I had an HP LaserJet 3030 printer connected to an Ubuntu box. It worked fine with 11.10. I was able to print from Ubuntu as well as from Windows and Mac from the home network.
About a month or so ago, I upgraded 11.10 to 12.04, then things started to falling apart. My Windows 7 laptop couldn't print to the printer any more.
Today, I installed many updates on 12.04, hoping that would fix the printing problem. Unfortunately, it made the situation much worse. Now not only my Windows 7 laptop won't print, my XP desktop won't print either.
Every time I print something from the Windows computer, the Ubuntu box logs an error message in /var/log/samba/log.'machineName' as:
_spoolss_OpenPrinterEx: Cannot open a printer handle for printer \\server.
It is interesting that it uses the server name as the printer, not the \\server\xyzprinter as the printer name.
Anyone had a similar problem? Anyway to work around the problem?
I had same problem. The real reason for this problem is that some times a Windows Client has a "ghost port" configured, that's been lost or misconfigured. The clear evidence is that the Windows system is asking the server for a printer without the printer name.
The sollution is simple: go to the Printers and Faxes control panel on Windows Box, remove the offending printer and add it again.
I know of a Linux fix for HP Printers.
HPLIP:
Hopefully that will help you.