4.26 iPrint Client's silent install is not silent.

  • 3756262
  • 22-Nov-2006
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell iPrint for NetWare Novell NetWare 6.5 Support Pack 6
Novell iPrint Client for Windows

Situation

With NetWare 6.5 Support Pack 6 installed, the silent install version of nipp.exe (nipp-s.exe) is not silent.

Resolution

Rename Sys:\Apache2\htdocs\ippdocs\clients\win-9x-nt4\nipp-s.exe to nipp.exe

Cause:
At first glance, the above rename suggestion will seem to not apply to your situation. Please continue reading to understand why the above change will produce the desired results.

Prior to SP6 for NetWare 6.5, the various versions of nipp.exe resided in Sys:\Apache2\htdocs\ippdocs. The method of implementing the silent install of the iPrint client was intuitive: rename Sys:\Apache2\htdocs\ippdocs\nipp-s.exe to nipp.exe. That rename would cause 9x, NT, 2000, and WinXP machines running the iPrint client to receive the nipp-s executable (the silent version of the install) in place of the traditional install (nipp.exe) when the version iPrint client on the server was newer than the version installed to the workstation.

SP6 introduces a new client structure to accommodate a future design:
Sys:\Apache2\htdocs\ippdocs\clients
\linux
\linux-nld9
\mac
\win-2k
\win-9x-nt4
\win-xp

The Sys:\Apache2\iprint\ipp.conf includes the following directive:

RewriteRule ^/ippdocs/nipp.exe /ippdocs/clients/win-9x-nt4/nipp.exe [R,L]

This directive instructs Apache to cause older iPrint clients (4.20 and earlier, which look to the /ippdocs directory for the iPrint client installation) to redirect to /ippdocs/clients/win-9x-nt4/. While there are separate directories, the nipp.exe is the same for each for each Windows OS.
Note: The nipp.exe is the same for each OS as of this writing (November 2006), however, this will not be true in future releases.

Because of the above cited ipp.conf directive, Win2k and WinXP workstation will look to the win-9x-nt directory to obtain the iPrint client installation.