View source for Virtual PDF Printer with CUPS Back End for Windows Clients without roaming user profile

Beside the various PDF printer programs, which require an installation on clients, it might be useful, to have a virtual Samba printer. This enables users to create and automatically store PDF files on the server, as simple as printing. No additional software installation is required on the clients, if your [[Setting_up_Samba_as_a_Print_Server|Samba Print Server]] provides Point'n'Print support.





= Requirements =

* [[Setting_up_Samba_as_a_Print_Server|Samba configured as a Print Server]]
* CUPS installed
* package cups-pdf installed



= Setup =

* Install a new cups-pdf printer on CUPS (We consider that there is already a cups-pdf printer dedicated to linux clients with PPD linux driver, so we will create a second cups-pdf printer with RAW driver for windows clients)

* Add a new printer in the CUPS web interface (Warning: Only cups-pdf v3.0 and later can create multiple pdf printers)
  Choose "CUPS-PDF (Virtual PDF Printer)"
  Name : Virtual_PDF_Printer_raw
  Description : Virtual PDF Printer Raw (or something else)
  Location : CUPS (or something else)
  Do not select "Share this printer"
  Brand : "Raw"
  Model : "Raw queue"
* Change the URI of the new cups-pdf printer created
  # systemctl stop cups
  Edit /etc/cups/printers.conf
  In the section <Printer Virtual_PDF_Printer_raw> change "DeviceURI cups-pdf:/" to "DeviceURI cups-pdf:/raw"
  # systemctl start cups
* Create a config file for the new cups-pdf printer created
  In /etc/cups/ make "cp cups-pdf.conf cups-pdf-raw.conf"
  Edit /etc/cups/cups-pdf-raw.conf
  Change to "Out /srv/samba/pdf_output"
  Uncomment "Label 2" (to avoid pdf files with the same name)

* Create directory for pdf output on the print server
 # mkdir /srv/samba/pdf_output
 # chgrp -R "SAMDOM\Domain Users" /srv/samba/pdf_output/
 # chmod -R 775 /srv/samba/pdf_output/

* Add the following configuration to your smb.conf (adjust the spool path if necessary):

  [PDFprinter]
        path = /var/tmp
        printer = Virtual_PDF_Printer_raw
        comment = Virtual PDF Printer raw (or something else)
        printable = yes

The above section is not necessary if you use "load printers = yes" in your smb.conf

  [pdf]
        path = /srv/samba/pdf_output
        read only = no
        hide unreadable = yes

* Reload Samba
  # smbcontrol all reload-config

* If you want to use automatic Point'n'Print driver installation,  [[Setting_up_Samba_as_a_Print_Server#Uploading_printer_drivers_for_Point.27n.27Print_driver_installation|upload a PostScript driver to your Samba server]]. You can use any PostScript driver, like the [http://www.hp.com/go/upd HP Universal Print Driver PostScript].

* If you don't want to use Point'n'Print driver installation, add the following line to the printer configuration:
 use client driver = yes

* [[Setting_up_Samba_as_a_Print_Server#Associating_a_shared_printer_with_a_driver_and_preconfiguring|Associate the PDFprinter with the uploaded driver]]



= Using the virtual PDF printer =

* Connect the printer "PDFprinter" on your client.
* Connect the share "pdf" on your client.
* Simply send a print job to the PDFprinter and the PDF is stored in the shared directory "pdf" with the domain user permissions.

= Solving problems =

* Apparmor prevents reading cups-pdf-raw.conf and writing to /srv/samba/pdf_output.
  Edit /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd
  Add below before "}" the next two lines:
    /etc/cups/cups-pdf-raw.conf r,
    /srv/samba/pdf_output/* rw,

* Restart apparmor
  # systemctl restart apparmor