How to use your xbox to make PDF files from your Windows PCs

[nobspangle]

This tutorial shows you how to install and setup cups-pdf so you can create pdf files from any windows PC on your network or from the xbox its self.

When you are prompted for a username and password use root as the username and the password for root which is xbox unless you’ve changed it.

First off we need install the required packages

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emerge sync && USE=”cups” emerge samba cups-pdf

This may take a couple of hours as samba is quite a beast of a program as is ghostscript which is what we use to generate the pdf file.

Once this has finished we’ll add cups to the default run level so it starts automatically and start it now.

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rc-update add cupsd default
/etc/init.d/cupsd start

Next open up your web browser (Mozilla or firebird/firefox) and type in http://localhost:631 to the address bar this will take you to the CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System) administration page.

Click “Manage Printers”
Click “Add Printer”
Give the printer a name, I just use PDF you can also enter a description like “PDF creator”
Click continue
From the drop down box choose “Virtual Printer (PDF Printer)” as the Device
Click Continue
Select Raw as the Make and click Continue
Choose Raw Queue (en) as the Model and click continue

You should get a message saying printer PDF has been added successfully if you click the name PDF you will be taken to a page with some info about the printer.
Click “Print Test Page”

Check the contents of /var/spool/cups-pdf/root there should be a file called Test_Page.pdf if it is there your printer is setup and the cups part is done. Now we’ll set up Samba so we can print from PCs on the network.

Open a terminal and switch to the root user and open the samba configuration

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su –
nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

in the [global] section change printcap name to cups and add a line that reads “printer admin = root” (without the quotes)
below the global section add the following code

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[printers]
        comment = All Printers
        path = /var/spool/samba
        browseable = no
        public = yes
        guest ok = yes
        writeable = no
        printable = yes
        printer admin = root

[print$]
   path = /var/lib/samba/printers
   browseable = yes
   read only = yes
   write list = root
   guest ok = yes

[pdf-output]
	writeable = yes
	path = /var/spool/cups-pdf

Hit ctrl+x then y then enter to exit and save the file. Restart Samba and set the permissions on the print$ share

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/etc/init.d/samba restart
chmod 777 /var/lib/samba/printers/* 

Next go to a Windows PC on your network this needs to be windows NT, 2000 or XP machine. My instructions are for XP, 2000 and NT are similar but not exactly the same.
Click start then run in the box type \\xbox and press return
double click “Printers and Faxes”
Right Click PDF and choose properties
Click NO
Click Advanced
Click new driver
Click next
Choose HP as the manufacturer and “HP Color LaserJet 8500 PS” as the Printer then click Next
Click Finish
Click OK

That’s the printer drivers installed on the xbox, now just go to each of your windows PCs that you want to make PDF files from and click start then run in the box type \\xbox\PDF on XP machines you will have to say yes to a warning about printer drivers.

That’s it, when you print to the “PDF on xbox” printer the PDF file will be deposited in the “\\xbox\pdf-output” share on the xbox.

[Bucko]

Awsome, the powers of Linux

[Bucko]

It works a treat my dads adobe thing kept messing up, we might use this instead. Awsome guide . Trouble is it means xbox has to be on all day .

http://www.potton-delph.com/bucko/stuff ... ording.pdf

theres, muhahahaha powers of linux yay.