subject:"Printer"


Hello,

I have 10 jpeg slides (screen shoots) and I want to print them to a
Postscript printer (CUPS controlled), on each page 2 slides. I know I
could make some presentation from them or wrap them into a HTML file,
but I was thinking there must be some easy way with some tool from
our ports.

Any idea? Thanks in advance

matthias
-- 
Matthias Apitz
e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/
UNIX since V7 on PDP-11, UNIX on mainframe since ESER 1055 (IBM /370)
UNIX on x86 since SVR4.2 UnixWare 2.1.2, FreeBSD since 2.2.5
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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

2012-06-25 Thread Lars Eighner


On Mon, 25 Jun 2012, Matthias Apitz wrote:



Hello,

I have 10 jpeg slides (screen shoots) and I want to print them to a
Postscript printer (CUPS controlled), on each page 2 slides. I know I
could make some presentation from them or wrap them into a HTML file,
but I was thinking there must be some easy way with some tool from
our ports.

Any idea? Thanks in advance


I'll take that Any at face value.  Did you check your printer's manual?

Many printers these days can print photos stand-alone.  The least hassle
option might to be to load your photos on a card or memory stick, and use
your printer's stand-alone functions, since I gather from your question that
you are not embedding the photos in some larger document.

--
Lars Eighner
http://www.larseighner.com/index.html
8800 N IH35 APT 1191 AUSTIN TX 78753-5266

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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

El día Monday, June 25, 2012 a las 05:10:32AM -0500, Lars Eighner escribió:

  I have 10 jpeg slides (screen shoots) and I want to print them to a
  Postscript printer (CUPS controlled), on each page 2 slides. I know I
  could make some presentation from them or wrap them into a HTML file,
  but I was thinking there must be some easy way with some tool from
  our ports.
 
  Any idea? Thanks in advance
 
 I'll take that Any at face value.  Did you check your printer's manual?
 
 Many printers these days can print photos stand-alone.  The least hassle
 option might to be to load your photos on a card or memory stick, and use
 your printer's stand-alone functions, since I gather from your question that
 you are not embedding the photos in some larger document.

I was thinking in some UNIX way to do so, like:

1. converting the 10 jpeg to 10 .eps files
2. running psmerge to bring the 10 EPS files into one PS file
3. running psnup to get the 10 pages re-arranged, 2 on one page;

but psmerge does not produce something usefull;

I don't know if my printer has such options or if I can get access to
such stand-alone functions; it is our central printer and managed by IT;

matthias
-- 
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e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/
UNIX since V7 on PDP-11, UNIX on mainframe since ESER 1055 (IBM /370)
UNIX on x86 since SVR4.2 UnixWare 2.1.2, FreeBSD since 2.2.5
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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

2012-06-25 Thread Zane C. B-H.

On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:15:36 +0200
Matthias Apitz g...@unixarea.de wrote:

 
 Hello,
 
 I have 10 jpeg slides (screen shoots) and I want to print them to a
 Postscript printer (CUPS controlled), on each page 2 slides. I know
 I could make some presentation from them or wrap them into a HTML
 file, but I was thinking there must be some easy way with some tool
 from our ports.
 
 Any idea? Thanks in advance

I would just load them up in print them in Libreoffice and print them
once I was happy with how the page layout looked.
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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

2012-06-25 Thread Markus Hoenicka


Matthias Apitz g...@unixarea.de was heard to say:



I was thinking in some UNIX way to do so, like:

1. converting the 10 jpeg to 10 .eps files
2. running psmerge to bring the 10 EPS files into one PS file
3. running psnup to get the 10 pages re-arranged, 2 on one page;



If you're looking at 10 images, just fire up OpenOffice and make a  
presentation or a drawing with 2 images per page. Figure out the Unix  
way if you're looking at 10 images every day :-)


just my 2 cc
Markus
--
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AQ score 38


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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

El día Monday, June 25, 2012 a las 05:37:13AM -0500, Zane C. B-H. escribió:

  Postscript printer (CUPS controlled), on each page 2 slides. I know
  I could make some presentation from them or wrap them into a HTML
  file, but I was thinking there must be some easy way with some tool
  from our ports.
  
  Any idea? Thanks in advance
 
 I would just load them up in print them in Libreoffice and print them
 once I was happy with how the page layout looked.

I did this with OpenOffice 3.x and you have
- 10 times to Inser Picture
- 10 times pic-up the correct picture from the file dialog
- 10 times to move the picture to the correct place in the page
- 10 times to scale the image so that two fit and adjust them a bit
- 4 time Create new page

it took me something like half hour to get it printed; this is not even
an option if you do it only once :-(

matthias
-- 
Matthias Apitz
e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/
UNIX since V7 on PDP-11, UNIX on mainframe since ESER 1055 (IBM /370)
UNIX on x86 since SVR4.2 UnixWare 2.1.2, FreeBSD since 2.2.5
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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

2012-06-25 Thread Wojciech Puchar


I did this with OpenOffice 3.x and you have
- 10 times to Inser Picture
- 10 times pic-up the correct picture from the file dialog
- 10 times to move the picture to the correct place in the page
- 10 times to scale the image so that two fit and adjust them a bit
- 4 time Create new page

it took me something like half hour to get it printed; this is not even
an option if you do it only once :-(


simplest case:

1)convert them in batch to postscript.

