Re: Making a printer def "stick"

["M.Hockings" <veeshooter hockings net>]

Rick Stevens wrote:

> Tom Eastgard wrote:
>
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> > M.Hockings wrote:
> > | I now have three working RH systems running at home two RH8 for
> > two of
> > | the kids and a FC1 "server".  My problem is this, and it seems to be
> > | common to all the machines.
> > |
> > | I define a printer for the system, it is on the lan and can be
> > connected
> > | to via SMB or LPR.  (I have tried both and the result is the
> > same.)  It
> > | works fine, prints test pages just peachy.  Next someone else logs
> > into
> > | the machine, starts OpenOffice or the like then goes to print
> > their work
> > | -- the printer is not there.  If I open the printer tool from
> > their id
> > | it says no printers.  So I say make a new one.  Then the original
> > | printer definition is visible.  So I just quit, and it asks "save
> > | changes" -- no changes were made though, but I save anyway. Quit
> > out of
> > | the printer tool, restart OpenOffice and voila the printer is
> > there and
> > | will print.  Then next time a user logs into the machine it is the
> > same
> > | thing.  I am sure that my kids can manage to do this if I give
> > them the
> > | root pwd but I'm hesitant to do this -- I've moved them to Linux
> > in an
> > | attempt to reduce the time I have to spend "fixing"their machines ;-)
> > |
> > | Any thoughts about how to make the printer definition stay?  It is
> > set,
> > | as far as I can tel, as the default printer in all cases but seems to
> > | disappear.  I suspect it may be an authority thing, that is, it only
> > | becomes visible to the user after running the printer tool (which
> > | requires the root pwd).
> >
> > I have the same problem with a RH9 installation.  In my case, I only
> > have to open the printer tool and "Edit".  I don't change anything,
> > but close the window and "Apply" and the printer is back until next
> > time I reboot.
>
>
> The most common thing here is that the printer is being tied to your
> host name.  If you're on a DHCP connection, your host name may change
> and your printer will "disappear".  Make sure you set up the printer
> and tie it to the "localhost" name--NOT the one your DHCP settings
> give your system.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens vitalstream com -
> - VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
> -                                                                    -
> -  Time: Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.  -
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Rick,

I comprehend what you are saying but I don't understand how to do it.  I 
don't see where I can associate a printer definition to a host name.  
I've looked in both the Gnome print manager and the printer 
configuration tool and neither have some (obvious) setting to accomplish 
this.

One thing that I have noticed is that on the FC1 (was RH9) system at 
work this has never been a problem and it is certainly DHCP.  At home 
all the machines are DHCP but I use the router to fix the IP address 
based on the MAC address and I keep the machine name the same regardless 
of the OS loaded on it.  Typically the machine name is the name on the 
case -- the two RH8 machines and the FC1 machine are thus "shuttle", 
"compaq" and "swift", resp.  On each machine I have a hosts file that 
connects 127.0.0.1 to localhost and the machine's pseudo fixed IP 
address to it's name.  On the machine at work there are no entries in 
the hosts file -- now I'm wondering how that works.  So much to learn 
(most of my knowledge with comm is with SNA/RJE so bear with me :-)

I have no problem in tying the config to the the machines localhost alias,

Mike