From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 7 17:44:16 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3A8C916A422 for ; Tue, 7 Mar 2006 17:44:16 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: from tao.thought.org (dsl231-043-140.sea1.dsl.speakeasy.net [216.231.43.140]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5765943D66 for ; Tue, 7 Mar 2006 17:44:07 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: from tao.thought.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by tao.thought.org (8.13.4/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k27Hi6rX047169; Tue, 7 Mar 2006 09:44:06 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: (from kline@localhost) by tao.thought.org (8.13.4/8.13.1/Submit) id k27Hi5lv047167; Tue, 7 Mar 2006 09:44:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from kline) Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006 09:44:04 -0800 From: Gary Kline To: Danny Pansters Message-ID: <20060307174404.GA46892@thought.org> References: <20060307082141.GA13694@thought.org> <200603071133.02515.danny@ricin.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200603071133.02515.danny@ricin.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. X-Of_Interest: Observing 19+ years of service to the Unix community Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: print question: cups and lpr X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2006 17:44:16 -0000 On Tue, Mar 07, 2006 at 11:33:02AM +0000, Danny Pansters wrote: > On Tuesday 7 March 2006 08:21, Gary Kline wrote: > > On my test system I'm defaulting to "cups"; printing on any > > flavor of *nix has always been painful ... which is why I > > stick with plain ol' lpr::: it Just-Works{tm}. So on my > > printserver and everywhere else I have lpr/lpd going. > > > > Under Gnome on my test platform I've tried to get things to > > print via my printsrver. I see that Gnome thinks things are > > printing. Not. Do any of you print wizards know what I'm > > missing? > > Usually this is caused by confusion over which lpr to use. The one that comes > with base (lpd) is in /usr/bin, the one installed by cups is > in /usr/local/bin. When searching $PATH the first will be used, which is the > wrong one. IIRC the cups port has a 'make replace' target. Or (what I usually > do): cp /usr/bin/lpr /usr/bin/lpr.not and I put NO_LPR=yes in /etc/make.conf > so that when rebuilding world all of lpd is skipped. Are you saying that, in effect, I should use cups on my printserver? --or at least use the cups lpr? > > > PS: 5 gold stars for anybody who can 'splain why cups exists. > > Well for just a printer server lpd is fine and maybe easier. But for a desktop > where you want a good filter/driver for those shiny PDFs, cups is almost a > must. I use a HP all-in-one (and before that an officejet). Good luck writing > a printcap for that. Even more so getting a suitable filter. With cups this > is automagical, and no sub par quality or bleak colors (well at least with > HP's drivers, graphics/hpoj and hpijs). Granted, if you fail to get it > running automagically you're in for some reading, but it's well documented. > If all you ever do is print plain text then cups may be overkill. I've got the ghostscript stuff set up for my HP Deskjet-500 (still using since 1992). lpr -> hpif (I think); hpif calls the ghostscript tools and I can print anything. Postscript, pdf, graphics, OO files, whatever. > > Also, cups supports several protocols, most prominently ipp which arguably is > the standard now. Since I have my printer hanging on the network this comes > in handy. > > My experience with lpd getting it to print decently with magicfilter on the > officejet was always rather painful. Cups just works. It also does scanning > and I can read my camera's flash card with it, but that has nothing to do > with cups, rather with the device drivers. > > HTH, > A little, thanks. If I use the cups lpr on my printserver, will/(*should*) my test server with Gnome and cups just-work, or is that a black-hole question? Are there are cups type tutorials around? I haven't googled around. The nutshell of it is that when I first started messing with SVR2 in 1986 (then SVR4, then FreeBSD) it took weeks (totaled) to get things-printer working with lpr/lpd. It's time to get out of my Ludditeism and move to CUPS. gary -- Gary Kline kline@thought.org www.thought.org Public service Unix