Networking HP PPA DeskJet Printers using SAMBA.
  The pnm2ppa project team ppa-rpms@users.sourceforge.net
  v0.12 Feb 10,  2002

  This document discusses Networking HP 710C, 720C 820C or 1000C Series
  (PPA Protocol) HP DeskJet printers with non-Windows Hosts or Clients,
  using SAMBA.  Topics include choosing between transmitting PPA or
  PostScript across the network, Windows and Linux/Unix Hosts, Windows
  and Linux/Unix Clients, and emulating a PostScript printer on Windows.
  (Updated for pnm2ppa-1.04 and later.)
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents


  1. Networking HP DeskJet PPA printers with SAMBA
     1.1 Overview of PPA printers.
     1.2 Choice of protocol for sending over the network.

  2. Configuring the Printer Host.
     2.1 Configuring a Linux/Unix Host to share a PPA printer using Samba.
     2.2 Configuring a Windows Host to share a PPA printer with non-Windows Clients.

  3. Configuring the Printing Clients.
     3.1 Setting up Printing from a Windows Client.
     3.2 Setting up Printing from a Linux/Unix Samba Client

  4. Emulating a PostScript printer on a Windows Host.
     4.1 Installing Ghostscript as the emulation software.
     4.2 Adding the fictitious  Postscript printer.
     4.3 Redirecting the output to the PPA printer.
     4.4 Limitations.


  ______________________________________________________________________

  1.  Networking HP DeskJet PPA printers with SAMBA


  1.1.  Overview of PPA printers.

  The HP DeskJet 710/712C, 720/722C, 820Cse/820Cxi and 1000Cse/1000Cxi
  printers are "Winprinters" which are designed only for use with MS
  Windows  operating systems.   HP supplies Windows-only software that
  processes the input data into the proprietary and unpublished PPA
  ("Printer Performance Architecture") protocol.

  HP states that these printers are not supported as networked printers,
  but they in fact function correctly as shared (SMB) printers under MS
  Windows.

  In this document, the Host is the computer to which the PPA  printer
  is physically connected, and the Clients are other computers on the
  network that wish to print documents on the PPA printer.

  In the Windows printing system, separate copies of the HP PPA printer
  drivers are installed on each Client, and are run on the Client to
  produce PPA output that is sent over the network to be spooled on the
  Host to which the printer is attached.

  HP's drivers are only supplied for Windows systems.  The
  independently-produced pnm2ppa driver runs on Linux, some other Unix
  systems, and BeOS.

  This document describes various tested strategies for using pnm2ppa
  and the samba suite of SMB tools to allow the PPA printer to be
  attached to a non-Windows host on a (TCP-based) SMB network, or to
  allow non-Windows Clients to receive printing services from a Host on
  the network.


  1.2.  Choice of protocol for sending over the network.

  There are two possible ways to send printer data from a Client to the
  printer Host over the network.

  o  as PPA data, created by a driver on the Client.  This is what
     happens when using conventional printer sharing on Windows.

  o  as PostScript data, created on the Client, which is then translated
     into PPA instructions by drivers running on the printer Host.

     Since PPA data is rather large, the first method involves sending
     larger amounts of data over the network, which may be why HP do not
     officially support PPA DeskJets as networked printers.  It also
     requires that PPA drivers are installed on the Client.

  The Host to which the printer is attached can thus provide two classes
  of printing services:

  o  PPA printing services: the Host accepts PPA-format printing jobs
     created on the Clients either with HP's native PPA drivers (Windows
     Clients) or pnm2ppa (Unix/Linux/BeOS Clients);

  o  PostScript printing services: the Host accepts PostScript-format
     printing jobs created on any postscript-capable  Client, and
     converts them to PPA format using either HP's native PPA drivers
     (Windows Host) or pnm2ppa (Unix/Linux/BeOS Host);

     It is useful to set up the Host to offer both types of service,
     sharing a common spooling system.


  2.  Configuring the Printer Host.


  2.1.  Configuring a Linux/Unix Host to share a PPA printer using
  Samba.

  It is assumed that pnm2ppa is installed and working to provide local
  printing services on the Host, and that lpr will invoke a full set of
  print filters, as (e.g.) in Red Hat 6.2.  The PPA printer is installed
  with the printer name lp, and samba is assumed to be installed.
  General Samba configuration issues involving security levels, network
  password, etc, are outside the scope of this document (see the SMB-
  HOWTO).   You must log in as root to configure Samba.

