Simpleshare printer in Debian

The Simpleshare NAS (network attached storage) device is a quite interesting device by SimpleTech (Review). Although it’s not as hackable as the Linksys NSLU2 with SlugOS or OpenSlug, it’s probably still one of the best NAS devices on the market. I’ve been through both 160G and 250G models, which unfortunately suffered from a firmware bug affecting the auto spin-down of the harddrive (details in the simpleshare forum at openmss), and finally settled down at a 500G unit.

One of the cool things about Simpleshare is its integrated usb printer server under samba. This memoir is about getting the printer connected to the Simpleshare to work under linux (specifically, Debian Lenny).

1. Having cups and samba packages installed

apt-get install cupsys cupsys-bsd cupsys-client
apt-get install foomatic-db-hpijs gs-esp a2ps
apt-get install samba smbclient

2. Find printer driver at linuxprinting.org.

The age of my printer certainly shows from its driver name: HP-DeskJet_825C-hpijs.ppd.

3. Find printer name from the Simpleshare samba server.

smbclient -L SIMPLESHARE -N

Domain=[MSHOME] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.2]
Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
config Disk
NetFolder Disk
MyHome Disk
MyShare Disk
IPC$ IPC IPC Service ("SimpleShare")
ADMIN$ IPC IPC Service ("SimpleShare")
DESKJET-825C Printer HEWLETT-PACKARD DESKJET-825C TH24K250KH3H

4. Add printer to cups.

lpadmin -p DESKJET -v smb://SIMPLESHARE/DESKJET-825C -P /root/HP-DeskJet_825C-hpijs.ppd

5. Configure printer in cups

Start printer, accept jobs, and change settings for the printer (DESKJET) in the cups html configuration page @ http://localhost:631  (root access)

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