Apple Bought Cups

[Richard-BKK]

Chances are if you print anything from your Mac, Linux, or Unix system, you're using the Common Unix Printing System, or CUPS. Now, in a surprising development, Michael R. Sweet, CUPS' creator, revealed on CUPS' Web site that Apple has bought CUPS' source code and other intellectual property.

CUPS is used for printing in almost all Linux distributions. This includes such major Linux distributions as Debian, Novell SUSE, Red Hat, PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu. It is also supported in most Unixes, such as AIX, FreeBSD and HP-UX, and it's an option in OpenSolaris. Beginning with Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), CUPS became the basis for the Mac's printing system.

[Richard-BKK]

On first it looks maybe strange that Apple bought CUPS, but on the other hand is it understandable. And it is surely not bad for Linux users as it means that in the near future all printers that are or have Apple drivers also work with any Linux distribution which supports CUPS.

With the Apple move to buy CUPS, Apple just doubled the amount of users for their printer drivers. The demand for CUPS printer drivers will now be at least as big as the demand for MS Windows printer drivers, probably even bigger

[Niloc]

Does this mean that I might eventually be able to get Ubuntu to print on my Canon LPB 1210? I have tried everything to get it to work but the best I have managed is to get it to eject a blank page!!

[Richard-BKK]

Yes, this means that eventually much more printers will be supported by CUPS printing system. In your case I not see a big problem, as I understand that the Canon LBP-1210 is already supported. (Ops there are some issues if you are using the parallel port)

Here the link to the how-to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardwareS.../Canon_LBP_2900

And you can download the driver from http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0000525.asp

[Niloc]

Thanks Richard, I have been through this installation process before (same web page) and once again all I get is * captstatusui Error: No Specified Printer ***

I also had an earlier problem ' LBP1210 can't find in CUPS Spooler Entry!!' but there is no explanation for this on the page.... it must be me... sob...

I was careful to get all the terminal commands correct but it still does not work... despite the enthusiasm exhibited on the web page!!

Colin

[Niloc]

Just an update in case you are still watching, I have gone through the procedure yet again and now I get captstatusui Socket Error ***

which is at least a change, but the printer still is saving paper!!

Colin

[Richard-BKK]

Belief it or not I sometimes also experience the weirdest things when working with computers, luckily this is not limited to working with Linux. I can remember and so-called soft-modem in MS Windows XP, which for some reason was identified as a total other modem then it official was, the fight with the Plug-and-Play engine of MS Windows XP which followed almost drove me insane. Lucky for me was this analog dial-up modem only in use for a short time before Hi-Speed Internet came available.

Okay back to the current problem, of CUPS drivers which for some mystery seem not to work correctly, I can only say start over. Of course if I mean start over I mean really start over and uninstall everything CUPS related.

Then after you even removed (make backup) all possible setup files in /etc/cups/ you can reinstall cups again.

When re-installing cups you maybe also want to look at foomatic, I belief that Ubuntu doesn't installs foomatic-db-gutenprint and foomatic-gui by default. Friends of my have good experience with foomatic in combination with Canon printers

[Niloc]

Well I almost made it, I installed FooMatic and the first thing I did was print a test page, details are :

Queue Name : LBP1210

Printer : N/A

Driver : N/A

Description : LBP1210

Location : N/A

Connection : ccp:/var/ccpd/fifo0

To print this to printer in the future use the "Queue Name" shown above/ You can use the "foomatic-print job" command or your spooler's usual command (often LP or LPR)

(Test Page Ends)

This is all I ever got!! I tried printing from a text file, direct from the foomatic prompt but could get nothing at all. I even re-installed foomatic but that made no difference.

It refuses even to repeat the test page.

So all I have is one single page, I guess I should be grateful for small mercies, half a loaf is better than no rest at all!!

Any suggestions?

