How to make CUPS work for Canon PS (not in supported list)

older
Re: [SLE] KDE3 for SuSE 7.3 badly...

Kevin McLauchlan

11 Apr 2002 11 Apr '02

21:08

OK, much removing and re-installing, and CUPS admin now responds to my root password. This is progress. Now what? How do I make printing happen? My printers are all networked, and are all Canons (none of which appear in the supported list), and all of them are on network segments OTHER than the one I'm on (meaning, they do not appear when YaST2 tries to detect "local" printers -- has SuSE never heard of VLANs?). So, what do I put in a URI? Here's what I know about one printer: it's a Canon ImageRunner 550, and it lives at 172.16.11.20 I have a PPD file that comes from the Canon CD that's labeled "Network Printer Board-F1 (PostScript). One helpful web page suggested that when using Windoze ppd files in Linux, the best choice might be the Win 2000 files... but all copies of the PPD on the CD seem to be the same file. I previously tried to create/configure some printers in YaST2 for CUPS. It did not go well, but it DID result in a .ppd file being created for each attempt in /etc/cups/ppd/ So, I copied the Cannon PPD (EFMC6A20.PPD) to /etc/cups/ppd and restarted YaST2. I was hoping that this would cause another printer instance to appear in the list that YaST2 presents for editing/adding. Didn't work. There must be another file or flag somewhere. I tried renaming the file to lowercase (to match what the other .ppd files look like). Didn't work. I tried changing the permissions -- basically removing "x" from world -- to match the other .ppd files that were created by YaST2, and which show up in the YaST2 Hardware, Edit Printers dialog. Didn't work. Also, the main list of "supported" printers seems to be an enormous database file. I don't know how to get my Canon ppd file included in the list, so that I could "Choose Model" in the YaST2 interface. Can somebody tell me what I'm really supposed to be doing here? What I want to accomplish is to print documents (mostly postscript, but some plain ASCII and some images) to that networked printer. How do I invoke the magic, so that when I hit the "Print" button in KWord, or when I write "a2ps <filename>" in a terminal... the desired printing..... happens? One of the approaches, via the menus, gets me to a dialog that demands a URI. That's nice, except I don't know what I'm supposed to fill in. The help for the web-based cups Admin was even nice enough to supply a bunch of EXAMPLE URIs... but, they don't really help me. I look at them and don't understand which of the six or eight examples I'm supposed to choose (or why it makes a difference), and then I don't understand which parts are supposed to be written verbatim, and which parts are supposed to be replaced by something that is relevant to my computer and my network. I mean, I can probably eliminate the example URIs that seem to relate to HP JetDirect, because I know I don't have HP printers, but what about the others? I would be happy to get basic, generic PS printing happening, to begin. Later, I can worry about duplexing. I don't even need printing to be as carefree as Windows. I just need to stop rebooting into windows every time I have something to print. Yuck! What do other people do when their printer does not appear in the existing "supported" list, in YaST2? If there's a document somewhere that explains all this, just tell me the title. Thank you. /kevin PS: My cube-neighbor, who is a bit of a UNIX guru, loaded Red Hat and printed within moments, using printconf. Months ago, when I loaded SuSE 7.3 onto this laptop, I chose CUPS because people said it was easier and more pleasant. Every time I turn around, I'm encountering yet another ordinary thing that Red Hat seems to do easily, out-of-the-box, while SuSE makes me struggle or makes me fail permanently. Is it something I said? :-)

Show replies by date

Alexandr Malusek

12 Apr 12 Apr

17:08

New subject: [SLE] How to make CUPS work for Canon PS (not in supported list)

Kevin McLauchlan writes:

...

So, what do I put in a URI?

I use: DeviceURI lpd://canon/print where "lpd" is the protocol name, canon is defined in /etc/hosts, and "print" is the queue name which is listed in the printer's documentation.

...

