[SOLVED] remote printing

acampbell · 12-07-2010, 03:41 PM

I have just set up a new Brother HL5240L on my desktop, using lprng. It works fine. Now I want to arrange to use the printer from another computer on the LAN. This was working with my previous printer.

I modified the original client /etc/printcap. It almost works; the printer lights flash and the motor starts but nothing is printed. Lpq and lpstat show the file has arrived, but it doesn't seem to be right; it is always the same size, no matter what the orignal file may be.

Here is the client printcap I've tried. Any suggestions for fixing it please?
(I know I could try CUPS but I don't like it - prefer lprng.)

HL5240:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/HL5240:rm=arcadia:rp=HL5240:\
:if=/usr/local/Brother/lpd/filterHL5240:\
:af=/var/log/lp-acct:lf=/var/log/lp-errs:

markush · 12-07-2010, 04:33 PM

Hi acampbell,

did you check the permissions? Be sure that the user who wants to print is a member of the lp group (I'm not sure but probably on the client and the server).
You may check with nmap if the port where lpd should listen for printjobs is really open

Code:

nmap -p portnumber printserverip

Markus

acampbell · 12-07-2010, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markush

Hi acampbell,

did you check the permissions? Be sure that the user who wants to print is a member of the lp group (I'm not sure but probably on the client and the server).
You may check with nmap if the port where lpd should listen for printjobs is really open

Code:

nmap -p portnumber printserverip

Markus

I'm not a member of the lp group on either host or client. I don't know which port lpd uses. But none of this should matter, surely, because with the previous printer I could print from the remove client without problems. I don't see why this one should be different.

markush · 12-07-2010, 05:05 PM

Well, I tried grep on the /etc/services file and did not find a port for lpd as well.
The command

Code:

nmap -sV serverip

checks all ports up to 1000, maybe that helps.
Otherwise, since the printer seems to work (tries to work) there may be a driver issue.
Which printer did you have before the brother?
It was long ago when I used lpr for printing (back in 1996 or so

) but what about the driver on the client? with cups I know the proper driver is used automatically, but what about the driver for the client with lpr?

Markus

acampbell · 12-08-2010, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markush

Well, I tried grep on the /etc/services file and did not find a port for lpd as well.
The command

Code:

nmap -sV serverip

checks all ports up to 1000, maybe that helps.
Otherwise, since the printer seems to work (tries to work) there may be a driver issue.
Which printer did you have before the brother?
It was long ago when I used lpr for printing (back in 1996 or so

) but what about the driver on the client? with cups I know the proper driver is used automatically, but what about the driver for the client with lpr?

Markus

Thanks - you were right, it is the driver. I tried the ljet4 fiilter from magicfilter and it printed. But it's odd; on the server (desktop) I'm using the driver supplied by Brother, which is fine. I put the same thing on the client and it didn't print. I must experiment further.

acampbell · 12-09-2010, 08:51 AM

Here is a follow-up to my last post. I've found that I can use the Brother filter provided I do so on the host machine, not on the client. Having set up an appropriate entry in /var/spool/lpd for HL5240 I then modified /etc/printcap as follows:

lp|HL5240|HL5240:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/HL5240:rm=arcadia:rp=HL5240:lpr_bounce: