Hello,

I'm new here, first time poster, and first time Linux installer. I installed slackware 14 on an IBM PC and I think it mostly went OK, but there is a few things that I'm unsure how to proceed. I read online that I'm supposed to use CUPS to setup my printers and I get an error when I try to connect to localhost:631 I can ping localhost ok but it wont load in Mozilla. Is there another way to setup the printers? There is already another Linux computer on the network that was setup by Linux tech and it is the print server. So I guess I need to point to those, that Linux version is 15 years older, but it is also slackware. Please help.

Sincerely, Rockitglider7

Why did you decide on Slackware for your first Linux install?

You really should have chosen a distro that doesn't make you sit down, research, figure out, and implement everything for yourself, from scratch.

If your goal with this install is to spend the next few weeks/months learning how Linux works at its core, then that's fine, but if your goal is to get the machine up and running and being productive within a reasonable amount of time, you should choose another distro.

Just my opinion.

Which Distro(s) would you recommend for a novice, suicidaleggroll?

Depends on the application. For desktop use, Mint, OpenSUSE, etc. should be fine. For enterprise/server use, RHEL, CentOS, Debian, etc. should be fine. These distros allow you to configure things on the command line using config files if you want, but they don't force you to.

Of course there are more that would work too, but these are the ones I'm most familiar with.

Hello,

Yes the reason I chose slackware is because that was what was existing and My friend that I am doing this for wanted to stay with slackware, and yes I kinda wanted to spend some time with it and learn about it. My friend is not in a hurry and is willing to let me learn on his system. I am learning a lot fast but I get frustrated a little with certain things. But please help if you can as I am willing to learn.

Rockitglider7

Hi Rockitglider7. I think Slackware is a good choice if you really want to learn all the ins and outs of Linux, I would suggest you to post your questions about setting up Slackware in the Slackware sub forums here in the LQ site. There is lots of good infor there and the users that hang out there are nice when it come to helping.

If you click there on the forums look on the Linux distributionn sub category then click on the SlackWare

Here is the direct link http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/

good luck to you

Sounds like a good reason to use Slack then. I agree with TroN, you'll probably get the best help in the Slackware subforum, good luck.

I reported this thread, so that it will be moved to the Slackware forum.

I do not know much about print-servers, but if you want connect to the CUPS subsystem the first thing to check is if CUPS is running on your system. Check if /etc/rc.d/rc.cups is executable, so that it is autostarted when you boot the system. If in doubt post the output of

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <SLACKWARE> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

OK great,

Thanks for your help, and I will check this

"If in doubt post the output of
ls -l /etc/rc.d/rc.cups" but can't get to it until the AM


Rockitglider7

I get an error when I try to connect to localhost:631?

what sort of error, is mozilla asking to confirm a security exception?

Rockitglider7,

/etc/rc.d/rc.cups needs to be marked executable to automatically start the CUPS server on boot; this is not done by default, unless you specificlly did so at the end of the install process. Then the CUPS web interface should work. As root:

Then you can open localhost:631/admin and either set up a local printer or attach to a remot print server.

See also:
http://docs.slackware.com/

That would be some other distro, not Slackware.

Please stop emitting opinions out of your fourth point of contact.

2 members found this post helpful.

kingbeowulf Gave you some good info, that will make it executable. The way I do it most of the time is make it executable
as described then open up "system" from the "menu" and go to Print Settings and tell it to connect.

You have chosen a great distro to start with and it is not really that complicated. After making the file executable you will forever know how to do that to any file and there is always great help on this forum along with Google.

Rockitglider7,
another way is run (as root) pkgtool, select Setup, select services, scroll to CUPS and set mark on it ([ * ]) with spacebar, confirm selection with Enter and then Exit from pkgtool.
As for me, chmod a+x /etc/rc.d/rc.cups is simple enough.

Now, cups will start at every boot. But it is still stopped, so we can start it manually for this boot:
/etc/rc.d/rc.cups start
or restart machine, like windows users do.

Now you can browse to localhost:631/admin to setup printing with CUPS.