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<p>Thanks for the write-up Stewart, very useful for a non-admin home user like me.</p>
<p>John.</p>
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<p>---------- Original Message ----------<br />From: "Stewart C. Russell via talk" <talk@gtalug.org><br />Date: June 1, 2020 at 12:20 PM<br /><br /><br />On 2020-06-01 10:14 a.m., Christopher Browne via talk wrote:<br />> <br />> But I had gotten myself accustomed to the impression that<br />> "with CUPS, It Just Works(tm)", so colour me surprised.<br />> <br />> Has Microsoft pushed back to try to get WinPrinters back to be a<br />> thing?<br /><br />I don't think so. Since all printers (except cheap USB-only disposable <br />ones) need to print over wireless from an iPad/iPhone, it's got much <br />simpler. Different, yes, but simpler for the user.<br /><br />I've got a 2012-vintage Epson WorkForce WF7520 large-format inkjet AiO. <br />It supports wireless and IPP v1.0. I've also got a 2019 Brother <br />MFC-L2750DW. It supports wireless and AirPrint (aka IPP v2.0, pretty <br />much). Both are auto-discovered by all my (non-embedded) Linux systems, <br />and I don't need any drivers. The entire installation process of the <br />Brother went like this:<br /><br />1) unpack from box;<br />2) remove packing materials;<br />3) install toner and paper;<br />4) plug in power;<br />5) join wireless network from front panel.<br /><br />By the time I got downstairs from where I'd installed the printer, all <br />the computers in the house had found the new printer and added it as a <br />device. This includes an Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu laptop, a couple of <br />Macs, a Windows 10 machine, two Raspberry Pis and an iPad. The only <br />thing that needed a little work was my Android phone, but that wasn't <br />any more than "Find printer" then say yes to the Brother printer driver.<br /><br />All of this is made possible by three technologies:<br /><br />1) CUPS<br />2) Bonjour (mDNS/DNS-SD, typically Avahi under Linux)<br />3) IPP<br /><br />Bonjour announces that the printer's there, IPP negotiates the printer's <br />capabilities, and CUPS sends the data in the right format. If even one <br />of these three is missing, it's endless fighting and pain.<br /><br />The Debian packages I have on my desktop system(s) that enable this are:<br /><br /> avahi-autoipd avahi-daemon avahi-utils cups<br /> cups-browsed cups-bsd cups-client cups-common<br /> cups-core-drivers cups-daemon cups-filters<br /> cups-filters-core-drivers cups-ipp-utils cups-pk-helper<br /> cups-ppdc cups-server-common printer-driver-cups-pdf<br /> printer-driver-gutenprint system-config-printer<br /> system-config-printer-common system-config-printer-udev<br /><br />Most of these are installed automatically. I think I had to add <br />cups-ipp-utils, system-config-printer and (oddly) cups to make this work <br />seamlessly on the Raspberry Pis.<br /><br />* I don't strictly need avahi-autoipd and avahi-utils; the Raspberry Pis <br />do fine without them.<br /><br />* cups-bsd is only needed if your fingers automatically type 'lpr -P' <br />instead of 'lp -d', as mine do.<br /><br />* printer-driver-cups-pdf isn't necessary, but gives you print to PDF <br />from everywhere. Since CUPS puts every print job into PDF anyway, this <br />is just a *really* fancy wrapper around 'cat'.<br /><br />* printer-driver-gutenprint gives a bit more control to colour printing <br />for those rare times I need things to be really fiddly. I could do <br />without for 99% of print jobs.<br /><br />All the above did pretty much require me to forget everything I thought <br />I knew about printer admin. I'm glad I don't need that any more.<br /><br />cheers,<br /> Stewart<br /><br />---<br />Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org<br />Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk<br /></p>
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