Configuring CUPS with router acting as printer server (Arch)
 

Hi all

I have a Samsung CLP 310series printer that is hooked up to my Asus RT-N66U router via USB. The router is acting as the printer server for all the machines in the house (everything else is Windows, and Asus provides a no-brainer utility for getting the printer configured on Windows), which is working fine for everything besides my Arch install.

I have CUPS installed along with the Samsung Unified Drivers. Using the CUPS web interface I have tried to connect to the printer as a "LPD/LPR Host or Printer" using this as my connection:

lpd://192.168.1.1/LPRServer

where 192.168.1.1 is the router IP and LPRServer is the queue (based on the documentation from the router).

Everything else about the CUPS configuration tutorial works fine (my printer is listed in the devices, etc).

But when I go to print a test page I get nothing. The printer status just says "Idle"

In an effort to get this working at all I plugged the printer into the router via an ethernet cable as well. I was then able to go through the CUPS "Find New Printers" utiltiy, and it found the printer just fine. Again, though, when I go to print I don't get anything - just the printer status sitting there saying "Idle". I can ping the printer IP just fine, so I at least know that part is working.

I feel like there's some step here I must be missing, but I'm at a loss for what it could be. Any help would be appreciated.

1. Is there any reason you're trying to use the router as a print server rather than just connect the printer directly to the network (since it is a network printer)?

2. Anything useful reported in the CUPS error log?

3. Does the router support JetDirect or IPP protocols?

4. When you connected the printer to the network via an ethernet cable, did the URI in /etc/cups/printers.conf look like the following?

1. Because this is how I already had it set up for the rest of the machines in the house. I currently only have the one wire (usb) running between the printer and router. Why did I set it up initially that way? I don't really remember, probably because of how simple it was to get set up on all the other machines in the house (I've only recently started using Linux).

2. Yes, actually, thanks for calling my attention to there being an error log. There seems to be something up with my drivers:

I'm going to look into this, as I'm guessing this is probably the issue.

3. No sure? I can't find anything about either in the router manual. I'm guessing the latter, but where exactly would that information be?

4. /etc/cups/printers.conf is empty

You can increase the CUPS verbosity with
That might help with the error reporting and diagnostics.

Maybe a port scan of the router is in order, just to confirm that the print server is listening on port 515. Check with
* You will probably need to run this as root.

If you get to the point that you think that there is a problem with the proprietary driver, it may be worth trying the foomatic (foo2qpdl) driver instead. The foomatic drivers are normally available as a package for most distros.

http://www.openprinting.org/driver/foo2qpdl

Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

Error log from attempt at printing test page after changing LogLevel to Debug:

http://pastebin.com/2wg4q5Ai

Output of nmap 192.168.1.1

The nmap output shows that 'socket://' protocol is also supported, so that could be tried if desired, although I don't think LPR protocol is the cause of the problem here.

It would be useful to know if the printer would work when connected to your machine as a local USB printer. Report back with the results from doing that if possible.

I'm still digesting the error_log output, but hopefully others reading this thread may be able to advise further about that.

I'll give that a shot tonight.

Nothing jumps out to me in the log, but I honestly don't know what I'm looking for.

it was the driver. switched to the splix driver and now it's printing fine. probably should have just tried that from the get-go. thanks for the help :)

As I was beginning to suspect. Glad that the open source driver is working for you. :)

When installing the Splix driver I was presented with the message:

and within Cups, even though I can print a test page it is giving me the error message:

"SpliX Cannot open CMS file /usr/share/cups/profiles/samsung/CLP-315cms (2)"

I'm not all that clear though on how to install the color profiles properly. I have the contents of the cms folder from the unified driver, and have moved them into , but this doesn't seem to be the correct way to do this since I'm getting the same error message.

How am I supposed to install these (maybe more appropriate to ask this question somewhere else?)

I downloaded the archive file (by opening the link http://splix.ap2c.org/samsung_cms.tar.bz2), and examined the files contained within. I note that there was no 'CLP-215cms' file present. You mentioned that you grabbed the unified driver cms folder, but a quick look at that suggests it's using a different file format (.cts files).

yeah in neither the linked repository nor the cms folder for the unified driver is there anything specifically for the 315.

Not sure how necessary this is, as color seems to be printing ok, but I haven't tested it extensively.

I know the foomatic driver is also an option (which you suggested before) - I went with the splix driver because this was supposedly what was recommended (see: http://www.openprinting.org/printer/...amsung-CLP-315)

I don't quite understand why they don't supply the required profiles with the driver. You might get support from

http://splix.ap2c.org/

Someone else asking how to go about the same

http://sourceforge.net/p/splix/discu...?limit=25#9ebb

and here too

http://www.openprinting.org/printer/...amsung-CLP-315

Sorry I can't help more than that.