CUPS & laser printer on LLel port?

penguinlnx

I have figured out that I have CUPS already installed,
however, my Brother hl 1230 laser printer on the parallel port is invisible.
I was told the drivers for an hl 1250 work fine with this printer,
but I have no idea what to do next to install drivers or access printer.
It would be nice to get this up ASAP because then I can print out other DOCs.

Thanks in advance, if you can help.

inode77 · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:42 am Post subject:

Make sure cupsd is running.

racoontje · Veteran Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 1290

inode is correct, the web interface isn't very good-looking, but it does what it's supposed to do pretty well :-)

Deathwing00 · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:17 pm Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo.

penguinlnx · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:55 am Post subject:

Quick Update for those reading this thread:

(1) Printer wasn't working.

(2) Discovered CUPS was already installed.

(3) Tried logging onto localhost:631. This happened first when I went to one of the HOW TO sites.
What nobody mentions, nor explains, is that when you do this, a box opens up asking for a USERNAME, and PASSWORD.
Anyone familiar with websites and popups in WIndows 'knows enough' not to type in their name & password when this happens. This was never explained, and is still not clear to me whether this was some 'website' or a 'webpage' built into my own Linux CUPS software on my own machine. I suspect it is a piece of local software that is activated by the browser, but this is totally confusing to Windows users like myself. The only comparable experience I have to draw upon, is a built-in page in my modem which came with my High-Speed internet service. Even unconnected to the internet, I can pull up a page on my browser, which is actually stored in the modem itself.

(4) After several attempts with usernames like 'guest' and passwords like <CR>, I tried 'ROOT' and my system password. This opened the site, but left me very disturbed as to whether I had just handed the keys for my system to some 'hacker' site. But I was able to select and install a printer.

(5) Unfortunately, the interface lacks many of the features built into the comparable Windows Printer Driver, and the printer cannot properly print webpage documents. It chops off the top of every page, usually a few lines, or a half-sentence.

People and the documents could explain this part of the process far better than it is currently explained. I am no dummy, but have been programming computers since the Apple II+ days, and I found the whole procedure maddening, confusing, and ineffective.

So that is CUPS.

penguinlnx · Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 9:37 pm Post subject: FINAL NOTES:

Ok, I am just updating and summing up:

If you installed Gentoo LInux via a VLOL install disk /vidalinux1 then you will find:

(1) CUPS is installed.

(2) GHOSTSCRIPT is installed.

(3) foomatic-filters is NOT installed. You have to drop into a terminal as 'root' and at the # prompt type: emerge foomatic-filters.

(4) you go to www.linuxprinting.org and either find and download the correct .PPD file for your printer or make it there on the spot.

(5) you can download the .PPD file in one step to the right folder, if you are paying attention: /usr/share/cups/model/(yourprinter.ppd)

(6) In your web browser goto localhost:631 ... I think this is a local page created by CUPS install.

(7) You will be prompted for a username and password. Use 'root' for a username and enter your own password for 'root'.

(

Install a printer. You can put anything for name, location and description within reason it doesn't matter.

(9) Select the right brand of driver (ppd) file. mine appeared as 'BROTHER' on a list of about 5 or 6 brands, mostly already installed, & model.

(10) Finish installing printer, and while you are there (assuming its hooked up and on, like mine was on the parallel port) print a test page.

------------------------------------ ADDING BETTER VERSION OF MY STORY --------------------
An Update on Printer problem... ( post #12)

Well, I thought I'd better update this, in case there are others struggling with this problem:

I thought I had the printer install beaten with the following procedure:

(1) CUPS, FOOMATIC-FILTER, and GHOSTSCRIPT apparently need to be running. In my distro (VLOL-Gentoo) two are already installed and running, so I only need the FOOMATIC-FILTER. I either emerge foomatic-filters or do it from Portal/Portage. To check if CUPS is running, try #/etc/init.d/CUPSD STATUS <CR>. If needed, you can get it going with #/etc/init.d/CUPSD START <CR>. If it's not installed, you could #emerge cups <cr> from the console, I think. If you have to do any of this, it is probably a good idea to reboot, to make sure everything is now installed and running.

(2) Get .PPD file for your printer. I went to www.linuxprinting.org and fetched the hl1250.ppd file from there and downloaded it directly into /usr/share/cups/model/<yourprintername.ppd> . You can seemingly compile this file too, at this website manually. In my case, the hl-1250 is available and is supposed to work for my Brother hl-1230 laser printer also. You will need to restart again for the new .ppd file to be noticed and incorporated into CUPS as an option.

(3) Go to localhost:631 in your web-browser. This apparently runs a local config program for CUPS. When you get there, you click on printers, and you are prompted for your username and password (use 'root' & whatever the password for 'root' is.) Go through the steps to install a printer, including selecting your brand and finding the driver (.ppd). Configure the printer. In my case, 300 dpi was all the driver supports. Test the printer by printing a test page. Reboot if necessary.

Well, I thought that covered it all, for it appeared to work fine the first time. (although when printing using a web-browser, long webpages are broken up and a few lines are lost at the top of each page.)
However, the second time I followed this procedure, after reinstalling my OS, it didn't work. The CUPS/driver talk to the printer, because I see the lights flashing, but no pages come out. I have tried shutting on and off the printer, and rebooting. Any ideas?

------- Addendum (or -dumb...)

I just went to localhost:631 again to see if there was some other menu options or something to slap the printer in the face, and I selected 'PRINTERS' and hit the 'Configure Printer' button. The info there was correct, but I pressed the 'continue' button anyway (reconfiguring with the same info). I came back to the PRINTERS screen and hit the PRINT TEST PAGE button, and lo and behold, NOW it prints!
:scratch: :confused: :study: