Arch Linux

bananabrain

Member

From: England

Registered: 2010-05-07

Posts: 78

CUPS configuration without avahi?

Can anyone here tell me if it's possible to manually configure a CUPS 2.x print server and clients without involving an avahi daemon or any kind of "zeroconf" software, and if so describe or point me to a method of achieving the same?

Thanks.

demaio

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2012-09-02

Posts: 101

Website

Re: CUPS configuration without avahi?

You can disable/mask the avahi daemon service and socket activation, see this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 2#p1546452

pypi

Wiki Maintainer

Registered: 2014-04-22

Posts: 250

Re: CUPS configuration without avahi?

Are https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CU … ux_systems and https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CUPS#Network_2 not sufficient?

bananabrain

Member

From: England

Registered: 2010-05-07

Posts: 78

Re: CUPS configuration without avahi?

Thanks for the replies guys, but I'm really struggling with this.

avahi-daemon is already disabled. I want nothing to do with it.

pypi's first link... setting up the server... editing cupsd.conf... printing tests from a client through the server web page... I'm comfortable with those.

Gaining access to the printer from a client is where I'm failing miserably.

It's ages since I configured a cups server but it used to be really easy, with a file  /etc/cups/client.conf  on each client pointing to the server.
I read that "client.conf" is now long deprecated, although these people running the same latest version as us don't seem to think so...

     http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/vi … /cups.html

Anyway, I temporarily enabled avahi-daemon on a laptop and ran avahi-discover which gave me the following information about my printer (a wirelessly networked Brother HL-L2340DN postscript compatible laser):

  web site:
  BRW28565A672C77.local/192.168.1.100:80

  internet printer:
  BRW28565A672C77.local/192.168.1.100:631

  unix printer:
  BRW28565A672C77.local/192.168.1.100:515

  pdl printer:
  BRW28565A672C77.local/192.168.1.100:9100

The first looks like the printer's own configuration web server, but what exactly am I supposed to do those other three? It certainly doesn't tell you in pypi's second link, called "To configure the clients". Are these URIs meant to go in a file somewhere on the clients?

Cerebrally challenged...

Lone_Wolf

Forum Moderator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,922

Re: CUPS configuration without avahi?

All you need is the info to configure the client and avahi-discover gave you that.

Check the port numbers  of those uri's :

port 80 allows to access the pirnter webinterface using http .
port 631 is used by CUPS local webinterface, but also the port on which clients can connect using ipp, http and ipps protocol .
port 515 is the unix printing protocol used by lpd .
port 9100 is used for AppSocket aka JetDirect and used by all HP networked printers (and lots of others) . it's accessed using the socket protocol .

If you want to use one file for multiple clients :

on one of the clients delete alle existing cups printers
Add a new printer using the ip-adress / hostname details using whichever protocol you prefer of the available ones
verify everything works as intended.
stop cups

The settings cups needs to access the printers are now in /etc/cups/printers.conf .
( It's only readable for root ).

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

bananabrain

Member

From: England

Registered: 2010-05-07

Posts: 78

Re: CUPS configuration without avahi?

Thanks also to you lone_wolf for your help.

I finally got there. I'm embarassed to say I was so buried in brother's own documentation and network guide that I missed a crucial bit of information from the arch wiki's "Printer Specific Problems", where we find the correct brother printer address:

  ipp://ip_address/ipp/port1

The printer is now hooked up to the server, mdns and avahi are completely disabled, and all four clients can see the printer with no extra configuration, but if I'm honest I don't know how.

What's still confusing me is that all I've done is provide the server with a ppd file.

In the past, I needed to install four driver packages from AUR:

  brother-lpr-drivers-common
  brother-cups-wrapper-common
  brother-lpr-drivers-laser
  brother-cups-wrapper-laser

...so I'm wondering why everything is working fine without these packages, and if I'm missing any functionality by not having them installed.

Thanks again.

severach

Member

Registered: 2015-05-23

Posts: 192

Re: CUPS configuration without avahi?

Wikipedia: IPP

Among other things, IPP allows a client to:
    query a printer's capabilities

So long as all the expected options are present in "Set Default Options" then your IPP setup is fully functional.