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Configuring and Managing Printing in Oracle Solaris 11.1     Oracle Solaris 11.1 Information Library
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Document Information

Preface

1.  Setting Up and Administering Printers by Using CUPS (Overview)

2.  Setting Up Printers by Using CUPS (Tasks)

Setting Up Your Printing Environment to Work With CUPS

How to Set Up Your Printing Environment

Setting Up Your Printing Environment for an Upgrade

Setting Up Printers by Using CUPS Command-Line Utilities (Task Map)

Setting Up and Administering Printers by Using CUPS Command-Line Utilities

CUPS Command-Line Utilities

How to Set Up a Printer by Using the lpadmin Command

Setting a Default Printer

How to Set a Default Printer at the Command Line

How to Print to a Specified Printer

How to Verify the Status of Printers

How to Print a File to the Default Printer

How to Delete a Printer and Remove Printer Access

Setting Up Network Printers by Using CUPS Commands

How to Add a Network Printer on a Different Subnet by Using CUPS Commands

How to List the Available Drivers and Devices

Setting Up and Administering Printers by Using the CUPS Web Browser Interface (Task Map)

Setting Up and Administering Printers by Using the CUPS Web Browser Interface

Requirements for Using the CUPS Web Browser Interface

Troubleshooting Issues With Accessing the CUPS Web Browser Interface

Print Administration Tasks

About the Administration Tab

About the Printers Tab

How to Add a New Printer

About the CUPS Print Manager GUI

Starting CUPS Print Manager

Setting Up Printers by Using CUPS Print Manager (Task Map)

Setting Up Printers by Using CUPS Print Manager

Local Server Configuration

Remote Server Configuration

How to Configure CUPS to Administer Remote Print Queues

Selecting a Print Device

How to Set Up a New Local Printer

3.  Administering Printers by Using CUPS Print Manager (Tasks)

Index

Setting Up Printers by Using CUPS Print Manager

This section describes tasks that are required to set up printers by using CUPS Print Manager.

Local Server Configuration

Each system that uses CUPS can be both a print server and a print client. The system acts as the server for any printer that is physically connected to it and for any print queues that are created on that system.

To configure advanced settings and options for a local CUPS server, start CUPS Print Manager, then choose Server → Settings. In the Basic Server Settings dialog, click the Advanced button. The following advanced server settings and options can be viewed or configured:

In the Basic Server Settings dialog you can configure the following settings:

Remote Server Configuration

You can configure CUPS to administer print queues on a remote print server. Typically, you can connect to remote servers within the same local area network (LAN). Only those print queues that are owned by the remote print server to which you are connected can be modified. Each remote server determines whether its configured print queues can be shared or remotely modified based on the Settings dialog for the specified printer.

Published printers are printers that are publicly announced by the server on the LAN, based on how the cupsd.conf file has been configured for browsing. Shared or published printers can be detected by remote print clients but unshared or unpublished printers are not announced on the network.


Note - You must have appropriate authorizations to administer remote print queues. In the Oracle Solaris 11 release, you must provide the root password for the remote server.


How to Configure CUPS to Administer Remote Print Queues

  1. Start the CUPS Print Manager GUI by choosing System → Administration → Print Manager from the desktop's main menubar or by typing the following command in a terminal window:
    $ system-config-printer
  2. From the Server menu, choose Settings.

    The Basic Server Settings dialog is displayed.

  3. Select the following options:
    • Publish Shared Printers Connected to This System – Displays the shared or published printers that can be detected by remote print clients. If you do not enable this option, some printers might not be displayed in the list of available printers when you connect to the remote server.

    • Allow Remote Administration – Enables you to connect to a remote server.

  4. Click OK.
  5. From the Server menu, choose the Connect option.

    The Connect to CUPS Server dialog is displayed.

  6. Select the desired remote server from the CUPS server list.
  7. (Optional) If you require encryption, select the Require Encryption option.
  8. Click the Connect button.
  9. Type the root password for the remote system.

    You can now remotely administer print queues on the remote system in the same way that you administer local print queues.

