Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 2012-01-16

Chapter 42. Printing

Cups-1.5.0

Introduction to Cups

The Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) is a print spooler and associated utilities. It is based on the "Internet Printing Protocol" and provides printing services to most PostScript and raster printers.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-7.0 platform.

Package Information

Cups Dependencies

Recommended

libjpeg-8c, libpng-1.5.7, and LibTIFF-4.0.0

Optional

TCP Wrappers-7.6, D-BUS-1.4.16, libusb-1.0.8, acl-2.2.51, Linux-PAM-1.1.5, OpenLDAP-2.4.23, GnuTLS-3.0.7 or OpenSSL-1.0.0e (looked for in that order), Heimdal-1.4 or MIT Kerberos V5-1.6, PHP-5.3.8, GPL Ghostscript-9.04, Python-2.7.2, IcedTea6-1.9.7 or JDK-6 Update 18, Xdg-utils, OpenSLP, libpaper, HTMLDOC, and Valgrind (optionally used if running the test suites)

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/cups

Kernel Configuration

If you have a parallel printer enable the following options in your kernel configuration and recompile the kernel: 

Device Drivers  --->
  [*] Parallel port support  --->
    [*]   PC-style hardware
...
  Character devices  --->
    [*] Parallel printer support
[Note]

Note

If you have a USB printer there is a conflict between the Cups libusb backend and the kernel driver. If you want to use Cups with libusb support do not enable USB Printer support in your kernel and remove the --disable-libusb when you configure Cups.

If you want to use the kernel usblp driver enable the following options in your kernel configuration and recompile the kernel: 

Device Drivers  --->
  [*] USB support  --->
...
Enable support for either UHCI or OHCI, not both:
    [*]   OHCI HCD support
    [*]   UHCI HCD (most Intel and VIA) support
...
    [*]   USB Printer support

Installation of Cups

Create an lp user, as Cups will create some files owned by this user. (The lp user is the default used by Cups, but may be changed to a different user by passing a parameter to the configure script.) Use the following command as the root user: 

useradd -c "Print Service User" -d /dev/null -g lp -s /bin/false -u 9 lp

Install Cups by running the following commands: 

sed -i 's#@CUPS_HTMLVIEW@#firefox#' desktop/cups.desktop.in &&
./configure --localstatedir=/var --disable-libusb --with-rcdir=/tmp/cupsinit --with-docdir=/usr/share/doc/1.5.0 &&
make

To test the results, issue: make check. This will run a basic test suite without any load testing. If you wish to run the tests specifying non-default parameters, issue: make test. Note that the “torture load testing” test uses more resources than those displayed in the prompt.

Now, as the root user: 

make install &&
rm -rf /tmp/cupsinit

The man files are installed in compressed (.gz) format. If desired, use the following commands to uncompress them as the root user: 

pushd /usr/share/man/                                  &&
find -name cups\*gz -type l -print -delete             &&
find -name \*gz -exec gunzip -v {} \;                  &&
popd                                                   &&

ln -v -s cupsaccept.8 /usr/share/man/man8/reject.8     &&
ln -v -s cupsaccept.8 /usr/share/man/man8/cupsreject.8 &&
ln -v -s cupsaccept.8 /usr/share/man/man8/accept.8     &&
ln -v -s cupsenable.8 /usr/share/man/man8/cupsdisable.8

Command Explanations

sed -i 's#@CUPS_HTMLVIEW@#firefox#' ...: This changes the browser that the Cups desktop file uses for its web interface.

--localstatedir=/var: This changes the location of the cache, log, run and spool directories from /usr/var to /var.

--disable-libusb: This disables the Cups libusb backend. If you'd like Cups to use libusb, delete this option and make sure you compile your kernel with: # CONFIG_USB_PRINTER is not set

--with-rcdir=/tmp/cupsinit: This option makes it install its bootscript into /tmp instead of /etc/rc.d.

Configuring Cups

Configuration of Cups is dependent on the type of printer and can be complex. Generally, PostScript printers are easier. For detailed instructions on configuration and use of Cups, see http://www.cups.org/documentation.php. The Software Administrators Manual and Software Users Manual are particularly useful.

For non-PostScript printers to print with Cups, you need to install GPL Ghostscript-9.04 to convert PostScript to raster images and a driver (e.g., from Gutenprint-5.2.5) to convert the resulting raster images to a form that the printer understands. Foomatic drivers use Ghostscript to convert PostScript to a printable form directly, but this is considered to be a hack by Cups developers.

Boot Script

If you want the Cups to start automatically when the system is booted, install the init script included in the blfs-bootscripts-20111226 package: 

make install-cups

Contents

Installed Programs: accept, cancel, cups-config, cupsaccept, cupsaddsmb, cupsctl, cupsd, cupsdisable, cupsenable, cupsfilter, cupsreject, cupstestdsc, cupstestppd, lp, lpadmin, lpc, lpinfo, lpmove, lpoptions, lppasswd, lpq, lpr, lprm, lpstat, ppdc, ppdhtml, ppdi, ppdmerge, ppdpo, reject
Installed Libraries: libcups.so, libcupscgi.so, libcupsdriver.so, libcupsimage.so, libcupsmime.so, libcupsppdc.so, and various filters and backend drivers
Installed Directories: /etc/cups, /usr/include/cups, /usr/lib/cups, /usr/share/cups, /usr/share/doc/cups-1.5.0, /var/cache/cups, /var/log/cups, /var/run/cups and /var/spool/cups.

Short Descriptions

accept

instructs the printing system to accept print jobs to the specified destinations.

cancel

cancels existing print jobs from the print queues.

cups-config

is a Cups program configuration utility.

cupsaddsmb

exports printers to the Samba software for use with Windows clients.

cupsd

is the scheduler for the Common Unix Printing System.

cupstestppd

tests the conformance of PPD files.

disable

stops the named printers or classes.

enable

starts the named printers or classes.

lp

submits files for printing or alters a pending job.

lpadmin

configures printer and class queues provided by Cups.

lpc

provides limited control over printer and class queues provided by Cups.

lpinfo

lists the available devices or drivers known to the Cups server.

lpmove

moves the specified job to a new destination.

lpoptions

displays or sets printer options and defaults.

lppasswd

adds, changes or deletes passwords in the Cups digest password file passwd.md5.

lpq

shows the current print queue status on the named printer.

lpr

submits files for printing.

lprm

cancels print jobs that have been queued for printing.

lpstat

displays status information about the current classes, jobs, and printers.

reject

instructs the printing system to reject print jobs to the specified destinations.

Last updated on 2012-01-18 14:22:37 +0000