Colin

[Richard-BKK]

Hello Colin,

Can you check if you have a folder called /var/spool/lpd/LBP1210 ? And do you have a file called /etc/printcap (This is your Config file for the print queue)

This must be something like

LBP1210|My Cannon LBP1210 printer:\

:lp=/dev/lp0:\

:af=/path/to/ppd/file:\

:if=/path/to/foomatic-rip:\

:sd=/path/to/spool/directory:\

:mx#0:sh:

O and be aware that Linux is cap sensitive so LBP1210 ir not the same as lbp1210....(probably you know)

[Niloc]

Richard,

No, /var/spool/lpd/LBP1210 is not there, it ends at /var/spool which has /anacron, /cron, /cups, /mail and /open office

/etc/printcap is there and it is :

# This file was automatically generated by cupsd(8) from the

# /etc/cups/printers.conf file. All changes to this file

# will be lost.

LBP1210|Laser:rm=colin-desktop:rp=LBP1210:

The /etc/cups/printers.conf file is not available to me to open so I have no idea what it contains.

And yes I have found out the hard way that Linux is cap sensitive, blame the C and C++ programmers!!

[Gumballl]

Niloc,

What do mean that the /etc/cups/printer.conf file cannot be opened? Just run this command:

$ sudo gedit /etc/cups/printers.conf

(in lieu of gedit, use your favorite editor). Your printer's configuration info should appear in that file.

Also, if you have not set your root password yet, I would recommend that you do it. Who knows what the default password is that is set by Ubuntu? To set it, select the following: System -> Administration -> User and Groups. Then select "Properties" on the root account. The rest should be obvious.

Btw, here's an example of what my printers.conf file looks like:

<Printer PSC-2355-1>

Info HP PSC-2355 All In One

Location Home Office

DeviceURI lpd://iogear/lp1

State Idle

StateTime 1181501665

Accepting Yes

Shared Yes

JobSheets none none

QuotaPeriod 0

PageLimit 0

KLimit 0

OpPolicy default

ErrorPolicy retry-job

</Printer>

[Niloc]

Thanks to Gumballl I managed to open the printer.conf file :

# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.2.4

# Written by cupsd on 2007-08-13 08:22

<Printer LBP1210>

Info Laser

Location office

DeviceURI ccp:/var/ccpd/fifo0

State Idle

StateTime 1186968113

Accepting Yes

Shared Yes

JobSheets none none

QuotaPeriod 0

PageLimit 0

KLimit 0

OpPolicy default

ErrorPolicy retry-job

</Printer>

Is this where my problem is?

[Gumballl]

Niloc,

Honestly I do not know why you can't print. Yo have stated previously that you were able to print out the test page, but afterwards not a thing. What type of connection are you using for your printer? Is it hooked up directly to your PC or is it on the network? I only ask because the DeviceURI looks odd... but maybe it's correct.

I have a USB printer, but I do not have it connected to my PC. I have it plugged into an iogear thingy, which is then plugged into my Linksys router using a CAT-5 cable. The "iogear" in my DeviceURI is actually an alias for the static-IP address assigned to the iogear thingy.

Btw, when you get the chance, run the following command:

$ lpstat -a -d

I would be interested in knowing if your printer is setup as the default, and if not, to know whether you specify the -d option when printing. For example,

$ lp -d LBP1210 <file>

[Niloc]

My printer is connected to the USB port, exactly the same one it uses for Dindoze,

lpstat gave me this...

colin@colin-desktop:~$ lpstat -a -d

LBP1210 accepting requests since Mon 13 Aug 2007 08:21:53 ICT

system default destination: LBP1210

colin@colin-desktop:~$

The Ubuntu document editor gave me when I tried to print :

LBP 1210 office /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstocapt failed

And I got this when I tried to print two different documents. The System/Adminstration/Printing now refuses to print a test page also...

And it is the default printer...

As a famous Prime Minister said, "life was not meant to be easy"

Colin

[Gumballl]

Niloc (Colin) -

I do not have a file similar to /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstocapt on my Ubuntu system, so perhaps it is something used for your printer.

Can you check to see if the file exists on your system, and also check the permissions on the file itself, using this command:

$ ls -l /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstocapt

Verify that the permissions (-rwxr-xr-x) resemble something like:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1873 2007-03-14 18:47 pstoraster

If it doesn't then that might be your problem.

[Gumballl]

Niloc (Colin) -

Also, you might want to ensure that you have the latest drivers for your printer. I perused the Canon (S. & SE Asia) website and found the following packages that contains the Linux drivers and instructions for your printer. Here's the link:

http://www.canon-asia.com/index.jsp?fuseac...&country=SG

Then select your Printer Type (LBP-1210), Drivers & Software, and then click on Next, and wait for the pop-up window to appear.

