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tonekd92 wrote:
>>So, to my question...
>>
>>Can anyone here point me at a _simple_ CUPS configuration howto
>>document? Something aimed at hand-configuration of CUPS, but without the
>>volume of the CUPS Software Administrators Manual?
>>
>>
>
>
> This probably will not help you at all. So why am I trying? I don't
> know.

Well, even if you don't know why, I still thank you for trying. I'm
getting a clearer picture of what to do with each post.

> The only thing that web interface does is (and I'm sure this not
> totally correct), configures /etc/cups/printers.conf, copies your
> selected printer
> (ppd file) into /etc/cups/ppd (or somewhere in /etc/cups can't
> remember now),
> and writes the /etc/printcap.

I didn't notice any new printcap entries when I built my cups printers,
and they seem to work, even after I deleted /etc/printcap. I'll try
again tonight; perhaps I've screwed something up now <grin>

> So basically, if you can learn how to
> write the cups printers.conf file by reading the one you've already
> configured, you're
> 99% done. Or is it 1%?

Sounds good. I'll look at the printers.conf file and see if I can
decypher it's requirements. That should help me when I build cups into
my server at work.

- --

Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Enterprise Data Systems
Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)
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I used these resources:

[1]
http://www.linuxprinting.org/cups-doc.html

[2] http://www.linuxprinting.org/kpfeifl...atic-user.html

[3]
http://www.linuxprinting.org/kpfeifl...cups-help.html

I wrote my own mini-howto, but it is in Italian; sorry, but I have no
time to translate it now.

If you want, I can post it.

Best regards

Nellinux

Dominik L. Borkowski wrote:

[...]

>
> IMO, i tend to completely disagree. before stating why, here's a correction:
> cups does NOT require a web browser for its configuration. it's optional.
>
> now, onto the reasons why i disagree, especially in this case. cups web
> interface allowes not only for printer configuration, but for basic printer
> administration. cups not only works for you and a few of your workstations
> plus a printer, but also for larger organizations with tons of printers and
> hundreds of workstations. with cups you can have multiple administrators
> who can manage those printers from any workstation they please. that's the
> true power of web based interfaces: you can go anywhere and manage your
> resources. no need for ssh/telnet clients, no need for admin privileges on
> a given workstation: just point & click.

This can be done with LPRng and Webmin...Yeah, it requires installing
Webmin, but you have much of the same functionality.

It did this at the hospital I work at, to replace a Windows print
server. 3 Linux machines, "clustered" with heartbeat, running LPRng. I
tend to do most of my admin work via ssh/shell, but we have a half dozen
techs that know little to nothing about *nix. So ssh/telnet/shell admin
was out of the question.
I configured Webmin to allow them access *only* to printing functions,
and to authenticate against out LDAP. They can add/remove/restart
queues, check status, kill individual jobs, whatever. All from any
workstation with a browser. or, for the few brave souls that want to
learn a bit more, and like the speed + flexibilty of using the shell,
I'm showing them how to do things from the command line.

been up and running for over a year now, and no one has any issues.

>
> yes, it may not give *you* any benefits, but it surely *is* flexibile. it
> gives the admins flexibility over how the printers are managed.

I personally haven't seen any particular benefits to CUPS, up to now.
maybe that will change one day, and when it does, I'll take a closer
look. In the meantime, it's nice to have choices...This seems to be
another case of it being impossible to say which is "better". Just use
whatever suits you...


--
- Matt -

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On 2004-09-22, Dominik L. Borkowski <dom@vbi.vt.edu> wrote:
>
> not that i know of; however, do you really use that functionality that
> often? i mean having your users spooling directly to a printer rather to a
> central print server? i'm sure that functionality is great for quick and
> dirty print jobs, but not for any larger amount of printers+workstations,
> imho.

I use it in two environments: home (two users max), and work (maybe
10-15 workstations, not too many print jobs at one time). But if I had
a larger environment, I'd set up my.linux.box.invalid as an LPR server
and do

PRINTER=queue@my.linux.box.invalid lpr mypsfile.ps

- --keith

- --
kkeller-usenet@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://wombat.san-francisco.ca.us/cgi-bin/fom

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On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 08:41:47 -0400, Lew Pitcher wrote:
> The cups install went well, but I couldn't see an easy way to hand
> configure it.

Besides editing the /etc/cups/* files there is a command-line
configuration tool named lpadmin:

$ man -k cups | grep configure
lpadmin (8) - configure cups printers and classes

Editing the configuration files seems more confortable to me, but some
people seem to use lpadmin .

With kind regards,
Daniel de Kok

Dominik L.. Borkowski <dom@vbi.vt.edu> wrote:
> Lew Pitcher wrote:

>> I'm looking for instructions to configure Cups on a system where the
>> only 'configuration' tools available are commandline tools; a web
>> browser isn't out of the question, but won't be possible in some of the
>> circumstances I forsee having to install under.

> uhmm, just because your cups server doesn't have a web browser, doesn't mean
> you can't use http://your-cups-server:631 from a client machine [of course
> cupsd.conf would have to be adjusted to allow connections from your client]
>

It could be entirely possible that he only wants the server to have access
to the printer and thus has firewalled off port 631. In fact, I would
recommend that everyone consider firewalling off this port so that only
the relevant machines have access to it. I've seen someone on my ISP class
C block that is broadcasting his/her printer information to the entire
class C block because they did not take this into consideration. I can
only hope they have access control on the printer or anyone in that class
C of the ISP could print to the printer.

>> And, the linuxpackages documentation just recommends
>> using a web browser (again, not possible in my circumstances).

