installing print services on centos

sigint-ninja · 07-17-2012, 06:06 PM

hi guys,

im busy reading a book on RHEL and are using centos to follow along and hopefully learn about Red hat.

anyway...the book started on about printers and i was trying to follow and saw that there were things missing in my OS like

system - administration - printers was not in my menu...after googling i found that you need to run a yum command (is this to actually install this functionality?) so i opened a terminal and tried to run

yum install system-config-printer then it moaned at me about root access...so i googled that and went from a terminal

su

then entered the password and ran the yum command again.

it then loaded plug ins and mirror speeds (what ever they are)

then came up with an error No package system.config.printers available. followed by
nothing to do (if only that was true)

and then back to the command line...what am i missing? do i have to install a package of some sort...looked in install software but couldnt see anything relevant.

and while i have you...what is the difference with running a terminal from within the gui...and going into the shell (black screen with white writing) is there a difference regarding functionality...or is the command line from a proper shell faster as it doenst have gui in memory etc? just curious...

snowday · 07-17-2012, 06:15 PM

I am surprised your Red Hat book does not explain how to use su and yum, maybe get a better book such as the excellent guide by Michael Jang (he even posts on these forums!)

Anyway, Linux is very literal. Do you see the difference between what you were asked to type:

Code:

yum install system-config-printer

and what you actually typed?

Code:

yum install system.config.printers

Try again and maybe use the Copy and Paste functions so you don't make any typos. You can also use

Code:

yum search

to find an exact package name.

sigint-ninja · 07-17-2012, 06:35 PM

hi snowpine

the book is the study guide for red hat enterprise linux exams.
i did see su in the text...but it didnt actually explain how you would use it ie...i did see what it did...but had to work out how to apply it.

i copied the text yum install system.config.printers from a web site...and im still having the same error
the one with the - - - i also copied but i have tried both

thanks for your help..also did you see my question about the terminal?

i will definitly look at getting the book you suggested,,,

chrism01 · 07-17-2012, 08:23 PM

Re Terminal; main difference is that you can start a GUI prog from a terminal-in-GUI, but I don't think you can do that from the standalone/console type terminal eg ctrl-alt-f1 etc (basically that would not be running the X-win code required).

As for your probs with yum etc, please post EXACTLY what you did and the EXACT results; even a single typo can cause major issues.

Also, to get the full root env, use

Code:

su -

Note the '-' aka hyphen; without that you get logged in as root BUT you retain your original non-root environment.

If you are using RHEL/Centos 6.x, you might find this useful http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo..._6_deployment/ and indeed that site has a lot of manuals.

DavidMcCann · 07-18-2012, 12:44 PM

You should have the program system-config-printer installed by default. It should appear in the menu as System - Administration - Printing.

snowday · 07-18-2012, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sigint-ninja

i copied the text yum install system.config.printers from a web site...and im still having the same error
the one with the - - - i also copied but i have tried both

thanks for your help..also did you see my question about the terminal?

Be careful copying & pasting commands from untrusted websites; that is a good way to break your system. Always make sure you understand the command before pressing Enter.

The commands and syntax are the same whether you are running in text mode or a terminal window in graphical mode.

sigint-ninja · 07-18-2012, 05:21 PM

snowpine i will take what you say on board...
to the other guys...

i would have also thought that it would have been installed by default...but it most certainly isnt...there is no printers in my system - administration options

i did output su - with the command yum install system.config.printers
and it did look more positive but then returned the following error

[j0n1n@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
[root@localhost ~]# yum install system.config.printers
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirror.simwood.com
* extras: mirror.simwood.com
* updates: mirror.for.me.uk
base | 3.7 kB 00:00
extras | 3.0 kB 00:00
google-chrome | 951 B 00:00 ...
updates | 3.5 kB 00:00
updates/primary_db | 663 kB 00:03
Setting up Install Process
No package system.config.printers available.
Error: Nothing to do
[root@localhost ~]#

as always thanks for all ye help...

snowday · 07-18-2012, 05:32 PM

The package is called system-config-printer not system.config.printers. You need to type it exactly correctly. In this case the typo was harmless, but in the future when you are executing powerful commands such as rm as the superuser, a single error in spelling/punctuation/syntax can break your system. When in doubt use the Copy and Paste features and only use commands from reputable sources that you trust.

sigint-ninja · 07-18-2012, 05:58 PM

ok got that...thanks so much for your help...doh!!! i see what you mean about copying commands...i suppose sites like this and centos site is ok for copying commands

thanks so much for your help in dealing with me

snowday · 07-18-2012, 05:59 PM

Copy & paste the output so we can see, otherwise it is difficult to help you...

chrism01 · 07-18-2012, 06:07 PM

1. which version of Centos is this

Code:

cat /etc/*release*

2. ensure you are root

Code:

su -

make sure you use the '-' to get root env

3. yum search

Code:

yum search printer