Selecting a Print Device

When you set up a new printer or when you modify the properties of a configured printer, you must select an appropriate device for that printer. The following table describes the device choices that might be displayed in the Select Device window.

Device
Description
When to Use
printer-name
Specifies a printer that has been automatically detected.
Select this device when setting up a new printer.
printer-name (serial-number)
Specifies a printer that has been automatically detected, and includes the serial number.
Select this device when setting up a newly detected printer.

Note - Most often, this device is the same device as the printer-name device. The difference is that one entry contains the serial number of the printer, and the other entry does not. The reason two entries are listed for the same device is that both the system-config-printer back end and the HAL back end detect USB devices. When configuring a new printer, you can specify either device.


Serial Port # number
Specifies a device that is connected to the serial port of your local system.
Select this device when setting up a printer that is connected to your local system's serial port.
AppSocket/HP Jet Direct
Specifies a device that uses a method of communication with network printers that is effectively a TCP connection.
Select this device when setting up remote print queues on a network.
Internet Printing Protocol (IPP)
Specifies a device that is used for network printer setup on a host that is running IPP.
Select this device when setting up newer printer models on a host that is running IPP.
LPD/LPR Host or Printer
Specifies a device that is used to connect to an LPD network printer.
Select this device when setting up remote print queues that use LPD.

Note - This device might not work for more modern printer models.


Unknown
Specifies a device that uses a Server Message Block (SMB) host on the network.
Select this device when setting up printers on Windows-hosted systems.

Note - This device might not be displayed on all systems.


Other
Specifies a device that uses a device URI that is user-defined.
Select this device when setting up printers by specifying your own destination or device URI, for example, file:///dev/printers/0. Note that file: device uri support must be enabled under CUPS (cupsctl FileDevice=yes).

How to Set Up a New Local Printer

The following procedure describes how to set up a new locally attached printer by using the CUPS Print Manager GUI.

  1. Connect the new printer to your local system, then power it on.
    • When the printer is detected by the system, the Printer configuration dialog appears, displaying information about the newly detected printer.
    • If you are adding a new printer that was not automatically detected, do the following:
      1. Start CUPS Print Manager by choosing System → Administration → Print Manager from the desktop's main menubar or by typing the following command in a terminal window:
        $ system-config-printer
      2. Choose Server → New → Printer from the main menu.

        Alternatively, you can click the New icon that is located on the menubar.

      3. When prompted, type the root password.

        The Printer configuration dialog appears, displaying all of the configured printers and the newly connected printer.

  2. In the Select Device window, select the appropriate device, then click Forward.

    By default, CUPS selects the USB device that is physically connected to your system or the device that was detected by HAL. Note that these two entries might be for the same printer. For more information about selecting a device, see Selecting a Print Device.

  3. In the Choose Driver window, select a make for your printer, then click Forward.
  4. Determine whether to accept the default printer driver or provide a PPD file.
    • To use the default driver, leave the Select Printer From Database option selected.
    • To provide a PPD file:
      1. Select the Provide PPD File option.

        The Select a File window is displayed.

      2. Locate the specified PPD file on your system, then click Open to associate the PPD file with the new printer.
  5. From the left pane of the next Choose Driver window, select a printer model. From the right pane, select a printer driver. Then, click Forward.

    By default, CUPS selects a “recommended” printer model and driver for your printer. However, you can optionally make another selection from the list of available drivers.

  6. In the Installable Options window, change any of the options that are available for your particular printer model, then click Forward.

    For more information, see Configurable Printer Properties.

  7. In the Describe Printer window, provide the following information:
    • Printer Name

    • Description

    • Location

  8. To save your changes, click Apply. If prompted, type the root password.

    After you have saved your changes, the newly configured printer is displayed in the CUPS Print Manager window.

  9. (Optional) To set the printer as the default, right-click the printer name.
    1. Choose the Set as Default option.
    2. In the Set Default Printer window, choose one of the following options:
      • Set as the system-wide default printer (default)

      • Set as my personal default printer

  10. Click OK to save the printer configuration.
  11. (Optional) To verify that the printer is configured correctly and is working, print a test page.