CUPS
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Frugalware uses the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) for handling printers and to manage printing.
From CUPS' site: :"CUPS is the standards-based, open source printing system developed by Apple Inc. for Mac OS® X and other UNIX®-like operating systems".
Contents |
Installation
If the system is connected to a networked printer using the Samba protocol or if the system is to be a print server for Windows clients, also install Samba:
Printer driver
- gutenprint - A collection of high quality drivers for Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Sony, Olympus, and PCL printers for use with GhostSscript, CUPS, Foomatic, and the GIMP
- foomatic-filters, foomatic-filters-ppds - Foomatic is a database-driven system for integrating free software printer drivers with common spoolers under Unix. Installing foomatic-filters should solve problems if the cups error_log is reporting "stopped with status 22!".
- hplip - HP GNU/Linux driver. Provides support for DeskJet, OfficeJet, Photosmart, Business Inkjet and some LaserJet printer models, as well as a number of Brother printers.
- splix - Samsung drivers for SPL (Samsung Printer Language) printers
Download printer PPD (Optional)
Depending on the printer, this step is optional and may not be needed, as the standard CUPS installation already comes with quite a few PPD (Postscript Printer Description) files. Moreover, the foomatic-filters, gimp-print and hplip packages already include quite a few PPD files which will automatically be detected by CUPS.
Here is an explanation of what a PPD file is from the Linux Printing website: :"For every PostScript printer the manufacturers provide a PPD file which contains all printer-specific information about the particular printer model: Basic printer capabilities as whether the printer is a color printer, fonts, PostScript level, etc., and especially the user-adjustable options, as paper size, resolution, etc." I
If the PPD for the printer is not already in CUPS, then:
- visit the OpenPrinting database and select the manufacturer and model of the printer *visit the manufacturer's site and search for GNU/Linux drivers
Daemon
Launch cups daemon:
Get it started at every boot:
Configuring the printer
- 1.Open your favorite Internet browser and go to http://localhost:631. This is the Web interface of CUPS.
- 2.Select Administration from the top menu. If a username is required, type root, and give your root password.
You can do almost everything here in connection with printing. In our example, we will add a new local printer. Don't forget to plug ans start your printer.
- 4.Click Add Printer, type in a name and optionally fill the Location and Description lines, then click on continue. If a username is required, type root, and give your root password'.
- 5.Select Device, in most cases it is Parallel Port #1 for older models and one of the USB ports for newer ones. I you have got a USB printer cups will write the printer name next to the proper port.
- 6.On the next page, select your vendor and your printer type (the driver/filter).
- 7.Then set the default options of the printer
- 8. Here it is,your printer is successfully added. Now it could be good to add to some users the right to use this printer. Clck on Administration and choose Set Allowed Users
Add the username and select Set Allowed Users'
To set up a remote Windows share with password, give a string like this for location (the share name is the printer’s assigned name on the remote system): smb://user:passwd@Netbios_Name_or_ip_address/Share_name
Notice that, when you view the printer configuration, the credentials will not be shown but will be used.
Now, test the configuration by pressing the Maintenance drop-down menu then Print Test Page. If it does not print and there is certainty regarding the correctness of applied settings, then the problem is most likely due to missing a proper printer driver.
GNOME and KDE Frontends
GNOME and KDE have their own front-end.
Troubleshooting
If something goes wrong, check out CUPS log at /var/log/cups. There is a verbose error log and an access log, too.