Hi,
I'm trying to rig up a print server with the following gear:
parallel port printer connected to an ancient desktop running slackware 9.1
shiny new laptop also running slack 9.1
both are wirelessly networked to a router and sharing an internet connection via the router

Here's what I can do:
print from the desktop via cups
talk back and forth between the machines via the network
exchange files between them via nfs

Here's what I can't do:
figure out how to print remotely from the laptop

I'm a bit puzzled by the cups configuration process.
Do I need cupsd running on both machines?
What protocol should I use to configure the remote printer from the laptop?

I've been looking through the documentation for hours and can't seem to get it worked out.

Any printer configuration geniuses out there who can help?


Thanks!
geomatt

Hi geomatt...

This one bugged me too. Here's the thing. On the desktop, there's a setting in cups.conf that allows sharing (let me find it for you)... you should uncomment the line that says @ local in the browseaddress section... It will allow printing from all local machines.

Here's the section:


# The @LOCAL address broadcasts to all non point-to-point interfaces.
# For example, if you have a LAN and a dial-up link, @LOCAL would
# send printer updates to the LAN but not to the dial-up link.
# Similarly, the @IF(name) address sends to the named network
# interface, e.g. @IF(eth0) under Linux. Interfaces are refreshed
# automatically (no more than once every 60 seconds), so they can
# be used on dynamically-configured interfaces, e.g. PPP, 802.11, etc.
#

#BrowseAddress x.y.z.255
#BrowseAddress x.y.255.255
#BrowseAddress x.255.255.255
#BrowseAddress 255.255.255.255
BrowseAddress @LOCAL
#BrowseAddress @IF(name)

good luck!

davidschob,
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it but I still get the same error.

When I type:
lpinfo -v
or
lpinfo -h remoteHost -v

I get this:
lpinfo: cups-gets-devices failed: server-error-service-unavailable

Is this a more basic configuration problem?

I configured the printer by running through the cups web configuration wizard on both machines. On the desktop it has a URI of parallel:/dev/lp0
on the laptop it has a URI of ipp://remoteHost/ipp

Is that correct?

In addition when I try to print say a text file directly from kde the printer dialog is returning an "unknown ipp error." It's configuration menus ask for a host name of the printer and a port number. Ay idea what those should look like? And is that configuration method maybe conflicting with the cups one?

Forgive any questions that may make no sense - I am still very much the newbie....
-geomatt
geomatt

Fixed it.
Some uncommenting of lines in cupsd.conf did the trick. Just had to track them down. Also had the kde print manager configured wrong.