Hi,


On a Red Hat Enterprise 3 (Taroon Update 6) server I would like to add a PCL6 driver to connect to a network printer.
The list with generic drivers currently doesn’t have any PCL drivers, the “Printer Configuration” GUI doesn’t have the option to import ppd files (seems to exist only from version 4). And I can’t find any other directory to place the ppd files (at least not one that works)
I know there already is a PostScript driver available but the printer joblog page reports "print data error" when using this driver. On a more recent Red Hat Enterprise server in the same environment the already present PCL6/PCL XL driver works like a charm.

- CUPS version 1.1.17 is installed
- Foomatic version 2.0.2-15.1.1 is installed


Would an upgrade of but one of both suffice, and if yes, which one?
This is a production server so another question would be: what are the risks of upgrading cups/foomatic to the most recent version.


I have little experience with Linux printing queues so I currently can’t tell if I provided too little information or have already overlooked the elephant in the room.



(I realize there may be other/better forums to place this post, but since I only have an account registered here I’d like to start here and work my way through the other options.)


Kind regards,
Wim.

replace it ASAP !!!

RHEL 3 and RHEL4 are both unsupported ( and that is for a 7 year LONG LIFE distro )
and rhel5 is on the LAST minor upgrade 5.10

with rhel6.5 as the current and RHEL 7 in testing

buy the REQUIRED support contract for server install
and install RHEL 6.5

Yeah, that was also my first idea when I saw these boxes and is already noted in the report I'm writing for them.
These belong to some department of the government where I live and I very much doubt they will want to replace them because they'd like to print reports on their new printers.

So whether they are supported or not I still need to provide them with an answer
a) no, these are too old and it won't work/will likely not work/attempting this is a recipe for certain doom
b) yes, it's possible to do this by taking steps x, y and z but also taking into account the risk of performing a component upgrade on an unsupported distro.

Kind regards,
Wim.

there is always a way to do "B"
but it will take this ( some VERY large random number - 6 figure ) of tens of thousands of dollars ( USD) to to it
and will take ten years and will go 300% over budget and be late in completion date and milestones by a factor of 200 .

or

for a few thousand per year for the support contract for rhel6.5

Not the response I was hoping for but not entirely unexpected either
Thank you for the replies and your time.


Kind regards,
Wim.

the other issue with RHEL 3.6 is it is from 2006

and went end of life in October 2010
so for the last 3+ years it is running software that is missing almost 4 YEARS of security updates
that right there is a VERY big problem

it is wide OPEN to EVERY known and FIXED security breach in the last few YEARS .
and ( let me put my tin foil hat on ) is likely already compromised

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The powers of your tin foil hat are formidable, this has indeed already been discovered in at least one of their servers.
This is a good point and will be added to the report.

Kind regards,
Wim.

You could suggest they replace with Centos 6.x, a free rebuild of RHEL, but on the other hand they will need competent staff to support it.
In any case, good luck with this.

PS you can point them at this page https://access.redhat.com/site/suppo...pdates/errata/ if it helps.

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