SNMP printer discovery documentation?

[Kurt Pfeifle]

John A. Murdie <john at cs.york.ac.uk> wrote (Wednesday 26 July 2006 13:36):

>> Michael Sweet <mike at easysw.com> wrote (Friday 21 July 2006 20:18):
>>
>> > Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
>> >> ...
>> >>  * In the web interface you can choose if you want to install what
>> >>    it found -- but you can't override what backend or printername
>> >>    it suggests... (you could remember the IP address and model name
>> >>    it displays, and re-use that info with any other method of
>> >>    printer installation you prefer.
>> >
>> > Simpler than that - just click on the "Add Printer" button, fill
>> > out the info you want, and then select the printer from the list
>> > of devices.  It will even auto-select a matching driver, if one is
>> > available.
>>
>> Yes, that's what I meant to cover when I said (further above)
>>
>>   "...it reduces installation of newly discovered devices
>>    to a simple two click process in most cases."
>>
>> ;-)
> 
> I must be missing something. I'm experimenting with CUPS 1.2.2.
> I can tell that backend/snmp is working, as there is a minute 
> or so delay when I access the administration page 

*If* the snmp backend did discover (uninstalled) printers, it
will display them in a list on the admin page, like this
screenshot shows:

    http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2126

If your screenshot does look more like this:

    http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2127

then the snmp backend did not discover an IP address that is
a printer that is not yet installed on the system.

> and I can see  with ps(1) the  
> process running backend/snmp - I decided to try adding a printer
> to the CUPS configuration that I'd not previously had as part 
> of my set of CUPS-managed printers. I knew from a previous debug
> run of backend/snmp that this had found it and identified it
> correctly and that the printer has an accessable IPP interface. 
> When I press the 'Add printer' button,

Didn't you have an "Add *This* Printer"-button? (If not, your
snmp backend didn't discover one...)

Clicking "Add This Printer" is the first click. After that,
the next screen to see should be s.th. like:

    http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2128

If all went well, it has a PPD already pre-selected. Now simply 
click "Add Printer" (2nd click) and get this result:

    http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2129

> I am presented with the first 'Add New Printer' page with 'Name', 
> 'Location', 'Description' fields - which I expect, since 
> backend/snmp cannot of course determine these. I press 'Continue' 
> and, after another few minutes' delay, I'm offered a 'Device' 
> selector showing 'AppSocket/HP JetDirect', which is odd since 
> backend/snmp identifies that the printer is IPP-capable when run 
> under debug. I can change the device to IPP and continue, but 
> then have to select the device URI and finally the make and model 
> of the printer. 
> 
> This isn't a "simple two click process". What's wrong?

I can only speculate...

Probably your snmp backend didn't auto-discover new or uninstalled 
printers; you were offered only the "Add Printer"-button; clicking
on it will start the "traditional" method of adding printers via
the web interface (with the additional "benefit" that upon clicking
"Continue" after filling in printername and such, it seems to *once*
*more* run the snmp backend, so that it can display the discovered 
device URIs in full in between of only the generic scheme names)....

> Also, when I "Add" a printer that I have already added, I'm not 
> warned of this. It would be nice if such a warning was given.

Cheers,
Kurt