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Airport Extreme and openSuSE 11.3

Ok so this is to document how to get both Printer and Drives shared by an AirPort Extreme to work in openSuSE 11.3 (or linux in general):

  • Make sure the printer and USB drives can be accessed on Mac OS or Windows
  • You need to know the name of your AirPort (to find out you can look in windows, Printers -> Right click -> Printer Proprty -> Location)
  • Install avahi (all the essential packages)
  • Try avahi-browser -ar and see that the AirPort Extreme is indeed found and on the right IP

To add a printer:

  • Go to YaST -> Printers -> Print via Network -> Connection Wizard -> TCP Port (AppSocket/JetDirect) -> Type in the name of the airport in Hostname -> Test Connection
  • If the above passes, then you can select the printer type etc per normal
  • To set the default printer, use lpoptions -d [Printer name]

To add USB drives:

  • su
  • vi /etc/nsswicth
  • Find hosts:, make sure wins is in it too (so the line reads something like hosts:  files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] wins dns)
  • ping [Airport name], confirm IP is correct
  • cd /media
  • mkdir test
  • mount -t cifs -o rw,password=XXXX //[AIRPORT NAME]/[DRIVE NAME] /media/test
  • The above can be done automatically via fstab as well
  • To find the drive name, you can look in Windows -> Right click My Computer -> Map Network drive (see what the drive name is)

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