Hello

I am a newby to Linux in case you wondered .

I want to install the Canon LBP 2100 printer to a PC running Linux (Fedora core 1) all day long.

This PC is a server, and has been "inhereted" as is from a previous person.

I want others to be able to access this printer through the LAN. They can see the server.


Problems:
1.linux
2.usb printer (from what I know so far...this is problematic)
3.commands to make the connected printer act like a network printer seen by everybody in the LAN(like installing a network printer under Windows)...what programs do I need?


I'm really new at this so I would appreciate full syntax and a step by step guide.
IF this is not possible, just a step by step guide...and I will read what I can find on the net about each step.


Thank you

USB shouldn't be a problem as long as you have support for it set up right. The big problem is finding a driver for your printer.

Unfortunately, support for Canon printers is rather poor in Linux because they don't like to release information about their hardware. A check on Linuxprinting.org shows no LBP2100, but there is a BJC2100 with partial support. I have no idea if these are the same or similar.

If you are able to find a driver that works with your printer, then you can set up print sharing with Samba. It can take a bit of work getting set up, but it's the best (only?) way to do print sharing with Windows systems.

My mistake...the printer is LBP2900.

I found a driver for it at Canon Europe: CAPT printer driver module 1.30 which gives a detailed step to step for my driver...

I can see that I have a Samba on this PC...hovever I don't know what version.

Where should I insert the printer configuration in Samba?

Thanks

First of all, you need to make sure the CUPS printing program is installed on your computer. Type:

rpm-q cups

If it is installed it will return the version number.

If cups is installed, you can add your printer (after the correct drivers are installed), from the command line like the following example. The name I have used for printer and the IP address are for demonstration purposes. You will name your printer and use the correct IP address of your printer.
The printer port is usually 631, so I will use that in this example, but the actual port may be different on your machine. For this example, your IP address for the printer is 192.168.1.200. So the network address of the printer is:

//192.168.1.200:631

1. While logged in to the system as root, launch a terminal and list the printer queues that are configured on the system. Use the following:

lpstat
(name of your printer) accepting requests since Jan 01 00:00

2. Issue the lpadmin command to add the printer. The entire command is long because of all its options, so it spans several lines in this example:

[root@server ~]#lpadmin -p "myprintername" -E \
-v socket://192.168.1.200 \
-p /usr/share/cups/model/yourprinter \
-L "location of the printer"

3. Use the lpstat command again to list the printers:

lpstat -a
The just-added printer should now be listed

4. You must now add the printer to each client on the network. If they are all Windows computers, this is done from the PRINTERS section in the control panel to add a network printer using the address 192.168.1.200:631.

This sets your printer up as a network printer from the command line.

Hope this helps

Bob

Hello

What you described above was also in Canon's documentation.

However I faced a problem before that step.



1.The actual driver's instalation from Canon has a requirement for previous instalation of the common file:

cndrvcups-common-1.30-1.i386.rpm

This RPM requires gtk+
libgdk.1.20.so.0
libgtk.1.20.so.0

The driver:

cndrvcups-capt-1.30-1.i386.rpm

requires beside that:
cups >=1.30 (and I had installed 1.1.12)
libcaepcm.so.1
libcaiowrap.so

2.The documentation from Canon said that I should get something called Ghostscript module from the website of the operating system's distribuitor before installing the common rpm and the actual driver...Do anyone of the above missing modules belong to this Ghostscript? As I read today gtk+ belonged to a graphical GIMP library..


Questions:
1.What should I do?

2.Get ghostscipt? or try to find those particular modules described above?

3.How can I find out the Fedora version from a terminal? Is there something like ver in MSDOS?

4.Where can I get what I need?...I looked at fedora core's page with updates but did not find anyone of the above...even the gtk+ package?

5. I was looking for rpm packages...Was this wrong? Should I look for sources? and after that..What compiler should I use on the sources? gcc for each file? makefile?

Thanks...hope somebody can answer to some of theese...because I'm quite confused.

Sorry for not responding quickly.

These are just dependencies. You'll run into that a lot when you install software. What you need to do is find out which packages contain the files you need and install them first. I don't use an rpm-based system, so I can't tell you exactly how to to that, but it probably isn't that hard to do. There must be a command or program somewhere, maybe in YUM, that you can use to search packages for the files they contain. Or try the internet if nothing else works. I'm sure that someone here with more knowledge of rpm can point you in the right direction.

I'm pretty sure though that gtk+ will have its own package somewhere, as it's one of the big libraries used in Linux systems. It's the whole foundation for gnome, after all. But gnome now uses version 2.0, whereas this package is asking for the older version 1.2. There are big differences between the two, meaning the newer version won't work for older programs, so it looks you'll have to have both installed (that shouldn't be a problem).

Once you have the dependencies installed, then you should be able to install the printer packages without trouble.

I believe "cat /proc/version" will give you your distribution information.

As for source, you could of course go that way instead, but you'd still have to deal with the dependencies, so it wouldn't save you any trouble. Save that option as a last resort.