[NTLUG:Discuss] Can I share a USB printer and CD Writer?

[Stephen Klein]

As of 2.2.18, USB drivers are included with the kernel source.  Most of
the drivers should be almost fully synchronized with 2.4.X as of 2.2.19
(or at least that's what I remember).

I'm using the USB drivers that came with 2.2.18 right now for my
Logitech WingMan with no troubles.  Haven't tried the printer drivers
yet.

As Christopher says, the CD writer can only be used for WRITING purposes
by the machine it's connected to, but it can be read by any machine on
the network if it is exported via NFS or shared with SAMBA.

Check www.linux-usb.org to see if your CD writer is supported.  The Mass
Storage Driver (CD-ROM, Hard Drives, etc.) is listed to be experimental
at this point in time, so you may or may not be able to make it work.

Hope this helps,
Stephen Klein



Christopher Browne wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 13 Apr 2001 23:00:08 CDT, the world broke into rejoicing as
> Neil Aggarwal <neil at JAMMConsulting.com>  said:
> > I have a home network where I have two Windows NT Laptops
> > connected thru a hub to a Linux machine.
> >
> > The linux machine is 192.168.1.1
> > The laptops are 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3.
> >
> > Is it possible to connect a USB printer and CD Writer
> > to the linux machine and be able to use it from
> > all 3 machines?
> 
> There are several _further_ questions that you'll have to answer.
> 
> -> Are the printer and CD writer supported?
> 
>    See: <http://www.linux-usb.org/devices.html> for more details.
> 
>    Note that you probably want to run a 2.4.x kernel; that's where
>    there is a maximum number of supported devices, although many
>    device drivers are being backported to 2.2.
> 
> -> What are you planning to do with the devices?
> 
>    If you set up a print queue for LPD, and export that using SAMBA,
>    that should work quite nicely to expose the printer to the network.
>    LPD and SAMBA won't be aware that it's using USB; they just ship
>    output to /dev/lp0 (or wherever).
> 
>    What capabilities can be exported for the CD writer needs to
>    parallel this.  You can export filesystems using NFS and SAMBA;
>    note that this does _not_ directly expose the CD writer to remote
>    machines.
> 
>    The remote machines thus may read data on CD filesystems that are
>    mounted on the Linux box.
> 
>    But the only machine that can _write_ to a CD is the Linux box.
> --
> (concatenate 'string "aa454" "@freenet.carleton.ca")
> http://vip.hex.net/~cbbrowne/resume.html
> JOHN CAGE (strapped to table): Do you really expect me to conduct this
>  antiquated tonal system?
> LEONARD BERNSTEIN: No, Mr. Cage, I expect  you to die!
> [With apologies to music and James Bond fans the world over...]
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