Sharing the experience for set up printer in thin client of Edubuntu 7.04

[Ferri naldi]

Ass Wr Wb. 
Hi,My name is Ferri, I am from Surabaya, a city in
Indonesia, a wide nation resides between Singapore,
Malaysia and Australia :).
It's my first letter to edubuntu community, so it's
nice to meet you all.
I want to share some experience in setting up printer
in thin client with Edubuntu 7.04 and it's LTSP plug
in :). I am relative new in using Edubuntu and it's
familiy, or other new type linux operating system,
'cause I think very complicated in setup and maintain,
but in this recent year my opinion has changed..a
lot.I've been following the development of LTSP since
2002-2003, I think..when Red Hat Linux 7.00 still
roaming in the universe..:), it's been successfull
installation in LTSP with that Red Hat, though I still
remember it until now how painful is that task, 'cause
still only a few resources from internet and
books..but it works! Compare to nowadays with Edubuntu
7.04..wowww..it's a Heaven!Well enough for talks,first
I've tried it in Pentium IV 2.8GHZ 512 Mb Intel DG101
motherboard as server, LAN is onboard. The workstation
is a Pentium IV 1.8GHz 256 Mb, LAN is also onboard and
some Pentium III 800MHz 128 Mb, with PCI LAN Card and
of course a hub (only 8 port 10/100).The printer that
I used is Epson Stylus C45(USB) , it's driver is
included in Edubuntu. Well, first prepared the
operating system, Edubuntu Server version 7.04, I
download it from edubuntu website (iso image), burn it
to CD, prepare the server, boot it from CD and the
installation begin, for detail we can read the steps
in Edubuntu website, on documentation part. For
information, before the installation begin make sure
all the hardware and all the workstation had been
connected and setup phisically, it will make the
installation process run more smoothly :). In the
installtion process, when edubuntu ask for IP address,
IP gateways, IP server I fill it with 192.168.0.1 and
IP for subnet is 255.255.255.0 (you can pick any than
this). If it's all done, turn on the server computer,
if edubuntu environment in display (well it's in
1024x768 already...sweet) then at first check network
setting to make sure that your LAN card has the same
IP with IP setting in the installation process. Find
System menu - pick Administration - pick Network. Look
at Wired Connection, click it one time then click
Properties and make sure the IP Address, IP Gateway
Address and IP Subnet is the same as we put in the
installation process. If it's done, I urge you to
reboot the server one more time so any changes we make
will surely make affect. After it's done and we are in
Eduntu environment again, it's time to try the
workstation, don't forget to adjust the boot process
to NETWORK/LAN card first in its BIOS. Well, it works
for me for the first time, 1 workstation Pentium IV
and other Pentium III workstation, all can boot and
Edubuntu login screen pop up in their monitor. Well,
before we continue, just make sure we had already set
enough users in the server computer, menu System -
menu Administration - Users and Group. When I try
login in one of the workstations, all its local
device, such as floppy, Harddisk with NTFS and/or FAT
are displayed already in Desktop (sweet...) and sounds
tooo! (It's a very nice sound....). Cd rom will be pop
up if we put one in and flash disk too will be pop up
if we plug one in. I think this feature and easiness
of LTSP set up alone make Edubuntu worth enough to be
installed and learned. Anyway this the first step in
setting up printer in thin client/workstations, 
take notes of your MAC ADDRESS of your LAN DEVICE of
the workstation where your printer is connected. How ?
Well when a workstation boot through it's LAN
(card/onboard), it will be displayed many writings in
monitor, one of the first word, there are MAC ADDRESS,
something like 00:11:25:84:CE:BA for example, it's
quite fast so be quick okay :). Then when Edubuntu
login is displayed on the monitor, look at the right
bottom corner, there are IP Address for the
workstation, take note of it too!, it's something like
192.168.0.244 for example, when we finished, turn off
the workstation, from the Edubuntu Login Display look
at the left corner bottom, there are two icon, one for
shutdown and one for Restart, choose shutdown, the
workstation will be shutdown. (Sweeeeet...in older
LTSP it's very very complicated just to make this
feature run). Back to the Server, open Terminal, menu
Application - menu Accesorries - menu Terminal. Type
in : sudo gedit /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf, it will
run a text editor in your monitor and the text editor
will open file lts.conf, ready to be edited. Move your
cursor to the end of file, press enter one or two time
to make some empty lines, then type in the MAC ADDRESS
of the workstation you noted earlier, the example
format is like this [00:11:25:84:CE:BA] , and press
enter one time so your cursor move 1 line then type
PRINTER_0_DEVICE=/dev/usblp0. Save it. We all can read
the detail about editing the lts.conf in
http://doc.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/handbook/C/ltsp-client.html
Now, setting up the printer driver. Open menu System -
menu Administration - menu Printing. Click on New
Printer, in will launch gnome-cups-something :), it
will take a while, then it will display some
configuration menu. Choose Network Printer, and then
in the right Choose TCP/SOCKET,HP JET DIRECT,RAW
CONNECTION from 4 option listed. In the middle there
are HOME Text Box and PORT text Box. The PORT has been
filled with 9100, we fill the HOME part, with IP
ADDRESS of printer workstation that we noted earlier,
for example is something like 192.168.0.244. Click
forward, Choose the manufacturer, model and driver of
the printer, for me it's Epson, Stylus C45,
gutenprint(simple). Than forward again, then OK. The
icon of your printer will be displayed in Printer
windows (where icon/menu New Printer existed). Logout
form the Server, restart. When the Server ready, turn
on the workstation of the printer again, login, when
the thin clien already display edubuntu environment
then try the printing through the printer you setup
before, first from the computer server, then if it's
okay (success), try from the workstation of the
printer, sometimes at first I have to reboot the
workstation one time, but after that every time I turn
on the workstation it automatically prints. Then try
another workstation to do printing to the printer
workstation. Well, it works up until now. I hope if
anyone try this it will be successfull too, if we are
going to use Paralel Printer not USB then change the
line in lts.conf of PRINTER_0_DEVICE=/dev/usblp0 to
PRINTER_0_DEVICE=/dev/lp0   
I've been trying this printing in thin client thing
for a long long time( well, it's only 5% of my leisure
time anyway :)).Many times...almost all times it
fails,in fact even the LTSP I've tried many times
fails. And it's painful to look for answer for this
printing thing and other thing related to LTSP.
Because sometimes it works, sometimes it's not.Well
Edubuntu 7.04 it's a wonderful OS, really (May God
Bless you All Edubuntu & other Ubuntu Developer)
But nothing is this world perfect, right :). This
printing in thin client methods fails to some LAN
ONBOARD, one motherboards that I surely know it's
INTEL D965RYCK, this motherboard is CORE2DUO, but its
LAN ONBOARD is unfit for Server jobs, the solution is
to shut down the onboard LAN(through BIOS) and change
it with PCI LAN CARD, I use DLINK DFE-528 TX, it's
cheap but works fine! Well, that's all, I hope it
helps anyone out there in seeking how to print in thin
client using LTSP, I also hope they're thinking to
migrate to Edubuntu 7.04 :). God Bless us all, Bye.


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