I am running Debian 6.0.1a on a Gateway SX-2841, trying to set up a Toshiba e4511 (laser) on the LAN. I can ping the printer address and get replies in < 1 ms. I downloaded the PPD from openprinting.org and copied it to /usr/share/ppd. I then do the command (as su) -
lpadmin -p tosh4511 -E -v http://(address) -m /usr/share/ppd/tosh4511.ppd

The result is "lpadmin: Unable to copy PPD file!".

What am I missing?
I have looked at two similar threads from 2003 and 2008.
No clues there.

Yes, I did rename the PPD. Is that what's killing me?
The name I have used in the -p option (tosh4511) is not defined anywhere.
Does that name need to be listed somewhere?

Hi LloydRice, Welcome to LQ. Are there any clues to the problem at /var/log/cups/error_log ?

Good luck. ;-)

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Yes (maybe?). Three new lines were added for each lpadmin attempt. The last three were (I'm on a different machine, so I can't paste):
[cups_driverd] Bad PPD name "/usr/share/ppd/tosh4511.ppd"!
copy_model: empty PPD file!
returning IPP server_error_internal_error for CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer ...

Similar lines were added for other PPDs I tried, including one that was in /usr/share/ppd/cups-included/postscript.ppd.
The PPDs look OK to me. The tosh4511 one has stuff for this printer pretty much as I expected.

There is one (to me) curious thing about the PPDs. Both tosh4511.ppd and the existing postscript.ppd have "*" at the beginning of every line. Is that correct?

Try copying the ppd to /usr/share/cups/model/. You might also try grabbing a clean copy from here.

http://www.openprinting.org/printer/...-e-Studio_4511

Good luck. ;-)

1 members found this post helpful.

Peacedog: Here is what happened. The PPD you suggested is 10 times the size of the one I was trying. It has much more detail about what can be done with different sizes of paper, running the stapler (which I don't have), and on, and on. Looks good. I tried copies of each PPD in each of the directories /usr/share/cups/model as you suggested and /usr/share/ppd, as before. I got the same result on all four tries: "Unable to copy PPD file".

Do you have the permissions in place to copy to the directory & copy the file?

EDDY1: Well, I'm doing the PPD copying and running lpadmin as su. Am I missing something? The PPD files do indeed appear in the target directories as expected.

The permissions on all ppd files are "-rw-r--r--".

After following Peacedog's recommendation, I now believe the PPDs are probably OK. My next question is about the argument to the -p option in the lpadmin command. Does that name have to be defined somewhere first, or am I defining it now for use in other places when I run the printer?

In a terminal you can check your history of chmod & chown commands by using the up arrow.
I'm not going to give you an exact command as I'm not sure in your case, but there are 2 list in this link.
I really think you should ask for more accurate advice on these commands from someone who knows more about it.
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com...ion_prn1c.html

I hope that atleast it points you in the right direction.

EDDY1: The Brother reference looks good. I will check PPD owner and try using cupsys instead of lpadmin. Another problem is that http://localhost does not seems to work. That may be for another forum.

If you're trying to access the cups web interface it should live at http://localhost:631 .

Good luck. ;-)

OK. localhost works. I don't know what I was doing wrong. Now I have lots more reading to do.

I will either get the lp working, then mark this thread as solved, or come back with another question. Thanks for the help.

How much progress have you gotten, I just want you to know that, we're here to help & I know what you're going thru.
I will say that in order to write to the usr group you must be a member.
You may not have to have write permissions on usr as a whole, but you do need permissions on /usr/share/cups......

Thanks for the good words, EDDY1. I thought I understood permissions and ownership, but I see there may have been some holes in that understanding. I do appreciate the clues, but perhaps the forum is not the best place for my training. When it gets to areas where others could benefit, then this is a good place to air it. But anybody can read HOWTOs and man listings.

Actually you're in the best place for your training, but some of us here would like to see you try & get it working rather than just give the solution.
They want to know what you tried & the result, so it's not that no ones paying attention, but your problem is not as serious as the guy whoes machine won't boot.
A lot of attention is paid to getting a person back up and running as having a broken machine on the first try at linux is quite discouraging.