I have a PPD file that comes from the Canon CD

I just selected a similar PS printer and didn't play with ppd files. It worked in my case. I used http://localhost:631/ to configure CUPS. -- Alexandr.Malusek@imv.liu.se

Kevin McLauchlan

19:10

New subject: [SLE] How to make CUPS work for Canon PS (not in supported list)

Thanks for your help, so far. It's appreciated. Here's what's happening, so far. Yes, I also used http://localhost:631/ to configure. However... I provided the URI lpd://canon/PRINT where - "lpd" seemed as good as anything else... - "canon" was defined in /etc/hosts as 172.16.11.20 - "PRINT" is what many Canons seem to call themselves, in private (otherwise PRINTR4) BUT... then the Admin web wizard went to the next page of the configuration and demanded that I pick a "model" from the provided list (same requirement if I try to config via YaST2). As mentioned in earlier messages, I find that the provided list does NOT contain my printers (nor any in their series, if I'm reading correctly... I may not be... wouldn't be the first time... :-) I see mostly outdated small models, not the big departmental beasts that are found in modern companies. So anyway, the Admin interface will not let me skip that step. I absolutely MUST choose a printer model. I pointed to one, just to make it stop pestering me, and finished the config by sending a test page. The good news is that the printer printed. The bad news is that it printed 100 pages of gibberish before I could get the job stopped. It did not even appear to be printing postscript codes, just junk characters and overprinting. I tried again, choosing another Canon model, but the same thing happened. I tried choosing "Raw", instead of a printer model, but the config kept dumping me back in the "Choose a printer model" list, until I relented and picked another model. This is not working, but at least I now get to waste a lot of paper. The company loves it when I do that. :-) The actual physical printers are, indeed, PostScript models, so it appears that the postscript processor is not being addressed. I'm stuck again, wondering what's wrong and what to do next. At least the printer device is being addressed. Again, I do have that PPD file from the Canon CD, but I don't see how to make that file accessible to the CUPS Admin. Anybody have a suggestion? Is there a config file where I should mention the name of the .ppd file?? Thank you for your patience. /kevin (aimlessly killing trees in Ottawa) On Fri, 2002-04-12 at 13:08, Alexandr Malusek wrote:

...

Kevin McLauchlan writes:

...
So, what do I put in a URI?

I use:

DeviceURI lpd://canon/print

where "lpd" is the protocol name, canon is defined in /etc/hosts, and "print" is the queue name which is listed in the printer's documentation.

...
I have a PPD file that comes from the Canon CD

I just selected a similar PS printer and didn't play with ppd files. It worked in my case.

I used http://localhost:631/ to configure CUPS.

Alexandr Malusek

20:59

New subject: [SLE] How to make CUPS work for Canon PS (not in supported list)

Kevin McLauchlan writes:

...

As mentioned in earlier messages, I find that the provided list does NOT contain my printers (nor any in their series, if I'm reading correctly...

If I remember it right, my printer is Canon GP 250 (it's a combination of a printer and a copy machine). It wasn't on the list, so I selected "Canon GP 335, Foomatic + Postscript" and it worked in my case. Sure, it may not work in your case.

...

Again, I do have that PPD file from the Canon CD, but I don't see how to make that file accessible to the CUPS Admin. Anybody have a suggestion?

The original PPD file is in: # rpm -ql cups-drivers | grep GP_335 /usr/share/cups/model/Canon/GP_335-Postscript.ppd.gz ... The corresponding PPD file modified by the configuration tool is in: /etc/cups/ppd/canon.ppd in my case.

...

Is there a config file where I should mention the name of the .ppd file??

I would put it into /usr/share/cups/model/Canon/ and if it didn't help I would read the extensive CUPS documentation. Anyway, there is a nice note in the GP_335-Postscript.ppd.gz file: : So all PostScript printers work perfectly under Linux or other free : operating systems. GhostScript and/or cupsomatic is not needed for : them. -- Alexandr.Malusek@imv.liu.se

Theo v. Werkhoven

23:05

New subject: [SLE] How to make CUPS work for Canon PS (not in supported list)

On Thu, Apr 11, 2002 at 05:08:43PM -0400, Kevin McLauchlan wrote:

...

OK, much removing and re-installing, and CUPS admin now responds to my root password. This is progress.

Now what? How do I make printing happen?

has SuSE never heard of VLANs?).

SuSE probably doesn't like to echo the latest buzz. Networking doesn't get more special if one uses MS speak

...

