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24.4 Configuring the Printer
After connecting the printer to the computer and installing the software,
install the printer in the system. This should be done with the
tools delivered with SUSE Linux Enterprise. Because SUSE Linux Enterprise puts great emphasis
on security, third-party tools often have difficulties with the security
restrictions and cause more complications than benefits. See
Section 24.6.1,
CUPS Server and Firewall and Section 24.6.2,
Changes in the CUPS Print Service for more information about
troubleshooting.
24.4.1 Local Printers
If an unconfigured local printer is detected when you log in, YaST starts
for configuring it. This uses the same dialogs as the following
description of configuration.
To configure the printer, select
in the YaST control center. This opens
the main printer configuration window, where the detected devices
are listed
in the upper part. The lower part lists any queues configured so far. If
your printer was not detected, configure it manually.
IMPORTANT:
If the entry is not available in the
YaST control
center, the yast2-printer package
probably is not
installed. To solve this problem, install the
yast2-printer package and restart YaST.
Automatic Configuration
YaST is able to configure the printer automatically if
the parallel or USB port can be set up automatically and the connected
printer can be detected. The printer database
must also contain the ID string of the printer that YaST
retrieves during the automatic hardware detection. If the
hardware ID differs from the model designation, select the model
manually.
To make sure that everything works properly, each configuration should
be checked
with the print test function of YaST. The test page also provides
important information about the configuration tested.
Manual Configuration
If the requirements for automatic configuration are not met or if you want
a custom setup, configure the printer manually. Depending on how
successful the autodetection is and how much information about the printer
model is found in the database, YaST may be able to determine the right
settings automatically or at least make a reasonable preselection.
The following parameters must be configured:
- Hardware Connection (Port)
-
The configuration of the hardware connection depends on whether YaST
has been able to find the printer during hardware autodetection.
If YaST is able to detect the printer model automatically, it can be
assumed that the printer connection works on the hardware level and no
settings need to be changed in this respect.
If YaST is unable to autodetect the printer model, there may be some
problem with the connection on the hardware level. In this case, some
manual intervention is required to configure the connection.
In the dialog, press
to start the manual configuration
workflow. Here, select your (for
example USB
printer) and, with , enter the
and select the device.
- Name of the Queue
-
The queue name is used when issuing print commands. The name
should be relatively short and consist of lowercase letters and numbers
only. Enter the in the next
dialog ().
- Printer Model and PPD File
-
All printer-specific parameters, such as the Ghostscript driver to
use and the printer filter parameters for the driver, are stored in a
PPD (PostScript Printer Description) file. See
Section 24.3,
Installing the Software
for more information about PPD files.
For many printer models, several PPD files are available, for example, if
several Ghostscript drivers work with the given model. When you select a
manufacturer and a model in the next dialog (), YaST selects the PPD file that corresponds to the
printer. If several PPD files are available for the model, YaST
defaults to one of them (normally the one marked
recommended). You can change the chosen PPD file in
the next dialog with .
For non-PostScript models, all printer-specific data is produced by the
Ghostscript driver. For this reason, the driver configuration is the single
most important factor determining the output quality. The printout is
affected both by the kind of Ghostscript driver (PPD file) selected and
the options specified for it. If necessary, change additional
options (as made available by the PPD file) after selecting
.
Always check whether your settings work as expected by
printing the test page. If the output is garbled, for example, with
several pages almost empty, you should be able to stop the printer by
first removing all paper then stopping the test from YaST.
If the printer database does not include an entry for your model, you can
either add a new PPD file by selecting , or use a collection of generic PPD files to make the
printer work with one
of the standard printer languages. To do so, select
as your printer
manufacturer.
- Advanced Settings
-
Normally, you do not need to change any of these settings.
24.4.2 Network Printers
A network printer can support various protocols, some of
them even concurrently. Although most of the supported protocols are
standardized, some manufacturers expand (modify) the standard because they
test systems that have not implemented the standard correctly or
because they want to provide certain functions that are not available
in the standard. Manufacturers then provide drivers for only a
few operating systems, eliminating difficulties with those
systems. Unfortunately, Linux drivers are rarely provided.
The current situation is such that
you cannot act on the assumption that every protocol works smoothly
in Linux. Therefore, you may have to experiment with various
options to achieve a functional configuration.
