This is on Etch with "Desktop Environment" de-selected on install (no Gnome or KDE :-). Perhaps my mistake was in installing xserver-xorg before printer configuration. Surely then, it would notice there'd be no web browser it could be configured with? Or can you confure CUPS with w3m? :-P
It's amazing how difficult this has become via the packaging system. It's also amazing how easy it is to fix it by hand: - aptitude -R install foomatic-filters-ppds[*] - Look for your printer model (or something close) in: /usr/share/ppd/foomatic-rip/linuxprinting.org-gs-builtin/ where you'll find them split up by manufacturer name. In my case, it was Epson/Epson-Stylus_Photo_870-Stp870p.upp.ppd.gz, and that I: - dumped into a new directory, /usr/local/ppd, and gunzipped it. - Drop that into /etc/printcap: lp0|To Your Left: \ :lp=/dev/lp0: \ :force_localhost: \ :if=/usr/bin/foomatic-rip: \ :ppd=/usr/local/ppd/Epson-Stylus_Photo_870-Stp870p.upp.ppd: \ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp: \ :mx#0:sh: and it just works! Why have we made this so difficult? Why bother with something as clunky as foomatic-configure when apparently all it does is edit that one line specifying the ppd file (and in the case of lprng, badly)? Just getting foomatic-gui on the box drags in cupsys and removes lprng! Why? linuxprinting.org says the thing works with pretty much any spooler, so why's it so difficult to get the packaging tools to allow it? How about a feature request for the next version of apt*: --user-prefers-subsystem=blah or --user-forbids-subsystem=blah so I can tell it I do not, under any circumstances, want blah, or if there's a potential alternative, go with my preference if I specify one. And finally: ------------------------------------ aptitude -R install foomatic-filters-ppds The following packages are unused and will be REMOVED: bsh cpp cpp-4.1 dbus discover1 discover1-data gcj-4.1-base gij gij-4.1 hicolor-icon-theme libatk1.0-data libdiscover1 libft-perl libgcj-bc libgcj-common libgcj7-0 libgcj7-awt libgcj7-jar libglade2-0 libglib2.0-data libgtk2.0-bin libjaxp1.3-java libjline-java libjpeg-progs libpaper-utils libttf2 libxalan2-java libxerces2-java libxprintapputil1 libxprintutil1 libxt-java libxxf86misc1 mdetect myspell-en-us openoffice.org-java-common psfontmgr sgml-base x-ttcidfont-conf xfonts-base xfonts-utils xli xml-core xprint-utils xresprobe xscreensaver xutils xutils-dev ------------------------------------ Oh, great! :-P xfonts-base?!? xscreensaver?!? discover1, discover1-data?!? mdetect?!? Where is the connection between a deb full of printer data, and base X Window fonts? Now I have a whole list of things I need to check into before I dare reboot this thing. Considering all the confusion and myriad pleas from people trying to get CUPS working on their systems, should we really be going down this road? CUPS has made a mess of printer configuration. [*] "aptitude search foomatic" shows this. I've no idea whether they're necessary now that I have the one ppd file I needed: i A foomatic-db - linuxprinting.org printer support - database i foomatic-db-engine - linuxprinting.org printer support - programs i foomatic-db-gutenprint - linuxprinting.org printer support - database fo i A foomatic-filters - linuxprinting.org printer support - filters i foomatic-filters-ppds - linuxprinting.org printer support - prebuilt PP -- Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. (*) http://www.spots.ab.ca/~keeling Linux Counter #80292 - - http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html Please, don't Cc: me. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]