Just about to blow a hemorroid blood vessel. CUPS woes

Hi.


I have just installed mandrake 7.2 on a older system. I tried
installing the latest version 10.0 but failed , perphaps due to the
low system power. its a pentium 150mhz 16 megs of ram. It currently
runs on console only.

Currently I have setup, samba on the system, and I am able to share
files with my XP home edition.

However, I am not able to print.

I tried using the CUPS admin web tool via explorer on my XP box.
http://192.168.0.2:631. There was no printer added according to cups,
so I tried to add a printer. However, after the inital quesions such
as printer name and location, it wants to know to what device the
printer is attached to. When I click on the pulldown menu, there are
no devices at all! LPO or anything else for that matter are simply not
there.


If i check my /etc/cups/ I see a printer.conf file. here it is

# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.1.4
# Written by cupsd on Sat Jul 17 09:35:15 2004
<DefaultPrinter Panasonic>
Info Linux Box Dot Matrix
Location Linux Box
DeviceURI parallel:/dev/lp0
State Idle
Accepting Yes
JobSheets none none
</Printer>


According to the conf file above, the printer is installed and
accepting jobs. However, the only time I ever got cups ADMIN to work,
it didnt show listed the panasonic printer.

I can print directly to the printer via the console by typing the
follwing command

ls >/dev/lpo

it will print. So the LP0 port drivers and hardware are operational.

What else can I do to make it work under cups?

Rob " the nut " wrote:
> Hi.
>
>
> I have just installed mandrake 7.2 on a older system. I tried
> installing the latest version 10.0 but failed , perphaps due to the
> low system power. its a pentium 150mhz 16 megs of ram. It currently
> runs on console only.
>
> Currently I have setup, samba on the system, and I am able to share
> files with my XP home edition.
>
> However, I am not able to print.
>
> I tried using the CUPS admin web tool via explorer on my XP box.
> http://192.168.0.2:631. There was no printer added according to cups,
> so I tried to add a printer. However, after the inital quesions such
> as printer name and location, it wants to know to what device the
> printer is attached to. When I click on the pulldown menu, there are
> no devices at all! LPO or anything else for that matter are simply not
> there.
>
>
> If i check my /etc/cups/ I see a printer.conf file. here it is
>
> # Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.1.4
> # Written by cupsd on Sat Jul 17 09:35:15 2004
> <DefaultPrinter Panasonic>
> Info Linux Box Dot Matrix
> Location Linux Box
> DeviceURI parallel:/dev/lp0
> State Idle
> Accepting Yes
> JobSheets none none
> </Printer>
>
>
> According to the conf file above, the printer is installed and
> accepting jobs. However, the only time I ever got cups ADMIN to work,
> it didnt show listed the panasonic printer.
>
> I can print directly to the printer via the console by typing the
> follwing command
>
> ls >/dev/lpo
>
> it will print. So the LP0 port drivers and hardware are operational.
>
> What else can I do to make it work under cups?

try 'lpr somefile.txt'
If that works then it is working under cups, probably. (It's just that
the web configurator is broken, which wouldn't be a big shocker) If you
have cups installed, 'lpr' is replaced by 'lpr-cups' and the old lpr
command is symlinked to it.
I would definitely try to install mandrake 9.2, though. 7.2 is many
moons past the point where security patches & maintenance stops. ALso
many complicated programs like CUPS will be better integrated and more
reliable under 9.2. That goes for all the drak* configuration tools, and
especially for their package management system.

To the OP: jeez, "chill bud!", relax!

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 09:46:22 -0400, hazzmat wrote:
> Rob " the nut " wrote:
>> I have just installed mandrake 7.2 on a older system. I tried
>> installing the latest version 10.0 but failed , perphaps due to the
>> low system power. its a pentium 150mhz 16 megs of ram. It currently
>> runs on console only.
>>
>> Currently I have setup, samba on the system, and I am able to share
>> files with my XP home edition.
>>
>> However, I am not able to print.
>>
>> I tried using the CUPS admin web tool via explorer on my XP box.
>> http://192.168.0.2:631. There was no printer added according to cups,
>> so I tried to add a printer. However, after the inital quesions such
>> as printer name and location, it wants to know to what device the
>> printer is attached to. When I click on the pulldown menu, there are
>> no devices at all! LPO or anything else for that matter are simply not
>> there.

Hmm, I'm not an expert with the GUI stuff, but I remember having some
problems setting it up. I had logged into KDE as my normal userID, and I
was fighting with printer setup, and having trouble. Then I recall I
logged in as "root" and went through printer setup. That worked OK! Then I
was later able to see the printer as a "normal user" also. I do recall
having to fight with it. It didn't seem to work like I thought it should.

>> If i check my /etc/cups/ I see a printer.conf file. here it is
>>
>> # Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.1.4
>> # Written by cupsd on Sat Jul 17 09:35:15 2004
>> <DefaultPrinter Panasonic>
>> Info Linux Box Dot Matrix
>> Location Linux Box
>> DeviceURI parallel:/dev/lp0
>> State Idle
>> Accepting Yes
>> JobSheets none none
>> </Printer>
>>
>>
>> According to the conf file above, the printer is installed and
>> accepting jobs. However, the only time I ever got cups ADMIN to work,
>> it didnt show listed the panasonic printer.
>>
>> I can print directly to the printer via the console by typing the
>> follwing command
>>
>> ls >/dev/lpo
>>
>> it will print. So the LP0 port drivers and hardware are operational.
>>
>> What else can I do to make it work under cups?
>
> try 'lpr somefile.txt'
> If that works then it is working under cups, probably. (It's just that
> the web configurator is broken, which wouldn't be a big shocker) If you
> have cups installed, 'lpr' is replaced by 'lpr-cups' and the old lpr
> command is symlinked to it.
> I would definitely try to install mandrake 9.2, though. 7.2 is many
> moons past the point where security patches & maintenance stops. ALso
> many complicated programs like CUPS will be better integrated and more
> reliable under 9.2. That goes for all the drak* configuration tools, and
> especially for their package management system.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Whenever I have trouble with the GUI stuff, I
always back off to console commands, and get the basics working. Then I
can tackle the GUI stuff at least with some assurance. Good luck!

BTW, I find "lpstat -a" and "lpq" useful as well. I have had some case(s)
when print jobs were queued, but the printer got stuck! Something funny
with my lp0 H/W? Had to shut down both printer and computer, then start
printer and computer afterwards, and the printing would then work. WTF?

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.