Maura Edelweiss Monville
My lab computer is running SuSE 9.1. I can choose from 4 networked printers. At least 2 printers out of 4 have the capability to select the tray (Upper/Lower) and to print both front and back on each page. These features are easily selected by the Windows printing system. Instead I have no idea how to do that from SuSE CUPS. The regular printer graphic interface does not show any of these choices.
Are you sure the kprinter's GUI doesn't show these options? If I run $ kprinter /etc/hosts and click on the Properties button then I see both "Paper source" and "Duplex Printing" options. The corresponding command line options are for instance (see the CUPS software users manual): lp -o media=A4,Upper -o sides=two-sided-long-edge filename
I wonder whether it is at all possible to drive these sophisticated printers from SuSE/CUPS ..
Yes, but IMHO the situation is not perfect yet. For instance I use the YaST2-recommended PPD file for Canon GP335 (generated by PPD-O-MATIC). It enables duplex printing but both the "Paper source" and "Paper type" selectors are not active. I don't have time to experiment with other PPD files. -- A.M.