[cups.general] Q. Proper way to startupcupsdasanon-rootuserasopposed to debian hacks?

[Michael Sweet]

Johannes Meixner wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> On Jun 7 10:39 Michael Sweet wrote (shortened):
>> Johannes Meixner wrote:
>>> On Jun 7 07:13 Michael Sweet wrote (shortened):
>>>> Printing is everything for our customers, so the server == printing.
>>> This makes me understand your point of view!
>>>
>>> But I still do not understand why you removed the freedom of choice
> ...
>> Because RunAsUser has resulted in HUNDREDS of support calls from
> 
> There is no need to shout - we get thousands of support calls
> when for example some broken third-party software does not work
> with our Linux distribution ;-)

You are providing a Linux distro, and it is appropriate that you
support the software in that distro.  We are providing printing
software - it is not appropriate that we support the incompatible
changes you make to our software in your Linux distro.

>> SuSE customers in particular - complaints that nothing is working,
>> or that they can't use the web interface, etc.
> 
> If "nothing is working", it is not because of RunAsUser.
> If "they can't use the web interface", it is not because
> of RunAsUser (only the login to the "Admin" section of the
> web interface doesn't work out-of-the box because of RunAsUser).

That is what I am referring to.  Users just say they can't use
the web interface, when they really mean they can't get any username
and password to work to do administration.

> We documented our changes (even in the "Release Notes" which are
> shown during each installation of Suse Linux) and how to use it
> and how to go back to the CUPS defaults and we do have support
> addresses and mailing lists but nevertheless many of our users
> don't read our documentation or don't use our contact addresses
> but instead they search and find you and use your address :-(

Clearly your users are not finding it, so I would suggest showing
these details in a more accessible place (who reads release notes
during an install?)

> ...
> What is your recommended way how Linux distributors should
> distribute CUPS with whatever non-default stuff?

CUPS 1.2 includes a new "standard configuration" help file
(doc/help/standard.html.in) which shows the local/distro
modifications to the documented defaults.  We generate this
from the configure script (so it will reflect the changes
there), but we recommend adding any distro-specific details
there.

Also, you can update the "home page" (doc/index.html.in and
doc/ll/index.html.in) to point to your own support pages and
phone numbers.

Of course, that all assumes that cupsd is running - if you
plan on not running it by default, then the user should be
prompted at install time whether they will be printing, and
enable it if so.  Similarly, when the user first asks to add
a printer, if the printing system is disabled, it should be
automatically enabled.

> What is your recommended way how third-party software
> should be made if it is not in full compliance to CUPS?
> (Assume there is a good reason why it cannot be in compliance.)

Non-compliant CUPS add-ons should not be included.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Internet Printing and Publishing Software        http://www.easysw.com