Living (and dying) with Linux in the workplace

Setup, part 2: Getting connected

My second task as Sharon's admin was to get the Linux machine integrated with our network and communications tools.

Network file servers: I had some trouble accessing our Windows file servers, but then I found a "Connect to Server" option on the Places menu. From it, I chose "Windows Share," entered the UNC name, clicked "connect," entered my Windows login information (name, domain, password) and was connected.

Printing: Selecting the Applications menu > Utilities > Printing > Printers launches the Common Unix Print System Manager utility. To print, just double-click the New Printer icon, enter the information it wants and print the test page. No problem, right? Well, mostly.

There was one little glitch that required some research to get over. I knew the editorial printer was an HP Laser Jet 4000. I knew it was attached to an HP Jet Direct. I had the IP address of the Jet Direct, so I entered it, continued to the next screen and selected the printer. All seemed fine. I created a test page in a text editor and sent it off. But off it didn't go. I double-checked the settings and tried again. Still nothing.

An hour later, I found the information I needed in the reference manual mentioned in the startup guide. When it asked for the Host, it wanted a name. I printed a test page from the Jet Direct, got its name, typed the name in the Host field and it worked. In YaST (Yet another Setup Tool), SUSE's main admin tool, I made it available to all users and it appeared in the Printers list for the users.

E-mail and calendar: We use IBM's Lotus Notes, and this turned out to be an initial sticking point, since IBM didn't want to give us a test copy of an older version Notes for Linux when the Notes 8 beta was due out any day. Fortunately, Notes has a Webmail client, so Sharon still had access to her e-mail and calendar via the Web. She later installed the Notes 8 client public beta herself.

-- Joyce Carpenter