Netport Express

Support for network-attached printer controllers (Intel Netport Express) requires that the Netport Express (XL or EL) printer controllers must be able to obtain their boot text from a sharepoint on a networked machine. Since the Samba server is usually always up and running, this is a good place to supply the boot text from as it is possible for the Netport Express to request it at any time.

/usr/lib/netport:

This directory must be created and then all of the Netport boot text files copied into it.

First, it should be given permissions such that the whole world can read its contents. For example:

     drwxrwxr-x    2 root     root         4096 Feb 14 09:23 /usr/lib/netport

All of the files placed therein should also be given read permissions for the whole world. For example:

     -rwxrwxr-x    1 root     root       489026 Dec 18  1998 en.npx

The files needed to support RBL are all those that end with the ".npx" extension. The Netport Express Manager will try to copy the files to the shared directory when you select it for RBL. If it cannot do so, you will have to copy them manually. Here is a list of what I copied (you may find more):

     en.npx  enl.npx  tn.npx  tnl.npx

/etc/samba/smb.conf:

Samba must be configured to create a sharepoint for the Netport Express RBL directory. Add the following section to your /etc/samba/smb.conf file at the end in the share definitions area:

     ; Sharepoint where Intel Netport Express print servers can get their RBL
     ; boot text files from.
     [Netport]
         comment = Netport RBL Directory
         path = /usr/lib/netport
         public = yes
         guest ok = yes
         browseable = yes

Configure the Netport Express RBL page to point the primary or alternate RBL path to the sharepoint created (you may have to recycle the Samba service to make the sharepoint visible). The login user can be "guest".

Note that this all works because the sharepoint is created with "guest ok = yes" and the guest user is mapped to some userid (probably "nobody") that is given access to the files in the Netport directory by the permissions "-rwxrwxr-x".

If you wish to use some other scheme to enhance security, you can do so but be advised that "guest ok = yes" must always be used, since the Netport Express cannot supply passwords. Probably the best method to use is to set the guest userid via the guest account parameter in the "netport" sharepoint section of /etc/samba/smb.conf. For example:

     guest account = netport

If you do this, you'll need to create a userid (e.g. "netport") that should have no password (i.e. so nobody can actually login with it) and that has permissions to read the files in the "netport" directory.