Printer Deployment does not install driver but port

[Joe Schmitt]

@x23piracy have you tried using the ntprint file? It acts as a “search our whole system for a working driver”

[Wayne Workman]

@x23piracy I’m not aware of any videos in the wiki about printers. Can you give a link?

[x23piracy]

@Wayne-Workman sure here it is: http://freeghost.sourceforge.net/videotutorials/printer.swf
The video shows howto determine printer name from ntprint.inf but in windows 10 there are a lot of embedded drivers but they cannot be found in ntprint.inf

That’s the reason i tried the share (readable by everyone, checked the inf for the right name and took em) with a downloaded driver for the device from hp.

If you install the HP M401 under windows 10 by adding the port and driver autodetection it installs the embedded driver but i don’t know howto locate the names and the correct inf under windows 10.

Regards X23

[Joe Schmitt]

Have you used the exact output of printer manager helper? It detemermines all of that for you. I know there’s only 1 entry in the ntprint file on newer versions of Windows but thats fine.

[Tom Elliott]

@x23piracy I have to be honest, that video is from 0.12 version of FOG and probably the same version of the client from between all of them. The new client is New and it’s labelled as such for a very specific reason.

@jbob wrote the new client more or less from scratch. He also built the printer manager helper that he linked which will tell you EXACTLY what to place for the printer definition. Why not just take it for a spin? We’re not telling you information to spin you on your head, rather to help you get to the tasking you needed to reach.

[Wayne Workman]

@x23piracy It might be worth noting here that if you want the printer to use specific drivers, install it manually using the drivers you want, and THEN run the printer manager helper.

[x23piracy]

Hey guys,

don’ get me wrong. Okay i reexplain it:

First of all i have used the Printer Helper binary.
Next thing Windows 10 has an embedded driver for the HP M401 and i have a downloaded one.

My first attempt was to use the downloaded driver on a network share readable by everyone. This Method seems to fail because the port will be created but printer driver is not installed.

Then i tried the embedded one and i have the same issue port is there but printer itself not.
I have used exactly the information given the printer helper program.

Can maybe someone of you test this with a windows 10 machine?

This i what printer helper shows me when using the embedded driver:

This i what printer helper shows me when using the downloaded driver vom hp:

@Tom Elliot FYI i am now on trunk 7645

Regards X23

[Tom Elliott]

@x23piracy after you see the port is created, if you reboot the machine does the printer show up in the list?

[x23piracy]

@Tom-Elliott afai remember no. but i think there is additionally another problem since i am on latest trunk with client 10.6, have a look: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7413/fog-client-0-10-6-error-object-reference-not-set-to-an-instance-of-an-object/12

[Scott B]

In the past when I have had this issue its always been the path to the driver was wrong or the driver itself was corrupt or not added correctly. Are you able to manually make a port and install a printer using all the information in the FOG configuration of the printer?

[x23piracy]

@Scott-B how to do this steps manually, what is the client doing? is it using the ms vbs scripts for this?

Regards X23

[Scott B]

@x23piracy Just use the windows new printer install wizard and copy paste each value you have in fog into the wizard.

[JJ Fullmer]

@x23piracy It uses the printUI.DLL

The code looks like PrintUI($"/if /q /b \"{printer.Name}\" /f \"{printer.File}\" /r \"{printer.Port}\" /m \"{printer.Model}\"")
The command line to try it yourself manually looks like RUNDLL32 PRINTUI.DLL,PrintUIEntry /if /q /b "Printer Name" /f "path\ot\inf" /r "Printer Port Name" /m "Printer Model referenced in INF" You may want to take out the /q so you get error messages.

Personally I use the following script template for each of my network printers on my base image and then remove them and use the C:\Windows\INF\oem#.inf file that gets created for each printer. You just have to watch and document which oem#.inf the pnputil adds the driver too.

