[GTALUG] Continuing Printer Woes

[John Moniz]

Thanks for the write-up Stewart, very useful for a non-admin home user like me.

John.

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