Hello guys.
First, I apologize for my ignorance. I am a nubee to both Linux and Puppy. So please be gentle.
I know this has been asked and probably answered many times before, but many of us are still looking for a viable solution.
Let me describe my setup:
I have three computers on my home network. 1. A P-4 Gaming platform with a good graphics card and sound, XP Home, 512M. 2. A P3 with on-board graphics and sound mainly for office work, XP Home, 512M. 3. A dedicated Linux computer, Linspire Five0, 256M. I plan to add another - 4. an IBM ThinkPad P1 running Win98, 64M.
All of this is hooked in a wired network using a Linksys wired router hooked to a cable modem.
As far as the network is concerned, the office computer (#2) is the one with a printer (hp3520), and it is running XP home version. I have shared the printer. The game machine (#1) and the dedicated Linux computer (#3) all use the printer without a problem. Puppy is happy to network access in this setup and can access the other shares and get internet with a very easy setup. I assume it will work find from #4 as well. I have used a boot CD (213) on both #1 and #3 machines. I also tried a HD install to a seconcary 8G drive on #1.
Most people that I know that are wanting to experiment with Linux, will do something similar. They will leave their office machine unchanged and will play on another machine in the network or have a dedicated Linux machine. Eventually we hope to free ourselves from the Windows adiction, but we will take baby steps for now.
The #3 machine using Linspire was incredibly easy to set up to use the printer on the #2 machine. But Puppy on either the #2 or the #3 machine just eludes me as to how to use the shared printer.
I have tried to follow "
http://idahopcug.apcug.org/Linux/PuppyLinuxHowTo.pdf"
to set it up, and I guess I am dense or missing something, but I just can't get it to work.
The printer setup in Puppy does not list my actual printer model (hp3520 deskjet).
What is Linspre doing differently? Is there something I can incorporate into Puppy that would give me this easy setup for the shared printer?
I know that I could put the printer on the dedicated Linux machine and my problems would be gone. But I would really prefer to keep the printer in the office and I can't afford to buy and set up a print server.
Besides, Puppy is really something I want to be able to use. I want to use a mult-isession DVD (v109 is the only one I could find) and be able to boot on any of the machines in the network and have all the functionality available to me. If I must, I would be willing to have a 2XX version with dedicated CDs for each machine. That would be acceptable but not a sweet as the multi-session idea.
I also tried the CUPS .3 version (the one that opens a browser window) and I could never get the test page to come out of the printer.
So, how about it guys? Linspire can do it? Can we get Puppy do do it as well?
Thanks in advance,
Aaron