So, what do I put in a URI?

That depends entirely on the language the printer understands, and its location.

...

Here's what I know about one printer: it's a Canon ImageRunner 550, and it lives at 172.16.11.20

That's not a lot.. [..]

...

So, I copied the Cannon PPD (EFMC6A20.PPD) to /etc/cups/ppd and restarted YaST2. I was hoping that this would cause another printer instance to appear in the list that YaST2 presents for editing/adding. Didn't work. There must be another file or flag somewhere. [..] Can somebody tell me what I'm really supposed to be doing here?

Try /usr/share/cups/model/Canon/

...

I mean, I can probably eliminate the example URIs that seem to relate to HP JetDirect, because I know I don't have HP printers, but what about the others?

JetDirect isn't excluded to HP alone. Try nmap 172.16.11.20 to see if port 9100 is listening. Port 515 for LPD, port 631 for IPP, port 137,138,139 for SMB. If it /is/ using the SMB ports you might have a problem. (Don't do this when others are using the printer, not all (embedded) TCP/IP stacks react well to nmap scans..)

...

I would be happy to get basic, generic PS printing happening, to begin. Later, I can worry about duplexing. I don't even need printing to be as carefree as Windows. I just need to stop rebooting into windows every time I have something to print. Yuck!

With a well written .ppd file you get the same functionality as under Windows, Mac or whatever.

...

What do other people do when their printer does not appear in the existing "supported" list, in YaST2?

Do some Googleing?

...

If there's a document somewhere that explains all this, just tell me the title.

It's all there in de CUPS Administration docs IIRC. [..]

...

Every time I turn around, I'm encountering yet another ordinary thing that Red Hat seems to do easily, out-of-the-box, while SuSE makes me struggle or makes me fail permanently. Is it something I said? :-)

You have my virtual shoulder to cry on. Use a towel please. Theo -- Theo v. Werkhoven ICBM 52 8 24N , 4 32 40E. S.u.S.E 7.3 x86 Kernel 2.4.16-4GB

Kevin McLauchlan

15 Apr 15 Apr

14:30

New subject: [SLE] How to make CUPS work for Canon PS (not in supported list)

On Fri, 2002-04-12 at 19:05, Theo v. Werkhoven wrote:

...

...
has SuSE never heard of VLANs?).

SuSE probably doesn't like to echo the latest buzz. Networking doesn't get more special if one uses MS speak

Ok, then, whatever the 'real' term is for not-very-big LANs that are segmented into even smaller sections, for ease of administration and to keep trouble (away from the rest the company's traffic. Currently, there are three major segments in the building (and a couple of special-purpose stray ones). This sort of thing has been done for years, with many companies segmenting their LANs by floor, by function, etc. So, it happens that all the company's printers are not on the segment where I live. No problem... I'll just enter the IP info for the bridge(s) and the other segment(s) in the SuSE printer config and .... whoops!... there's no place to tell YaST2 that it can/should scan a little further to find printers and servers. That's all I meant.

...

...
So, what do I put in a URI?

That depends entirely on the language the printer understands, and its location.

...
Here's what I know about one printer: it's a Canon ImageRunner 550, and it lives at 172.16.11.20

That's not a lot..

[..]

...
So, I copied the Cannon PPD (EFMC6A20.PPD) to /etc/cups/ppd and restarted YaST2. I was hoping that this would cause another printer instance to appear in the list that YaST2 presents for editing/adding. Didn't work. There must be another file or flag somewhere. [..] Can somebody tell me what I'm really supposed to be doing here?

Try /usr/share/cups/model/Canon/

Ah. I looked closer. I had copied the canon ppd to every directory that seemed to have ppd files in it, but /usr/share/cups/model/Canon has all its files gzipped.

...

...
I mean, I can probably eliminate the example URIs that seem to relate to HP JetDirect, because I know I don't have HP printers, but what about the others?

JetDirect isn't excluded to HP alone. Try nmap 172.16.11.20 to see if port 9100 is listening. Port 515 for LPD, port 631 for IPP, port 137,138,139 for SMB. If it /is/ using the SMB ports you might have a problem. (Don't do this when others are using the printer, not all (embedded) TCP/IP stacks react well to nmap scans..)

