[cups.general] Printer status - ink levels, paper... returned to windows

Johannes Meixner jsmeix at suse.de
Wed Oct 19 02:24:20 PDT 2005


Hello,

On Oct 18 23:09 jrlaprad at yahoo.com wrote (shortened):

> usb inkjet printer on the suse box
....
> the windows boxes never get any status messages back from the printer.
> Stuff like ink levels, out of paper etc.

Normally it is the CUPS "usb" backend which communicates directly
with a USB printer.
To query ink levels etc. the backend would need to know how to
do it for the particular printer model.
But the CUPS "usb" backend is a generic backend for any USB printer.
You would need a printer model specific backend.

For example such a backend exists for HP printers.
It is the "hp" backend included in HP's HPLIP software.
The HPLIP software includes a "hp-toolbox" program to query
model specific stuff and do some maintenance tasks.
What is possible for which HP printer depends on the particular
model and whether or not it was implemented in the "hp" backend
and whether the backend really reports the status via stderr
so that cupsd would get it and show it in the "lpstat" command
and/or via the CUPS web interface.
For example I don't get a "out of paper" message from my
LaserJet 1220 even when I use the "hp" backend for this printer.

For Epson and Canon printers there are the backends
"epson" and "canon" from the Gimp-Print software
but I don't know if those backends support model specific
status messages.
The Gimp-Print software includes the "escputil" program
to query model specific stuff and do some maintenance tasks
(i.e. like the "hp-toolbox" program).

Summary:
In general at the moment model specific status messages
via the CUPS backend are not well supported (i.e. in most
cases not supported at all).


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
-- 
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5      Mail: jsmeix at suse.de
90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/





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