CUPS, Schmups

jlowell · 2004-02-20 03:19:21

There was a little sign my secretary had on her desk back in the days that I had such as a secretary. The sign showed a picture of a scrawny, tired, middle-aged woman with a scowl on her face and it was captioned "I have just one nerve left and you just got on it". That's how researching the forums and other places for easy-to-understand information about setting up a printer for my main machine has started to make me feel.
Here's what I'm trying to do, what I understand I need to do and a question or two for which I'd appreciate answers.

I have three workstations and a webserver here connected by a 4 port router/switch. On my main machine, I've configured my kernel to include parallel port support which I built in. I have no interest in printing from the other workstations. The printer is a HP LaserJet 1150, I've had it about three months. From what I can gather, I need to install the following packages:

1. cups
2. hpijs
3. foomatic

Am I right about these package installations? Are all of them necessary or only some of them? I am interested only in printing out letters or memos using abiword, that's it, no pretty pictures or photos of my cats.

Since only one machine will be doing the printing and since the printer is attached to that machine locally, where do I look to do the configuration?: The last time I attempted a Linux printing installation was when Mandrake was my principal distro, now ages ago, and they used a GUI.

Any help would be appreciated.

jlowell

neocephas · 2004-02-20 03:45:28

You may also want to install ghostscript as was mentioned in other posts. I don't know if it's necessary, but other people said that installing it solved their printer woes, so when I setup my printer I just installed it anyway.

BTW, you may want to look into getting a specific PPD file for your printer at http://www.linuxprinting.org.

Also, if you don't already know, you can configure your printer using your web browser by going to http://localhost:631 and loginning in as root. Likewise, gnome (if you get the gnome-cups-manager from one of the TURs) and kde (control center) may also provide their own interfaces to configuring your printer.

Good Luck.

jlowell · 2004-02-20 05:49:51

neocephas,

Thanks for your reply!

I employ a jury-rigged WM, a modified xfce4 using only the packages necessary to run xfwm4 with a task bar and a menu successfully. There's no DE, no panel, no icons, no cruft. You mention Gnome and KDE as having configuration interfaces for printing which they do, of course. Are these interfaces essential to one's using the web configuration scheme you mention above or is it enough simply to have a browser?

jlowell

neocephas · 2004-02-20 06:15:48

I also run "a jury-rigged WM, a modified xfce4"! You don't need gnome or kde to use the web interface - just cups and a web browser. Also, you don't need to install all of gnome to use the gnome-cups-manager, however, this was just a suggestion if you were using gnome. I would just go with the web interface or the command line. Also, in order to use the web interface, you have to start cups after you install it (/etc/rc.d/cups start).

jlowell · 2004-02-20 07:13:57

Thanks very much, neocephas.

jlowell

scottro · 2004-02-20 16:43:23

For a laserjet, you don't need the deskjet stuff. (I ~think~ that's what the hpijs is, could be wrong though).

I have a page on cups that might help a bit at

http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu/cups.html

I would start with just cups and ghostscript, leave out foomatic and take it from there, just using the cups laserjet drivers. See if it does everything you need, and if not, then add foomatic.

I would use the web interface rather than a Gnome or KDE setup tool. (I don't use either, so not an expert on that.)

Scott

jlowell · 2004-02-20 17:47:41

scottro,

From what I was able to gather during the initial investigations I'd made before posting here, hpijs is, in fact, recommended for my model laserjet. I do believe that its primary use is with inkjets, however. If you know something I don't about this question I'd appreciate knowing about it though. Thanks for your input.

jlowell

scottro · 2004-02-20 18:57:20

No, I'm sorry--thought I'd made that clear in my earlier post, I don't have special knowledge about it.

It's just that in my experience with cups, the simpler the better, and I just use cups and ghostscript. Every time I've tried with more specific drivers, it doesn't work.

jlowell · 2004-02-20 19:02:28

scottro,

It's just that in my experience with cups, the simpler the better, and I just use cups and ghostscript. Every time I've tried with more specific drivers, it doesn't work.

Well, that's certainly food for thought.

Regards.

jlowell

drivingmsjuki · 2004-02-21 12:06:52

Hi Scottro ~ Many thanks for mentioning your page about CUPS. When it works, it can be a Good Thing (tm), and most of the time it works.

This week OfficeMax had the Brother HL-1440 on sale for $180, and the sale included two rebates worth a combined $100 .. so essentially you get a laser printer for less than the cost of the cartridge plus drum unit. Anyway I've been going nuts trying to use one of the 3 computers here as a print server .. everything was just right except for the client.conf file. This morning I went back to your page, read it again, tried the client.conf thing, and now it works just fine. There are three machines on the inside network and they all need access to the printer.

So, thanks!

scottro · 2004-02-21 15:11:54

And thank you--it's always nice to hear that one of these pages helped someone.

speedster · 2004-03-04 14:54:09

I had a lot of trouble getting CUPS to work and thought something was wrong with my devfs setup, but when I recompiled the 2.6.3 kernel without the mm patch applied and with the USB stuff compiled in instead of modules, my Epson C40 worked great! Weird. Problem with the modules, perhaps or mm patch, somehow?

Arch Linux

#1 2004-02-20 03:19:21

CUPS, Schmups

#2 2004-02-20 03:45:28

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#3 2004-02-20 05:49:51

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#4 2004-02-20 06:15:48

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#5 2004-02-20 07:13:57

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#6 2004-02-20 16:43:23

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#7 2004-02-20 17:47:41

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#8 2004-02-20 18:57:20

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#9 2004-02-20 19:02:28

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#10 2004-02-21 12:06:52

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#11 2004-02-21 15:11:54

Re: CUPS, Schmups

#12 2004-03-04 14:54:09

Re: CUPS, Schmups

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