individual printer lists

pipitas k1pfeifle at gmx.net
Sun Oct 3 08:47:11 PDT 2004


Anonymous wrote:

> I have a large Linux terminal (about 100 terminals) installation at my
> school. 

Are they running KDE? If yes, read on further below....

It is workaround for your problem, if you use a KDE or "kprinter".


> I have a single cups server serving approximately 10 printers 
> around the network.
> 
> It is getting to the point where the printer list is getting unmanageable.
>  I am wondering if there is a way to provide individuals with custom
> printer lists?
> 
> For example, I would like user A to see printers 1,3 and 5 and be able to
> choos printer 3 as his default.  User B needs to see printers 2,4, and 6
> and be able to select printer 6 as her default.  I don't see an obvious
> way to do this. 

With KDE, or if you at least use "kprinter" as your print command (even
for non-KDE apps or from a GNOME session) try this:

The mechanic is this: KDEPrint is powerful enough and able to "filter" the 
list of printers individually to each user. (A user can set and change this 
for himself. But, if you use the KDE "Kiosk Mode" (an Enterprise Desktop 
feature), an administrator can lock it down to be immutable and the user 
can't change it anymore. He only sees a pre-defined list of printers.)

To investigate the "printerlist filtering":

 * start "kprinter",
 * click "Expand", 
 * click "System Options...", 
 * select "Filter" (right column)

and find your way from there. (There is even an option to define the
filter list based on a regex on the "Location" string). 

Finally, to activate the filtering, click on the "funnel" icon sitting 
on the right of the printer drop-down list in the kprinter dialog.

The user-specific KDEPrint settings are written to

   "$HOME/.kde*/share/config/" 

into the files "kdeprintrc" and "kprinterrc". Look for the lines 

  "LocationRe"

and 

  "Printers" 

in the {Filter} section of kdeprintrc. Look for the lines 
"FilterEnabled" in the {KFileDialog Speedbar} section of kprinterrc.

> Does anyone know of a way this can be accomplished given 
> the fact that everyone is essentially using the same computer (terminal
> server)  I'd be interested in any ideas, cups related or not.  I am
> familiar with the access controls and can restrict access to printers, but
> the long list and sitewide defaults are confusing to users.

I can feel with you (and them)  ;-)

> Since different applications (firefox, openoffice) handle printing
> differently, it seems like this might need to be addressed per
> application?

You can easily set firefox or openoffice or all GNOME programs to 
use "kprinter" as their print command. (You could also create a
symlink from "lpr" and "lp" to "kprinter" if you like evil hacks :-)

> Any help or thoughts are appreciated.

Find more details here:

  http://printing.kde.org/faq/kdeprint.php#IsKDEPrintforKDEusageonly
 
> Thanks,
> Derek

Cheers,
Kurt





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