::-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
:: Script Name: InstallPrinters
:: Original Author: jfullmer
:: Created Date: 2016-02-18 16:39:19
:: Last Updated Date: 2016-03-16 10:01:27
:: Update Author: jfullmer
:: Version: 2.0
::-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

@ECHO off

call :main
exit

:main
	REM Function to call other functions and run the installation process

	call :setVars
	call :funcHead "Welcome to the Printer installer!"
	REM inputs: 1 - Printer Port Name, 2 - printer ip or hostname 3- driverPath 4 - printer name 5 - printer model 6 - config file 7 - raw or lpr

	call :installPrinter %portName% %hostname% "%inf%" "%printerName%" "%printerModel%" "%config%" %portType%

	EXIT /B

:setVars
	REM function for setting script variables, typically for directories

	:: Set input names in the set commands, should be easier this way
	:: Avoid using quotes in variable definitions, enclose the calls to variables in quotes instead
	call :funcHead "Setting script variables"
	set share=\\path\to\drivers\share
	set portName=
	set hostname=
	set inf=%share%\
	set printerName=
	set printerModel=
	set config=%share%\
	set portType=raw
	
	echo. mounting share...
	net use "%share%"
	
	echo. done!

	EXIT /B

:installPrinter
	REM Function to add a new Printer
	REM inputs: 1 - Printer Port Name, 2 - printer ip or hostname 3- driverPath 4 - printer name 5 - printer model 6 - config file 7 - raw or lpr

	call :funcHead "Installing Printer %~4"

	call :printerPort %~1 %~2 %~7
	call :printerDriver "%~3"
	call :addPrinter "%~4" "%~5" %~1
	call :configPrinter "%~6" "%~4"

	echo. done installing printer %~4!

	EXIT /B

:printerPort
	REM function for adding a printer port
	REM var inputs 1 - port name 2 -hostname or ip address 3 -port type (raw or lpr)

	call :dots
	echo. Creating the printer port...
	
	IF %~3==lpr (
		Cscript %WINDIR%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\Prnport.vbs -a -r %~1 -h %~2 -o lpr -q lp -n 515
	) ELSE ( REM raw
		Cscript %WINDIR%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\Prnport.vbs -a -r %~1 -h %~2 -o raw -n 9100 
	) 
	
	echo. done!
	call :dots

	EXIT /B

:printerDriver
	REM function to add the driver input 1=full driver path

	call :dots
	
	echo. Adding printer driver...
	PNPUTIL -i -a "%~1"
	echo. done!
	
	call :dots

	EXIT /B

:addPrinter
	REM add the printer to the created port
	REM 1 - printer name 2 - printer model associated with driver 3 - port name
	
	call :dots
	
	echo. adding printer to network port...
	Cscript %WINDIR%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\Prnmngr.vbs -a -p "%~1" -m "%~2" -r %~3
	echo. done!
	
	call :dots

	EXIT /B

:configPrinter
	REM add any special printer configurations
	REM 1 - config file path 2 - printer name

	call :dots
	
	echo. Configuring Printer...
	REM To create a config file for a printer, use the following syntax
	REM RUNDLL32 PRINTUI.DLL,PrintUIEntry /Ss /nPrinterName /a ConfigFilePath.dat m f g p
	RUNDLL32 PRINTUI.DLL,PrintUIEntry /Sr /n"%~2" /a %~1 m f g p
	echo. done!
	
	call :dots

	EXIT /B

:dots
	REM just echoing dots in a Function instead of copy pasting them so that it's consistent
	echo ......................................................................
	EXIT /B

:funcHead
	REM A simple function for displaying a consistent header at the start of functions
	call :dots
	echo. %~1
	call :dots
	EXIT /B

Also, it sounds like this is an HP printer. I’ve had some good luck using the HP universal print driver.
Within the hp universal print driver files, the inf you need is something along the lines of hpcu180u.inf With a model name of “HP Universal Printing PCL 6”(The numbers slightly change with each version of the UPD, but that’s the general structure of the file that works) But you will need all the other files from the driver in the original directory structure. In other words, you can’t just copy the inf file to the share because it will look for more files that are referenced. This is probably also the case for the model specific print driver, so if you are only putting the inf in the share, that could also be the problem.

I hope that helps

[x23piracy]

Solved
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7441/fog-7645-and-client-10-6-printers-and-snapins-not-working/7