[cups] Using a network enabled printer from a lappy

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 28 February 2016 23:39:15 Daniel Miller wrote:

> ------ Original Message ------
> From: "Gene Heskett" <gheskett at wdtv.com>
> To: cups at cups.org
> Sent: 2/28/2016 7:40:57 PM
> Subject: Re: [cups] Using a network enabled printer from a lappy
>
> >On Sunday 28 February 2016 20:59:25 Daniel Miller wrote:
> >>  Hmm...
> >>
> >>  Things to verify:
> >>
> >>  1.  Designated print server has a listener on it's IP address. 
> >> "lsof -i
> >>
> >>  :631" should yield results with either the specified IP or the
> >>  : global
> >
> >That gets me this on what would be the server, this machine:
> >
> >gene at coyote:~$ sudo lsof -i :631
> >[sudo] password for gene:
> >COMMAND  PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
> >cupsd   4148 root    6u  IPv4 731126      0t0  TCP *:ipp (LISTEN)
> >cupsd   4148 root    9u  IPv6 731127      0t0  TCP *:ipp (LISTEN)
> >cupsd   4148 root   11u  IPv4 731130      0t0  UDP *:ipp
>
> So the server is available for cups connections - that's a good thing.
>
> >That _was_ "BrowseLocalProtocols CUPS dnssd", I took out the "Local".
> >
> >>  3.  BrowsePoll 192.168.whatever:631 on the laptop should now show
> >> the printer.
> >
> >No biscuit for the dog yet, boths cups daemons restarted.
> >
> >But no printers found when firefox is sent to localhost:631/admin and
> >find new printers is clicked on.
>
> Instead of "find new printer", try "add printer" - and see if there
> are any "discovered network printers".
>
A wee bit late, and I have fed the dog just this instant. I went (ssh -Y) 
into one of the other machines where it Just Worked(TM), ran as the 
user, system-config-printer.  Then I turned to the lappy and ran it 
there but found as root it wasn't editable, so I quit , ctl-d'd the root 
shell and ran it again as me, this time I was able to connect to the 
server, it then saw all the printers this machine knows about, and I 
dbl-clicked on the Network_printer, and changed everything in the next 
few lines to match what I saw on a Just Works machine.  Voila, a cups 
test page worked just fine about 2 minutes ago.

So I believe I am in business for the nonce.  I should do the same for 
the other printer thats powered about 50% of the time too as its a great 
printer for text, 19 PPM, which when the old machine is driving it, is 
about 18.5 PPM faster that that machine ever had the pleasure of using 
in its salad years.  I was driving a xerox 1650ro with it, a 40 cps 
daisy wheel, fastest daisy wheel ever made.  It still works after all 
these years, but the one time ribbons are like glass and just shatter on 
the first letter struck these days.

> >>  4.  From the command line, using "cupsctl" to both display current
> >>  settings and make changes may also help shed some light for both
> >> your server and laptop.
> >
> >This printer went belly up with a clean the corona wires error after
> > a tree took down half the towns power Wednesday moring about 6ish.
>
> [..]
>
> >Fixed that, sent a cups test page from this machine, worked.
> >But while the printer is now seen by the "find new printers" on a
> >broswer on the lappy, I still cannot print to it, and cups is still
> >demanding the brother drivers.  All it should need is this machines
> >address:631 I would think.
> >
> >Shouldn't there be a "raw" option, which would then let this machine
> >sort
> >it out?
>
> Are all the machines in question *nix?  I'm not aware of such an
> option - normally the printers depend on the drivers to perform at
> least some formatting (with the exception of possibly plain text).
>
> >  I am doing exactly that from a legacy machine 30+ yo in the
> >basement, using a java app here called drivewire.  I can 'list
> > filename
> >
> >>/p" on that old machine, the /p driver has been replaced by one that
> >
> >uses a channel of the drivewire protocol to write it to a file on
> > this machine. I then open that file and do a cr to lf conversion to
> > make it look like a *nix text file, and lp -dprinter_name filename
> > runs it thru cups, and in this case stuffs that back down the same
> > USB extension cable to a Brother HL-2140 B&W printer, but I could
> > just as easily send it to this color laser printer too, I have done
> > it when I was out of toner for the HL-2140.
>
> So if you're just pushing a plain text file to the printer - then yes
> I suppose a "raw" driver may work - but then you need to configure it
> manually.  And if you want it to print something other than plain text
> you will need a proper driver - so either need to get it installed on
> the laptop or get the laptop talking to a print server.

I believe that anything I send these printers needs to be made into a 
rasterized image before dumping it down the cable to the paper smudger.

> --
> Daniel
>
Thanks Daniel.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>