  Here is a sample entry setting up two public printer shares in the
  Host's /etc/smb.conf file.  The printer HP722C-PPA is for printing by
  a Client that sends PPA output from pnm2ppa or the HP drivers across
  the network, and HP722-PS is for Clients that produce PostScript
  output:



  [HP722C-PPA]
      comment = HP 722C printer on Linux (PPA input)
      path = /var/tmp
      printer name = lp
      writable = yes
      public = yes
      printable = yes
      print command = lpr -l -r -h -P %p %s
  [HP722C-PS]
      comment = HP 722C printer on Linux (Postscript input)
      path = /var/tmp
      printer name = lp
      writable = yes
      public = yes
      printable = yes
      print command = lpr -r -h -P %p %s



  The only differences besides the names are that the print command for
  HP722-PPA uses the " -l " "pass-through" option so print filters are
  not applied.  The path entry uses /var/tmp because this is (presum-
  ably) a world-readable and -writable area for temporary files.

  After editing /etc/smb.conf to include these entries, save it, and
  test its syntax with Samba's testparm utility.  Then restart samba
  (run "/etc/rc.d/init.d/smb restart" on Red Hat).



  2.2.  Configuring a Windows Host to share a PPA printer with non-Win-
  dows Clients.

  The Host is assumed to be a Window 98 system, and the PPA printer is
  assumed to be a HP722C installed with the native HP PPA drivers
  supplied on  HP's installation CD. Some details may vary on other
  Windows versions.

  First set up a shared printer that can accept PPA input from both
  networked Windows Clients, and from networked non-Windows Clients that
  use pnm2ppa.


  o  IMPORTANT!: A PPA printer attached to a Windows Host shared with a
     Client running pnm2ppa has the following limitation:

     o  Bi-Directional communication between the Windows Host and the
        printer must be disabled.

     If it is not done, a General Protection Fault will usually occur on
     the Windows Host when pnm2ppa sends output to the shared printer.
     (A "Hpfbkg06" error occurs, and the printer becomes nonfunctional
     until the Windows system is rebooted.)  Disabling bi-directional
     communication appears to be a minor inconvenience: according to HP,
     the print quality is unaffected, but the "advanced features of the
     Status Monitor" will no longer send reminders to align the print
     cartridges after a new cartridge is installed, or send error mes-
     sages associated with the ink cartridges or the banner lever.

  You may be able to avoid disabling bi-directional communication by
  using an emulated Postscript printer to serve non-Windows Clients
  without using pnm2ppa (see below).


  To turn off bi-directional communication between the Windows Host and
  the printer, open the Settings/Printers folder, then right-click on
  the printer icon, and open the Properties dialog.   Select the Details
  tab, and click on Spool Settings, then choose the setting "Disable bi-
  directional support for this printer".  If you have any difficulties,
  try rebooting Windows after the change, or see HP's support document
  http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/bpd06455.html about
  disabling bi-directional communication.

  To set up the Host to share the printer, right-click on its icon in
  the Settings/Printers folder, and select Sharing, then  assign it a
  Share Name like  HP722C-PPA , and enter a Comment Line like "HP 722C
  printer on Windows 98 (PPA input)".

  You may now also wish to set up an emulated Postscript printer that
  accepts Postscript input from the Client, and prints it using HP's PPA
  drivers running on the Host, instead of on the Client.  See the
  section Emulating a PostScript printer on a Windows Host

  If you have installed and successfully tested the emulated printer,
  set it up for sharing on the network.  Right-click on its icon in the
  Settings/Printers folder, and select Sharing, then  assign it a Share
  Name like  HP722C-PS, and  enter a Comment Line like "HP 722C printer
  on Windows 98 (PostScript input)".

