go to your PC and set up the printer. How this works depends on the system you are using, I guess. I was using Windows XP and asked the wizard to find all network printers. It found the Samba printer I had set up, and asked me to choose the driver from a list. I chose the closest one I could find from the list of Apple drivers.
Of course, I don't know in what generality this works. My printer is a LaserWriter 4/600 PS, hooked into the Ethernet hub using a Farallon Ethermac Iprint adaptor. The mac is running OS 10.1 and the PC is a Dell laptop running Windows XP.
[Editor's note: I don't have an AppleTalk-only printer available to test this with, and my current Ethernet print setup is working fine ... and since printers and I don't usually get along very well, I'm not going to change anything! ;-) But this looks like a fairly simple task.]
