[SOLVED] daft question about printers

johnh10000 · 03-10-2010, 11:03 AM

I have recently upgraded tux, to a nice, much faster penguin. However he seems to have forgoten about printers

I have HP Deskjet (which has worked un Karmic b4) what do I need to install?

When I goto System->Printing the add menu item is grayed out

rweaver · 03-10-2010, 11:16 AM

You likely need to install the cups packages or alternately packages for your specific printer, what do you get when you enter

Code:

rpm -qa | grep -i cups

johnh10000 · 03-10-2010, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rweaver

You likely need to install the cups packages or alternately packages for your specific printer, what do you get when you enter

Code:

rpm -qa | grep -i cups

not quite, but some of the configy stuff for cup-hp helps, I'll let yah know. BTW using Ubuntu Karmic, so rpms ==alien I have to convert them

pixellany · 03-10-2010, 11:59 AM

Please tell me that CUPS is automatically included in any upgrade or fresh install of Ubuntu or Fedora........

Regardless, be sure that HPLIP is also installed.

I would think that all you need to do is just re-install the printer.

johnh10000 · 03-10-2010, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Please tell me that CUPS is automatically included in any upgrade or fresh install of Ubuntu or Fedora........

Regardless, be sure that HPLIP is also installed.

I would think that all you need to do is just re-install the printer.

Oh yeah cups is there, but apperently the configy bits are missing, installed suitable for my hp deskjet, and still no joy

johnh10000 · 03-10-2010, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Please tell me that CUPS is automatically included in any upgrade or fresh install of Ubuntu or Fedora........

Regardless, be sure that HPLIP is also installed.

I would think that all you need to do is just re-install the printer.

right we are getting somewhere, oh yeah cups is there but it ait starting

will start it ....

johnh10000 · 03-10-2010, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnh10000

right we are getting somewhere, oh yeah cups is there but it ait starting

will start it ....

BINGO it works.

Oh I forgot, when I played with Fedora, the other week, It gave a web interface to configure the printer. |I didn't I was just looking for something for the box in the bedroom to do., my webserver has gone back in there now.

tredegar · 03-11-2010, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Oh I forgot, when I played with Fedora, the other week, It gave a web interface to configure the printer.

The 'buntus prefer you to set up printers through System Admin Printers or somesuch.

To enable the usual web interface for cups:

1] Set a password for root by using the terminal ( it is a good thing to have a password for root )

Code:

sudo passwd root

Enter your password, then root's, twice.

2] Now, in your browser http://localhost:631
You will eventually be asked to login
Username= root
PW= root's_password

Back to the usual cups interface

And you can still sudo with your password, if you prefer that.

pixellany · 03-11-2010, 12:53 PM

You just pushed my "Ubuntu button".....

In addition to the no-root-user silliness---if you have something as good as the native CUPS tool, why would you need to invest resources in developing something different? In all of my distro-hopping, I have NEVER seen a printer utility that can match using the native tool. (To be fair, I quit looking many months ago.)

johnh10000 · 03-11-2010, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

The 'buntus prefer you to set up printers through System Admin Printers or somesuch.

To enable the usual web interface for cups:

1] Set a password for root by using the terminal ( it is a good thing to have a password for root )

Code:

sudo passwd root

Enter your password, then root's, twice.

2] Now, in your browser http://localhost:631
You will eventually be asked to login
Username= root
PW= root's_password

Back to the usual cups interface

And you can still sudo with your password, if you prefer that.

thanks for that, but unde ubuntu once cups was acctually runing it found by it's self.

rweaver · 03-11-2010, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnh10000

not quite, but some of the configy stuff for cup-hp helps, I'll let yah know. BTW using Ubuntu Karmic, so rpms ==alien I have to convert them

In that case you'd want dpkg -l

and apt-get install the packages, you can also do an apt-cache search cups to get a list of the installable packages.

Also make sure you add it to your system startup so when you reboot it doesn't break again.

tredegar · 03-11-2010, 02:05 PM

If slightly off-topic, apologies.

@ pixellany:

Quote:

You just pushed my "Ubuntu button"..... no-root-user silliness

Well, I hate it too, but it's fixable. And when I switched from Mand[rake | riva] to kubuntu 6.06, it was "better". apt-get .... is awesome.

But I soon set a PW for root. Otherwise it's a pain if, for some good reason, you cannot login as yourself ( "Where's that knoppix CD?" ).

Right now I'm distro-hopping, again, after a few years of relative stability .... Arch, maybe soon. I really hate KDE4 and grub1.97Beta is causing lots of headaches.