* Dr. Internet columnist Steve Blass offers advice on how to print from a Linux client via a Windows server
Our 2003 Windows terminal client server can connect with any Windows client via the Internet – it provides connection, sound and printing services back to the client. We have a Linux client that we can connect to the server and do everything except print. Any help?
Printer redirection through remote desktop is a feature of Version 5 of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). The Unix rdesktop client distribution release package (rdesktop 1.3.1) supports only Version 4 of RDP, so you would need to set up your local Linux printer as a network printer on your terminal server to print to it.
The good news is the development version of rdesktop, available through the Concurrent Versions Systems (CVS) repository on SourceForge, does support Version 5, including printer redirection (instructions are at the https://rdesktop.sourceforge.net/ ).
After downloading the source with CVS you can build rdesktop with the standard GNU build command sequence ‘configure’ followed by ‘make’ and then ‘make install.’
If you aren’t familiar with building from CVS, rdesktop is a straightforward project to get started with.