Can't do that today. The printer has been down since Friday... by strange co-incidence, since shortly after I sent it those pages of garbage... but don't tell my co-workers.

...

...
I would be happy to get basic, generic PS printing happening, to begin. Later, I can worry about duplexing. I don't even need printing to be as carefree as Windows. I just need to stop rebooting into windows every time I have something to print. Yuck!

With a well written .ppd file you get the same functionality as under Windows, Mac or whatever.

...
What do other people do when their printer does not appear in the existing "supported" list, in YaST2?

Do some Googleing?

Er... that's how I found that there didn't seem to be any downloadable stuff from Canon, and read several people's statements as to how poor was Canon's support for free operating systems, etc. That's not something upon which I could act, because I'm constrained to use the company's printers. Following what I could from the CUPS site, and others is how I got into trouble in the first place. When various suggestions, FAQs and recipes didn't seem to apply (most seem to assume, as did YaST2 interface, that the list of supported printers would not need updating -- otherwise, there would have been a Windoze-like dialog to "Insert your PPD disk now (this is Linux, so please mount the device first) and choose the PPD file to be installed". Instead, I'm just forced to pick something from the list of wrong choices. I can go back, but I can't go forward, and the interface doesn't offer me a way to go sideways and point to a new PPD, nor even does it just TELL ME that that's what I need to do. It would be so simple. Meanwhile, the CD that the IT guy found for me may not actually be for that printer. We've had many models over the years, and the CD doesn't name an actual printer model. Hope I don't break anything expensive.

...

...
If there's a document somewhere that explains all this, just tell me the title.

It's all there in de CUPS Administration docs IIRC.

[..]

...
Every time I turn around, I'm encountering yet another ordinary thing that Red Hat seems to do easily, out-of-the-box, while SuSE makes me struggle or makes me fail permanently. Is it something I said? :-)

You have my virtual shoulder to cry on. Use a towel please.

Boohoo. Sob. Snivel... :-) As I said elsewhere, I'm one of the people in my company who is acting as guinnea-pig to decide if we can, as a company, move from Windows to Linux on our desktops. We made it a point to not choose a hobbyist or enthusiast with a lot of knowledge. We wanted to see how things would go for an ordinary user who just needs to get his everyday work done. But then, we cheated a bit, because I have SuSE installed at home. The only other volunteer in the company was a programmer who already works in Linux, and he, like the two IT people, was using Red Hat. It was decided that the programmer was not a fair test, because the people who need to embrace the change-out would be Sales, Admin, Finance, Marketing, etc. Now, here's something you'll never believe... but, really, it's true... at least half the people in this company don't know what a printer profile definition is. And, those people are SuSE's target audience if the goal is to get Linux onto the corporate desktop. Even worse, as far as the company is concerned, they shouldn't need to take time from their overworked schedules to learn. My attachment is some blend of masochism and sentiment, I guess. Now, let's see what breaks today. /kevin

Alexandr Malusek

21:11

New subject: [SLE] How to make CUPS work for Canon PS (not in supported list)

Kevin McLauchlan writes:

...

Can't do that today. The printer has been down since Friday... by strange co-incidence, since shortly after I sent it those pages of garbage... but don't tell my co-workers.

It may not be a coincidence. Our Canon GP 215 was disabled by printing one MS-Office generated file. Turning the power off didn't help and the Canon service had to be called. Though my experience with this printer is generally good there is no doubt there are bugs in its firmware.

...

We wanted to see how things would go for an ordinary user who just needs to get his everyday work done. But then, we cheated a bit, because I have SuSE installed at home.

In our heterogenous network, system administrators are supposed to administer printers, users just use them. I don't think it will change soon since administrator privileges are required for a driver installation even on MS-Windows systems. (Ordinary users don't have them.) -- Alexandr.Malusek@imv.liu.se

Theo v. Werkhoven

21:33

New subject: [SLE] How to make CUPS work for Canon PS (not in supported list)

On Mon, Apr 15, 2002 at 10:30:00AM -0400, Kevin McLauchlan wrote:

...