  The emulated printer will appear like a Postscript printer to the
  Clients.  If it provides acceptable printing services to the non-
  Windows  clients, you will not need to connect pnm2ppa printers to
  HP722C-PPA, and will be able to re-enable bi-directional communication
  between the HP drivers and the printer.  (However, the extra
  processing involved in the emulation may be unacceptably slow, or turn
  out to  use too much of the host's CPU)



  3.  Configuring the Printing Clients.


  3.1.  Setting up Printing from a Windows Client.


  Open the Settings/Printers folder, and start the Add Printer Wizard.
  Choose to add a Network Printer, and browse the network to find the
  Printer Shares you configured on the host (e.g., HP722C-PPA and
  HP722C-PS).  If they are not visible, either the Host or the network
  is not properly configured.  Correct the problem before proceding.

  Normally, you will probably want to use the  native Windows HP PPA
  drivers, so select the printer Share that accepts PPA input (e.g.,
  HP722C-PPA).  If the Host is a Windows Host, it will provide the
  drivers over the network, otherwise you will have to find the printer
  in the list of available HP  Printer drivers, or click on Have Disk
  and install them from HP's installation CD.  You then get a chance to
  change the name with which the printer will be known on the Client.
  Finally, you should choose to print a test page.

  You might instead (or also) want to set up printing services using the
  Printer Share that accepts Postscript (e.g., HP722C-PS).  In that
  case, if the Host is not a Windows Host, choose a "generic" PostScript
  printer like the Apple LaserWriter II NT or the Digital
  turboPrintServer 20/Net.

  If the test page prints sucessfully, you are finished!



  3.2.  Setting up Printing from a Linux/Unix Samba Client


  First examine the network by opening a terminal window and using the
  command


       smbclient -L hostname



  (where "hostname" should be replaced by the network name of the Host
  to which the printer is attached).  This will list the SMB services
  provided by that Host.  (Alternatively, your system may have some
  graphical front-end to smbclient that allows you to inspect the net-
  work.)  The list should include the Printer Share(s) you configured on
  the Host (e.g., HP722C-PPA and HP722C-PS).  If these are absent, you
  must first identify and correct the problem.

  You must now configure the printer.   The details of how to do this
  will vary between Linux/Unix distributions, but there will probably be
  support for network printing using Samba.

  If the Printer Share you wish to use is intended to accept PPA input
  (e.g., HP722C-PPA), configure the Client to use the pnm2ppa driver.

  If it is intended to accept PostScript input (e.g., HP722C-PS),
  configure the Client to print to a PostScript printer.

  You may wish to configure both types of printers, and experiment to
  see which provides the best printing services on your network.

  See the SMB-HOWTO documentation for more information.



  4.  Emulating a PostScript printer on a Windows Host.


  If you do not have commercial PostScript emulation software for
  Windows that will work with your HP PPA DeskJet (the author is unaware
  of any such software that supports PPA printers), you can use
  Ghostscript together with HP's native Windows drivers.


  4.1.  Installing Ghostscript as the emulation software.

  From the Ghostscript home page http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ download
  and install (in this order) the Windows packages of

  o  Ghostscript   (PostScript Emulation Software).

  o  GSview  (Ghostscript previewer, provides gsprint).

  o  RedMon (printer port redirection utility).

     (Install these using their setup.exe installation tools, and do not
     manually set up any configuration files for gsprint or RedMon.)
     You must now follow the detailed instructions below, and use the
     Windows "Add Printer Wizard" to add a postscript printer, and then
     configure it to use the gsprint utility that comes with GSview, and
     redirect the output to your HP PPA DeskJet using the RedMon
     utility.


  4.2.  Adding the fictitious  Postscript printer.

  In the following, I assume your printer is a HP DeskJet 722C, and is
  installed with its native Windows Drivers as a printer called "HP
  DeskJet 720C Series".  Change printer name entries below as
  appropriate for your printer model.

  The following instructions are tested on Windows 98, and may differ on
  other Windows variants.

  Open the Settings/Printers folder.

  First check that the HP PPA Deskjet is correctly installed, using HP's
  native Windows drivers.  Right-click on its icon, and select its
  Properties dialog.  The General Properties screen will open.  This
  shows the exact name that the printer was given when it was installed.
  Make a note of it, and use the Print Test Page button to confirm that
  the printer is working. (The "Printer name:" line on the test page
  will also show the exact name of the HP PPA Deskjet that you will need
  to use when configuring the emulated postscript printer below). When
  you are done, click on OK to close the dialog.

