Arch Linux

nd925a

Member

Registered: 2017-01-30

Posts: 44

[SOLVED] Use an old computer as a print server

I was having an issue with getting network printing working using an old laptop as the network print server for a USB connected printer.
Both the server machine and the client machine are running fully updated Arch.

The printer was automatically found on the network by the client machine, because I'm using Avahi on the server machine to broadcast so my wife can print things from her Apple products (which worked without any messing about).

The first problem I had was after installing the printer through the cups interface of the client machine was I would try to send a job to it and would get back

"Unable to locate printer "printerhost.local"."

I figured out that adding the following line to /etc/hosts on the client machine:

192.169.0.42   printerhost.local

The second problem I ran into was

"Filter Failed"

To fix this issue I switched the driver being used by the client machines cups server to RAW.

edit: Title Formatting

Last edited by nd925a (2025-10-05 00:31:24)