Then select "Linux Printer Driver (CAPT) ver1.50E"

Then scroll to the end of the page and save/download to disk the "..._Driver150[1].tar.gz" file (i.e. the first one listed).

Then open a terminal window and go to where you downloaded the file. Then run the following commands:

$ tar xzvf CAPT_Printer_Driver_for_Linux_Driver150[1].tar.gz

$ cd CAPT_Printer_Driver_for_Linux_Driver150/Driver/Debian

$ sudo dpkg -i cndrvcups-common_1.50-1_i386.deb

$ sudo dpkg -i cndrvcups-cap_1.50-1_i386.deb

$ sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart

$ sudo /usr/sbin/lpadmin -p LBP1210 -m CNCUPSLBP1210CAPTK.ppd -v ccp:/var/ccpd/fifo0 -E

$ sudo /usr/sbin/ccpdadmin -p LBP1210 -o /dev/usb/lp0

$ sudo /etc/init.d/ccpd start

Verify you can print:

$ lp -d LBP1210 /etc/hosts

Note it would be convenient to start 'ccpd' each time your system boots. I'm not sure what's the easiest way to do this, but what's below might help. First run this command:

$ cat > ./script << "EOF"

#!/bin/sh

for dir in 1 2 3 4 5

do

pushd /etc/rc${dir}.d 1> /dev/null

ln -sv ../init.d/ccpd S20ccpd

popd 1> /dev/null

done

EOF

Then run this command:

$ sudo sh ./script

P.S. I would recommend uninstalling your current printer before attempting the commands above. Also, if after following the initial commands, you are unable to print using the 'lp' command, then you might be SOL.

P.S.S. The usage of the '.deb' packages above assume you are running Ubuntu (which is a Debian derivative). If you are not, then there are RPM packages available with the tar-package from Canon.

[Niloc]

Yes, I have been through all this before, I found the same problem "This Driver requires installation of Ghostscript including common API. Before installing this driver, make sure that Ghostscript including common API is installed." I spent a couple of weeks asking if I needed Ghostscript but there was no way I could find out what it was or how to install it so I gave up. One lot of advice was that it is not needed.

The file 'pstocapt' does exist and the permissions look OK, -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12716 2006-02-14 07:13 /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstocapt

Now if I could just figure out how to uninstall the printer, I could make some progress.

When I was writing software for a living, the general principle was 'never leave the user in a position where he doesn't know what to do next', I think the writers of Linux work on 'always get the user in a position where he hasn't got a clue what is happening', my whinge for the day.

Colin

[Gumballl]

To manage your printer(s), select System -> Administration -> Printing. Then right-click on the printer you want removed, and select "Remove". You really should consider sticking to the instructions provided by Canon. The instructions I provided in my earlier post come from the Canon documentation.

If you do not have ghostscript, then get it with this command:

$ sudo apt-get install gs-gpl

[Niloc]

Well today I went through the whole process for the fourth time, and believe it or not, IT WORKED!!

My printer now prints something, thanks to everyone who helped, particularly Gumballl and Richard.

Now I have the desktop working, I can start on the laptop!!

Colin

[Gumballl]

Congrats on getting the printer to work. The laptop shouldn't be too difficult. What type of video chip-set and wifi chip-set does the laptop have? These two items usually present the biggest challenges when it comes to installing Linux.

[Niloc]

Gumball, my laptop is an old but very reliable IBM Thinkpad. No WiFi that I know of, and I have no idea what the video chip set is either!

I have already managed a test page which means the full print function is probably not far away.

I will keep you updated...

Colin

[Niloc]

Fixed the laptop today, it works great. Now I have instructions to fix the wife's desktop from which I just erased WinXP and installed Ununtu 7.4... fun fun fun....

[Niloc]

Well after installing it twice, I got the other desktop to talk to the printer....

It was a long slow process but worth it in the end, and it made the missus happy!

[Gumballl]

... And they lived happily ever after.

Congrats. Now that you know more than you ever cared to know about setting up printers and networking systems together, you can start your own business to provide service to others.