  Now start the Add Printer "Wizard".  Make the choices:

  o  install a local printer

  o  select a PostScript printer from the list of printers; (e.g., one
     of the Apple LaserWriter models: the Laserwriter II NT  is known to
     work;  Digital PrintServer models such as the turboPrintServer
     20/Net have also been recommended).   This will provide a suitable
     postscript driver.

  o  From the list of Available Ports, choose "FILE: Creates a file on
     disk" (you will change this after the printer is installed)

  o  set as default printer?: NO

  o  Print test page?: NO


  4.3.  Redirecting the output to the PPA printer.

  After the printer has been installed, right-click on its icon, and
  rename it to something like, e.g., "Ghostscript+HP722C".  Then right
  click again and  open its Properties dialog.

  On the General tab screen, enter something informative in the Comment
  box, such as " Emulated Postscript printer; output redirected to a
  HP722C DeskJet printer" (optional).

  Next select the Details tab.  The box "Print using the following
  driver:" should show the Postscript driver you selected (e.g., Apple
  LaserWriter II NT).


  o  Click on Add Port.  Select other, then  Redirected Port, which
     should be available if RedMon was correctly installed, and  click
     on OK to accept  these settings and  close the Add Port dialog.  On
     the Details tab screen, The box "Print to the following port:"
     should now  show a redirected port such as "RPT1 [Redirected
     Port]".

  o  Click on Port Settings.

     o  In the box "Redirect port to the program:", enter the path to
        the gsprint program.   (If you accepted the defaults when
        installing it, this may be C:\Ghostgum\gsview\gsprint.exe; you
        may search for it by clicking on  Browse).

     o  In the box "arguments for this program are:" enter the arguments
        to be passed to the gsprint program (there is a document
        gsprint.htm with more details of these in the folder containing
        gsprint.exe).  Suggested arguments are:


           -printer "HP DeskJet 720C Series" -color -



     Replace "HP DeskJet 720C Series" by the (quoted) exact name of the
     HP PPA DeskJet printer that you made a note of earlier. (If you do
     not copy this name exactly, including any capitalization or spaces,
     things may not work!)  The -color argument is needed to enable
     color printing; (Whether you actually  get color printing will
     depend on the local settings of the "HP DeskJet 720C Series"
     printer that really prints the document.)  The final " - " is
     required: without it, the  output of gsprint will not get redi-
     rected to the printer.


     o  The box "Output" should show "Program handles output".

     o  In the box "Run", select "hidden".

     o  The box "Shutdown delay" will say "300 seconds".  Print jobs for
        which processing by gsprint takes longer than this will be
        terminated, to avoid blocking the printer spool queue.
        Increase this limit if necessary.


     Now click on OK to close the Port Settings dialog.


  o  Click on Spool Settings, and select "Disable bi-directional support
     for this printer", and click OK.

  Finally, again select the General tab, and test the installation by
  clicking on "Print a test page".  If it works, you are finished
  setting up Postscript emulation.  Click OK to exit the Printer
  Properties dialog.

  (If you have problems, first check that you made the correct entries
  in the Printer Properties dialogs, especially check that you did not
  make any typing errors in the exact name for the PPA DeskJet printer
  in the gsprint arguments box, which must correspond exactly to the
  "Printer name" given to the HP PPA printer). If the problems persist,
  you might get guidance from the gsprint and RedMon documentation; look
  in the folders where these were installed.)

  You now have a working emulated "Postscript printer" that can now be
  shared over a network.  (The "sharing" options will now be available
  if you right-click on the emulated printer's icon.)


  4.4.  Limitations.

  This emulated postscript printer is most useful for providing printing
  services to non-Windows Clients on a samba network, but can be also be
  used by Windows Clients with the following limitations:


  o  Windows Clients will be able to select Print Settings only for the
     visible ("front end") "Postscript printer", but not for the hidden
     ("back end") HP PPA DeskJet printer that actually does the
     printing.

  o  Changes in the local Print Settings of the PPA driver for the
     DeskJet printer on the Host system (but not on Client systems, if
     it too is shared) will affect network printing by the "Postscript
     printer".

  o  Since the visible "Postscript printer" falsely advertises its
     identity, some of its Print Settings options seen by users on the
     Clients may not be valid.

  o  The extra processing on the printer Host may make printing rather
     slow compared to native Windows printing.