[cups.general] lpr printing problem

[Peter Flynn]

Kimmo Hedman wrote:
> Hi,
> any ideas for my printing problems? I'm running debian etch 2.6.18-3
> with cupsys 1.2.7-2 pkg, all other printing works ok (firefox,Kate,test 
> page from cups, etc.) but not from command line lpr (e.g. adobe reader 
> uses that).

I got this too: lp/lpr looks in the /etc/printcap and wants to use the 
first name it finds for each entry. If that's a long name with spaces, 
like CUPS lets you use, it dies.

Delete your printers and recreate them making sure that the primary name 
is short and all lowercase and has only [a-z0-9]. Then if CUPS wants a 
longer, fancier name, make something else up. That way the short name 
gets into /etc/printcap first, and lp/lpr seems to like it.

This worked for me: I can't guarantee it, and I have probably 
misunderstood why it needed to be done this way, but getting CUPS to 
work is just mind-bendingly difficult.

///Peter