https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=214356 Summary: Printer admin interfaces not readily available or somewhat hidden Product: openSUSE 10.2 Version: Alpha 5 plus Platform: All OS/Version: SuSE Other Status: NEW Severity: Major Priority: P5 - None Component: Printing AssignedTo: jsmeix@novell.com ReportedBy: odabrunz@novell.com QAContact: jsmeix@novell.com The first time I have needed an admin interface to CUPS is when I sent a print job to a switched-off printer and needed to re-enable printing on the queue after switching the printer on. As in this bug: Bug #131097 - "cups should enable printer when it is turned on" - this is solved in CUPS 1.2 by retrying in the backend even on printer-specific connection URIs (Bug #131097 comment #4 etc.) - CUPS 1.2.x is in STABLE and so this will probably be in openSUSE 10.2 - but it seems that on other errors printing could still be disabled I looked through all the documentation I could get. The only ways I have come across to re-enable printing are: 1) using the YaST2 printer module 2) using the CUPS printer admin web page at http://localhost:631/printers 3) using the CUPS command line tools enable and disable I have a problem using any of these: 1) The YaST2 printer module is not the obvious place to go: - the first page has the headline "Printer Configuration": - I do not want to configure a printer, I want to change an administrative setting - I would expect to be able to configure the printer here, not to administer it (and the headline confirms that I will be able to do the former, not the latter) - after going from "Printer Configuration" to "Edit" (rather then from "Printer Management" to "Administration" or some such), I need to select "State and banner settings" from a list of seven *configuration* items - there are indeed settings (= configurations) for a banner in there - the "State settings" are actually buttons to change the current printer "State", so this is what I want -- but it is quite hidden after and amongst the *configuration* of the printer, and on the same line and the same dialog with another configuration option -> it proved rather impossible for me to find this, and I expect this will happen again to me next year (if it is not improved) 2) To use the CUPS printer admin web page, I need to set up a user and password within CUPS using "lppasswd -a <user>". - I found this hint on the CUPS web site, where it also states that this is different on SUSE Linux. On other systems it seems to be sufficient to use the root login. - I knew this (admittedly very nice) interface only after jsmeix@suse.de told me a few years ago. It could be mentioned more prominently in the manpages of lpadmin, lpc and enable (to name the ones I looked at). At the moment there is only a pointer to more documentation at http://localhost:631/documentation.html at the end of the manual, and I would not expect it to tell me more about the commands then the man pages do. Also, as someone used to printing on Unix and Windows, I would not expect my local printer demon to offer an administrative web page. 3) The CUPS command line tool "enable" is not easy to find or readily available. - It has a name clash with the bash builtin command "enable". To use the CUPS "enable" command, I have to - find out that it is available (by looking in the "SEE ALSO" section of the lpc(8) documentation) - enter "enable --help" and get this: od@blackberry:~> enable --help bash: enable: --: invalid option enable: usage: enable [-pnds] [-a] [-f filename] [name ...] - use "man enable" and find the CUPS "enable" man page (which may happen on several occasions, e.g. because someone changes the man section search order with $MANSECT or $MANOPT; in my case because the bashbuiltins(1) man page needed to be recached) - be inspired by the gods or something and realize that "enable" may also be a bash builtin command - find the "enable" command in the filesystem ("whereis enable") - and finally type "/usr/bin/enable <printer>" - The Japanese man pages in "man-pages-ja.rpm" (which I install) contain the man page of the lpc(8) command from the BSD printing system. This man page of course does not mention "enable" as a separate command at all. I see that the problem is that these man pages come from the Linux documentation project and are simply provided as a drop-in Japanese documentation. But as it is, the installed Japanese lpc(8) man pages do not correspond to the installed lpc(8) CUPS printer control command, and this is not helpful but simply irritating. And why would CUPS need to remove this subcommand from "lpc"? I would not expect any compatibility problems with the BSD printing system's "lpc enable" -- am I wrong? - Calling "lpc" and entering the obvious "enable" gives lpc> enable enable is not implemented by the CUPS version of lpc. No hint that there is a separate external "enable" command that does the same. - The documentation on the CUPS web site says that SUSE uses the command "cupsenable" instead of "enable". This is unfortunately not true. Adding softlinks with the names "cupsenable" and "cupsdisable" to "enable" and "disable" would indeed make the use of these everyday (!) commands a lot easier. I know from reading Bug #131097 that part of the problem is that things like these have probably been documented in the formerly available printed documentation, and the printed form of this documentation is unfortunately not included in our products anymore. But be that as it is, I would really like to have the online documentation and the tool messages to be more helpful. And also I would really appreciate to have at least one of the administrative interfaces to CUPS readily available so that as a normal user with a standard printing problem at home I do not have to jump through loops to get printing working again. Having "cupsenable" and "cupsdisable" in addition to "enable" and "disable" alone would already help a lot with the latter point. They also should be aliased in the man pages. Please have a look at the other problems as well. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.