> out of curiosity, what are your circumstances?

What should this matter? He has outlined the restrictions of his
circumstances: no access to a web browser and no GUI (which I assume means
no KDE). This alone should be sufficient.

>> So, I ask again, can anyone here point me at a _simple_ CUPS
>> configuration howto document? Something aimed at _hand-configuration_ of
>> CUPS, but without the volume of the CUPS Software Administrators Manual?

> most likely not. you either go the easy way: web interface, kde's own config
> tools, or you have to dive in the documentation to find out 1001 uses of
> lpadmin command. then again, you can always ask the folks that know it
> best: www.cups.org, their mailing lists, maybe a news group.

I personally would recommend flipping to the section of the CUPS
administrator manual dealing with the command line configuration. This
would be Chapter 3: Managing Printers. Also look at Appendix C: Printer
Drivers. Also look at man lpadmin. Also note that the simple example given
for HP Deskjets in the CUPS manual is not sufficient to get quality prints
in my experience, as it didn't use the foomatic scripts or hpijs. The
command line example did work fine for the HP Laserjet at the university
though. I will admit I went for the web configuration for the DeskJet at
home as I was in an "I need to print now" situation.

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In alt.os.linux.slackware, Dominik L. Borkowski dared to utter,
> cups can be a real life saver, that's why i would recommend it in favour of
> lprng. mostly because of the samba+cups combo, which proves to be very
> valuable in a mixed environment [or even windows only environment].

I fail to see how CUPS is a "real life saver" to an admin who knows
what he's doing. How exactly does samba and CUPS integrate in any
worthwhile way that LPRng and samba can't already do as well? To me,
CUPS breaks the Unix philosophy of having small utilities that do one
job and do it well. CUPS tries to do too much IMHO and does it all
half-assed.

> ps) to 'advocate' cups a bit more, there is also a nice way of setting up
> pdf writing for windows machines, using samba+cups+ghost script. i wrote a
> small tutorial on it, if anybody is interested.

Hell, why not post a link to it? FYI, pdf writing in Windows is nothing
new. I don't understand why you'd want to do something that complex
when Adobe puts out a free "print driver" for Windows that does the same
thing with less links in the chain.

Hmmm... why don't you put "lprng pdf creation" without the quotes into
google and tell it you're feeling lucky? LPRng can do the same thing
with minimal configuration.

Note: that page may not render properly in your browser. I had some
difficulties using Safarii.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Keith Keller wrote:

> I use it in two environments: home (two users max), and work (maybe
> 10-15 workstations, not too many print jobs at one time). But if I had
> a larger environment, I'd set up my.linux.box.invalid as an LPR server
> and do

so we both agree that for larger settings we'd use central print/spool
servers

+Alan Hicks+ wrote:

> I fail to see how CUPS is a "real life saver" to an admin who knows
> what he's doing.

It's a life saver over what the printing situation was 5-10 years ago. Maybe
you don't remember the lpd/printcap hell, or managing printers between
different operating systems.

> How exactly does samba and CUPS integrate in any
> worthwhile way that LPRng and samba can't already do as well?

I don't see big&fat lprng support section in the official samba howto. Am I
missing something?

> To me,
> CUPS breaks the Unix philosophy of having small utilities that do one
> job and do it well.

i see. so having one utility to print, another one to check printer status
is not enough?

> CUPS tries to do too much IMHO and does it all
> half-assed.

a printing sytem is too much? which exact things are done half-assed?

>> ps) to 'advocate' cups a bit more, there is also a nice way of setting up
>> pdf writing for windows machines, using samba+cups+ghost script. i wrote
>> a small tutorial on it, if anybody is interested.
> Hell, why not post a link to it?

http://staff.vbi.vt.edu/dom/docs/pdf-printing

> FYI, pdf writing in Windows is nothing new.

Sure. Except windows does not come with the ability to generate pdfs [at
least even w2k didn't].

> I don't understand why you'd want to do something that complex
> when Adobe puts out a free "print driver" for Windows that does the same
> thing with less links in the chain.

Sure, except this allowes an admin to deploy such solution on hundreds of
workstations with one single entry in a netlogon script.

> Hmmm... why don't you put "lprng pdf creation" without the quotes into
> google and tell it you're feeling lucky? LPRng can do the same thing
> with minimal configuration.

The irony. Go ahead and do it. The first link describes something without
ever using lprng.

If you haven't noticed yet, yes, I'm advocating cups. However, at least I
have the decency not to smear the other product [lprng].

Cichlidiot wrote:

> Dominik L.. Borkowski <dom@vbi.vt.edu> wrote:
>> Lew Pitcher wrote:
>
>>> I'm looking for instructions to configure Cups on a system where the
>>> only 'configuration' tools available are commandline tools; a web
>>> browser isn't out of the question, but won't be possible in some of the
>>> circumstances I forsee having to install under.
>
>> uhmm, just because your cups server doesn't have a web browser, doesn't
>> mean you can't use http://your-cups-server:631 from a client machine
> It could be entirely possible that he only wants the server to have access
> to the printer and thus has firewalled off port 631.

And how exactly would the cups clients connect to the server? Hint: port
631.

>> out of curiosity, what are your circumstances?
> What should this matter? He has outlined the restrictions of his
> circumstances: no access to a web browser and no GUI (which I assume means
> no KDE). This alone should be sufficient.

Do you support any personnel with your IT skills? If so, you should know
that one of the first things you have to ask a person with a problem is:
what are you trying to accomplish. Often enough the problem is choosing a
wrong approach to a given issue.