Secure Global Desktop Administration Guide > Printing > Configuring printing for UNIX, Linux and Mac OS X clients

Configuring printing for UNIX, Linux and Mac OS X clients

To allow users to print to printers attached to UNIX, Linux or Mac OS X client devices, the printers must be configured in one of the following printer configuration files:

• The global printer configuration file /opt/tarantella/etc/data/default.printerinfo.txt.

  This file set the defaults for all users printing through that Secure Global Desktop server. As this file is not replicated across the array, you have to manually copy it to the other array members.

• The user-specific printer configuration file $HOME/.tarantella/printerinfo.txt.

  This file is optional and has to be manually created on client devices. Users can create their own file or you can use the global configuration file as a template and distribute it to users. This file contains the settings for an individual user regardless of which Secure Global Desktop server they print through. The settings in this file take precedence over the settings in the global configuration file.

Note An alternative to the configuration described below is to use Secure Global Desktop PDF printing.

The format of the global and user-specific printer configuration file is the same:

[UNIX]
"printer_name" = "windows_driver" printer_type
"printer_name" = "windows_driver" printer_type
...

printer_name is the name of the printer as it is known to the lp or lpr system on the client. The printer name must be enclosed in double quotes and be followed by an equals sign. This is the name that users can specify when printing from a UNIX or Linux application server. It is also the name that displays in the Print dialog when users print from a Windows 2000/2003 application server.

windows_driver is the name of the printer driver to use when printing from a Windows 2000/2003 application server. The printer driver name must be enclosed in double quotes. The name of the printer driver must match the name of the printer driver installed on the Windows application server exactly. Pay particular attention to the use of capitals and spaces. The default.printerinfo.txt file contains all the common printer driver names ordered by manufacturer. To avoid errors, copy and paste the driver name from this file.

printer_type is the format to be used for the print job. The values can be PostScript, PCL or Text. This information is optional, but if it is missing, PostScript is used by default. This information is used to determine whether Secure Global Desktop needs to convert the print job from the format used by the application server to the format used by the printer.

The first printer listed in the [UNIX] section is the client's default printer.

When Secure Global Desktop is first installed, the default.printerinfo.txt file contains the following entry:

[UNIX]
"_Default" = "QMS 1060 Print System" PostScript

With this configuration, when users print from a Windows 2003 application server, they see a printer called _Default (from Tarantella) Session number. This printer prints to the default printer on the client using a basic PostScript printer driver, "QMS 1060 Print System".

Note This also means that a printer will be available in the Windows application even if there is no printer connected to the client.

Example

Graham Green's $HOME/.tarantella/printerinfo.txt file contains the following entries:

[UNIX]
"drafts" = "HP DeskJet 970Cxi" PCL
"salesprinter" = "HP LaserJet 5/5M" PostScript

When he prints from a Windows 2000 application server to a UNIX client, he has two printers called:

• drafts/Tarantella/Session number
• salesprinter/Tarantella/Session number

His default printer is drafts/Tarantella/Session number, which in this example has been defined as a PCL printer.

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