I'm trying to configure a epson stylus color 640 , right now i'm at kde printing manager in a add printer wizard :

"select a valid detected port , or enter directly the corresponding url in the bottom edit field" how do i get this info??

so far i have been abble to erase my entire root partition after compiling a print .tar.gz i just downloaded using the Ctrl Z command , but that's another story you don't want to hear .

i thought this might mean something :

bash-2.05a# lpq
Printer: lp@darkstar
Queue: 1 printable job
Server: pid 79 active
Unspooler: pid 80 active
Rank Owner/ID Class Job Files Size Time
stalled(519sec) root@darkstar+113 A 113 (STDIN) 178224 22:17:09
done root@darkstar+264 A 264 (STDIN) 158 14:23:42

i read some threads here and there printing howtos but my head is messed up right now , i can't print some important text i have because windows won't read .doc saved under abiword and i just can't figure out how do i configure my printer with slackware , what is spool queue anyway ? sometimes i feel like i'm barking at the wrong tree , it's too much information to look for and not enough will to search for the answers to print the f%@#@ paper, you know ? maybe i have a better question :

how can i save some text in a format that will work with word ( like .txt or something ) under command line ? thanks

It sounds like you need to configure your printer using apsfilter or CUPS. I am not familar with the KDE printer wizzard but I would suspect it would expect CUPS to be installed and running.

The Epson 640 should be supported by CUPS and apsfilter. You might want to visit the http://linuxprinting.org web site.

Abiword allows the file to be saved in text format, use File->Save as, and then select the desired format. I do not know about a command line option though.

The spool queue you ask about is the directory where the file(s) to be printed are stored for the print manager. The file(s) are usually deleted when the print job is complete.

thanks man and sorry for not posting earlier . i downloaded CUPS .tar.gz.
well how does it work ? i'm really scared of configuring printers these are the hardware monkeys , they jump up and down and scream a lot , i have had very tough experiences with this very printer on mandrake (paper waste)
and yesterday it kept wasting full paper printed with characters .... well can you give any hints ? i'll look for it tonight there must be something on my howto virtual book hehe .

The filename suggests that you downloaded the source file probably from cups.org. That will need to be compiled on your system before it can be installed. Slackware has prebuilt cups package in the extras directory for at least 8.0 and 8.1 I think. Also, either of these require a second package, "espgs", or the ghostscript modules for the CUPS to work as well. That is also offered in the extras directory. I think the second package started with CUPS version 1.1.13 if I recall.

For the Slack packages just run "pkgtool" from your download directory in a shell console and it will detect the packages and install them for you. Prebuilt.

After pkgtool installs the packages, you should find documentation in the /usr/doc/cups-1.1.15 directory for Slack 8.1. And I think it installs a startup script as /etc/rc.d/rc.cups. You can execute it manually the first time, after that it should execute when you boot. Use "/etc/rc.d/rc.cups start" to get it loaded the first time.

To configure it, point a browser to to http://localhost:631. It should bring up the main menu. It can be done at the command line also. The docs will explain that operation better than I can.

Of course you have to be logged in as root for all of this. Unless you have experience building and installing from source I would recommend the Slack packages at least for the first time. Once you have it installed and know it is working then try to build your own if like.

Good luck.

well thank you , sorry again for delay , just one question: i already did the package ,without the "pkgtool" , how can fix it ? erase my cups-1.1.16 file ? and restart ? cause "pointing a browser" to http://localhost:631 worked fine , but i couldn't launch /etc/rc.d/rc.cups start , there is no such file . BTW this second package (ghostscript) you talked about is really necessary ? maybe i'm spoilling the beauty of your explanation here , forget it , tonight i'll give it a shot .

The package you installed may have installed a sysvinit startup script instead. You might to look for it, like perhaps /etc/init.d path. They may have just called it cups. Obviously though Slack is executing the program because it is running. That is what is providing the response on the local port 631.

Ghostscript is required for CUPS to convert the postscript output to raster graphics for the printer. Otherwise the printer would print postscript code. I am not sure if regular ghostscript would work or not. I have only used their package epsgs.