How to share a USB printer in WiFi with a Raspberry Pi?

Step by step tutorial to share your printer and print wirelessly (in WiFi) on your old USB printer using a Raspberry Pi (which is networked).

Raspi printing server

Usual update

We start with the usual update

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Installation of CUPS to share your printer

We can now install CUPS developed by Apple for MacOS and Linux (which we use here on Linux).

sudo apt-get install cups

Then configure it

sudo nano /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

Replace “listen localhost:631” (which forces CUPS to listen only to local port 631) with “listen 631” (which allows network machines to access CUPS).

# Only listen for connections from the local machine.
# A remplacer: Listen localhost:631
Listen 631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

Add “BrowseAddress @LOCAL” in the “# Show shared printers on the local network” section. The BrowseAddress value indicates to which hosts the printer information will be broadcast. “@LOCAL” means “all” hosts on the connected local network.

# Show shared printers on the local network.
Browsing On
BrowseLocalProtocols dnssd
BrowseAddress @LOCAL # Add here

Insert “Allow @Local” in the followint paragraph

Restrict access to the server…
Restrict access to the admin pages…
Restrict access to configuration files…

# Restrict access to the server...
  Order allow,deny
  Allow @Local # Ajout ici

# Restrict access to the admin pages...
  Order allow,deny
  Allow @Local # Ajout ici

# Restrict access to configuration files...
  AuthType Default
  Require user @SYSTEM
  Order allow,deny
  Allow @Local # Ajout ici

Add user to user group “lpadmin“.

It is then necessary to add a user to the user group “lpadmin”. This can be the default user “pi”. You can also create a new user if you want. But it is not mandatory. Here we use the user pi.

sudo usermod -aG lpadmin pi

Install the printer drivers

Pour HP

sudo apt-get install hplip
sudo hp-setup -i

Pour Samsung

sudo apt-get install printer-driver-splix

Pour Epson

sudo apt-get install printer-driver-escpr

Restart CUPS after installing the packages you are interested in.

sudo service cups restart

Install SAMBA on the Raspi

Install SAMBA

sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin

Configure the share
Modify the samba configuration file

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Add in the [global] section

# Impression avec CUPS
load printers = yes
printing = cups
printcap name = cups

At the end of the file modify [printers] and [print$] as follows:

[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /var/spool/samba
public = yes
printable = yes
guest ok = yes
writable = no
create mask = 0700
# Windows clients look for this share name as a $
# printer drivers
[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = no
write list = pi

Restart SAMBA to take these changes into account.

sudo service smbd restart

Set up the CUPS print server

Open a browser on the CUPS admin page, either on the Raspberry Pi or on a PC connected to the same network. Enter the address of the RasPi, followed by the port number separated by a colon. Ex: 192.168.1.59:631.

Be sure to enable printer sharing by checking the box when asked during the process.