CUPS supports the socket,
LPD, IPP, and
smb protocols. Here is some detailed
information about these protocols:
- socket
-
Socket refers to a connection in which the
data is sent to an Internet socket without first performing a data
handshake. Some of the socket port numbers that are commonly used
are 9100 or 35.
An example device URI is
socket://host-printer:9100/.
- LPD (line printer daemon)
-
The proven LPD protocol is described
in RFC 1179. Under this protocol, some job-related data, such
as the ID of the printer queue, is sent before the actual print
data is sent.
Therefore, a printer queue must be specified when configuring the LPD
protocol for the data transmission. The implementations of
diverse printer
manufacturers are flexible enough to accept any name as the printer queue.
If necessary, the printer manual should indicate what name to use.
LPT, LPT1, LP1, or similar names are often used. An LPD queue
can also be configured on a different Linux or Unix host in the CUPS
system. The port number for an LPD service is 515.
An example device URI is
lpd://host-printer/LPT1.
- IPP (Internet printing protocol)
-
IPP is a relatively new (1999) protocol based on the
HTTP protocol. With IPP, more job-related data is transmitted
than with the other protocols.
CUPS uses IPP for internal data transmission. This is the
preferred protocol for a forwarding queue between two CUPS servers.
The name of the print queue is necessary to configure
IPP correctly. The port number for IPP is 631.
Example device URIs are
ipp://host-printer/ps
and
ipp://host-cupsserver/printers/ps.
- SMB (Windows share)
-
CUPS also supports printing on printers connected to Windows
shares. The protocol used for this purpose is SMB. SMB uses the
port numbers 137, 138, and
139.
Example device URIs are
smb://user:password@workgroup/server/printer,
smb://user:password@host/printer,
and
smb://server/printer.
The protocol supported by the printer must be determined
before configuration. If the manufacturer does not provide the needed
information, the command nmap, which comes with the
nmap package,
can be used to guess the protocol. nmap checks a host for
open ports. For example:
nmap -p 35,137-139,515,631,9100-10000 printerIP
Configuring CUPS in the Network Using YaST
Network printers should be configured with YaST. YaST facilitates the
configuration and is best equipped to handle the security restrictions in
CUPS (see Section 24.6.2,
Changes in the CUPS Print Service). For guidelines for
installation of CUPS in the network, read the article CUPS in a
Nutshell in the Support Database at https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:CUPS_in_a_Nutshell.
Start the printer configuration then click .
If not told otherwise by the network
administrator try the option and proceed according to your local requirements.
Configuring with Command Line Tools
Alternatively, CUPS can be configured with command-line tools like
lpadmin and lpoptions.
You need a device URI (uniform
resource identifier) consisting of a back-end, such as usb, and
parameters, like /dev/usb/lp0. For example, the full
URI could be parallel:/dev/lp0 (printer connected to
the first parallel port) or usb:/dev/usb/lp0 (first
detected printer connected to the USB port).
With lpadmin, the CUPS server administrator can add,
remove, or manage class and print queues. To add a
printer queue use the following syntax:
lpadmin -p queue -v device-URI \
-P PPD-file -E
Then the device (-v) will be available as
queue (-p), using the
specified PPD file (-P). This means that you must know the
PPD file and the name of the device if you want to configure the printer
manually.
Do not use -E as the first option. For all CUPS commands,
-E as the first argument sets use of an encrypted
connection. To enable the printer, -E must be used as
shown in the following example:
lpadmin -p ps -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -P \
/usr/share/cups/model/Postscript.ppd.gz -E
The following example configures a network printer:
lpadmin -p ps -v socket://192.168.1.0:9100/ -P \
/usr/share/cups/model/Postscript-level1.ppd.gz -E
For more options of lpadmin, see the
lpadmin(1) man page.
During printer setup, certain options are set as default. These
options can be modified for every print job (depending on the print tool
used). Changing these default options with YaST is also possible.
Using command line tools, set default options as follows:
-
First, list all options:
lpoptions -p queue -l
Example: Resolution/Output Resolution: 150dpi *300dpi 600dpi
The activated default option is evident from the preceding
asterisk (*).
-
Change the option with lpadmin: lpadmin -p queue -o Resolution=600dpi
-
Check the new setting: lpoptions -p queue -l
Resolution/Output Resolution: 150dpi 300dpi *600dpi
Settings are written to ~/.lpoptions when a
normal user runs lpoptions. root settings are written to
/etc/cups/lpoptions.
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