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Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 14:08:53 -0800 (PST)
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From: random junk <jsd@gamespot.com>
To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Network printing
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On 27-Mar-97 Alec Kloss wrote:
>Miki Janosi is responsible for:
>>     Hello all,
>> Let me give a little background before I ask the question. We have 
>> numerous networks, Sun, Netware, and Mac printing to some HP laser 
>> printers. I asked my sys admin how to print to any of them from my 
>> PC, I have both DOS and BSD on it. He told me to erase BSD and install 
>> Linux and he'd think about helping me. I can ping the printer and I 
>> know there must be a way to print to it, but will I be able to do it 
>> without my sys admin's help?

assuming your printer is called "hpprinter.mydomain.com", do this:

in /etc/printcap on your freebsd box, put:

hp|hp printer:\
        :lp=:sd=/var/spool/output/hp:rm=hpprinter.mydomain.com:\
        :rp=hpprinter.mydomain.com:

make sure /var/spool/output/hp exists and is world-writable.

make sure lpd is running.

set your PRINTER environment variable to "hp".

now you should be able to print to it.  make sure you are sending appropriate
data to the printer!  if it is a postscript printer, you must send postscript
code no matter what, even if you're just printing a straight ascii file.  look
for a filter like a2ps to convert plain text to postscript.

Jon Drukman                                              jsd@gamespot.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Administrator                             SpotMedia Communications