On Fri, 2002-04-12 at 19:05, Theo v. Werkhoven wrote:

...
...
has SuSE never heard of VLANs?).

SuSE probably doesn't like to echo the latest buzz. Networking doesn't get more special if one uses MS speak

Ok, then, whatever the 'real' term is for not-very-big LANs that are segmented into even smaller sections,

Ok, I'd just call that a sub-netted LAN, but then I'm not a network engineer either. [..]

...

where I live. No problem... I'll just enter the IP info for the bridge(s) and the other segment(s) in the SuSE printer config and .... whoops!... there's no place to tell YaST2 that it can/should scan a little further to find printers and servers. That's all I meant.

With the right information in /etc/route.conf you shouldn't have to worry about that information in the printers config.

...

...
[..]

...
So, I copied the Cannon PPD (EFMC6A20.PPD) to /etc/cups/ppd and restarted YaST2. I was hoping that this would cause another printer instance to appear in the list that YaST2 presents for editing/adding. Didn't work. There must be another file or flag somewhere. [..] Can somebody tell me what I'm really supposed to be doing here?

Try /usr/share/cups/model/Canon/

Ah. I looked closer. I had copied the canon ppd to every directory that seemed to have ppd files in it, but /usr/share/cups/model/Canon has all its files gzipped.

Yep, I'm not really sure why, as the uncompressed .ppd's are not that big. You can use gzip to make a .ppd.gz of your file though.

...

...
...
I mean, I can probably eliminate the example URIs that seem to relate to HP JetDirect, because I know I don't have HP printers, but what about the others?

JetDirect isn't excluded to HP alone. Try nmap 172.16.11.20 to see if port 9100 is listening. Port 515 for LPD, port 631 for IPP, port 137,138,139 for SMB. If it /is/ using the SMB ports you might have a problem. (Don't do this when others are using the printer, not all (embedded) TCP/IP stacks react well to nmap scans..)

Can't do that today. The printer has been down since Friday... by strange co-incidence, since shortly after I sent it those pages of garbage... but don't tell my co-workers.

<g> [..]

...

...
...
What do other people do when their printer does not appear in the existing "supported" list, in YaST2?

Do some Googleing?

Er... that's how I found that there didn't seem to be any downloadable stuff from Canon, and read several people's statements as to how poor was Canon's support for free operating systems, etc. That's not something upon which

There are still a lot of supported Canon printers in that /u/s/c/m/Canon directory, unfortunatly the bigger office printers aren't all included. I'v been trying to get a Toshiba network printer/copier to work with Cups, but didn't succeed either, eventhough I did have a .ppd file for it. [..]

...

is Linux, so please mount the device first) and choose the PPD file to be installed". Instead, I'm just forced to pick something from the list of wrong choices. I can go back, but I can't go forward, and the interface doesn't offer me a way to go sideways and point to a new PPD, nor even does it just TELL ME that that's what I need to do. It would be so simple.

I agree. Cups is one of the easiest ways to get a printer to work (well) in *nux though, certainly in a network where all workstations support IPP.

...

Meanwhile, the CD that the IT guy found for me may not actually be for that printer. We've had many models over the years, and the CD doesn't name an actual printer model. Hope I don't break anything expensive.

Never heard of a printer break because of wrong printer codes. A cold reset allways puts 'm back on their feed.

...

it's true... at least half the people in this company don't know what a printer profile definition is. And, those people are SuSE's target audience if the goal is to get Linux onto the corporate desktop. Even worse, as far as the company is concerned, they shouldn't need to take time from their overworked schedules to learn. My attachment is some blend of masochism and sentiment, I guess.

Sounds like you've been given the Sysadmin's job, and you don't even know it yet ;-)

...

Now, let's see what breaks today.

Anything but the coffee kettle Theo -- Theo v. Werkhoven ICBM 52 8 24N , 4 32 40E. S.u.S.E 7.3 x86 Kernel 2.4.16-4GB

8057

Age (days ago)

8061

Last active (days ago)

List overview

Download

7 comments

3 participants

participants (3)

Alexandr Malusek
Kevin McLauchlan
Theo v. Werkhoven