2)place it with mpage, many on one page.

there are probably other simple solutions.


more complex - 1 and use TeX :)
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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

El día Monday, June 25, 2012 a las 02:52:24PM +0200, Wojciech Puchar escribió:

 simplest case:
 
 1)convert them in batch to postscript.

I did this already with:

for i in *.jpg do ; convert $i $i.ps ; done

this works fin;

 
 2)place it with mpage, many on one page.

and now a

mpage -bA4 -4 *.ps  /tmp/all.ps

gives a 10 page PS file, each page divided by fine lines into 4 sub
pages; but on any of the 10 pages one of the slides is put into the
upper left sub page area; what I'm missing?

the man page of mpage says ... with the text reduced in size so that
several pages appear on one sheet of paper...; it seems it does work
with images, or?

matthias

-- 
Matthias Apitz
e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/
UNIX since V7 on PDP-11, UNIX on mainframe since ESER 1055 (IBM /370)
UNIX on x86 since SVR4.2 UnixWare 2.1.2, FreeBSD since 2.2.5
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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

2012-06-25 Thread Wojciech Puchar




On Mon, 25 Jun 2012, Matthias Apitz wrote:


El día Monday, June 25, 2012 a las 02:52:24PM +0200, Wojciech Puchar escribió:


simplest case:

1)convert them in batch to postscript.


I did this already with:

for i in *.jpg do ; convert $i $i.ps ; done

this works fin;



2)place it with mpage, many on one page.


and now a

mpage -bA4 -4 *.ps  /tmp/all.ps

gives a 10 page PS file, each page divided by fine lines into 4 sub
pages; but on any of the 10 pages one of the slides is put into the
upper left sub page area; what I'm missing?


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Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer

2012-06-25 Thread Roland Smith

On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 11:15:36AM +0200, Matthias Apitz wrote:
 
 Hello,
 
 I have 10 jpeg slides (screen shoots) and I want to print them to a
 Postscript printer (CUPS controlled), on each page 2 slides. I know I
 could make some presentation from them or wrap them into a HTML file,
 but I was thinking there must be some easy way with some tool from
 our ports.
 
For converting to postscript: graphics/jpeg2ps-a4 or graphics/jpeg2ps-letter.
Multiple page on one sheet with psnup from print/psutils-a4 or
print/psutils-letter. 

If you are already using it, LaTeX would also do the trick quite nicely.
Especially with the Beamer class for nicely styled and formatted slides.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamer_%28LaTeX%29]

Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith   http://rsmith.home.xs4all.nl/
[plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated]
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-04 Thread Bernt Hansson


2012-06-03 02:08, Gary Aitken skrev:


I've deinstalled cups and its dependencies and rebuilt only hpijs.


Did you build it with foomatic-rip if so then you have ppd files in

/usr/local/share/foomatic/db/source/PPD/

Don't know if it is for your specific printer.
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-03 Thread Gary Aitken

On 06/02/12 18:35, Polytropon wrote:
 On Sat, 02 Jun 2012 18:08:55 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
 I've deinstalled cups and its dependencies and rebuilt only hpijs.
 
 You could have kept it installed (maybe some ports will want
 it as a dependency), just disable it in /etc/rc.conf.

I'm probably going to have to rebuild anyway, as I was totally unclear on what 
cups was initially and whether or not it was needed / wanted.  One of the 
problems with not having another system and display when starting out, and not 
understanding the architecture at first.
 
 However, when I try to use gs + hpijs as a filter, it fails.
 
 Did you write your own filter?

I used a tweaked version of the one Wojciech Puchar just posted,
which appears to be a tweaked version of the one supplied with the hpijs port.
I turned off some of the batch type options to help see what was going on.

#!/bin/sh

#export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin
export 
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/share/ppd

/usr/local/bin/gs -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dNOPAUSE \
-sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=hpijs -sDeviceManufacturer=HEWLETT-PACKARD \
-sDeviceModel=Officejet Pro 8500 A909g \
-dIjsUseOutputFD -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=595 -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=842 -r600 \
-sIjsParams=Quality:Quality=0,Quality:ColorMode=2,Quality:MediaType=0,Quality:PenSet=2
 \
-sOutputFile=/tmp/$$ - /dev/null
#-sDeviceModel=DESKJET 960 \
#/usr/local/bin/gs -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE \
#-sOutputFile=- -  exit 0
cat /tmp/$$
#rm /tmp/$$

 For comparison: I'm using a HP Laserjet 4000 duplex here,
 networked, with /opt/libexec/ps2pcl-dup.sh being the
 filter for use with duplexing:
 
 #!/bin/sh
 printf \033k2G || exit 2
 gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dPARANOIDSAFER -dSAFER -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -r600x600 \
  -sDEVICE=ljet4d -dDuplex=true \
  -sOutputFile=- -  exit 0
 exit 2
 
 The entry for this printer in /etc/printcap is:
 
 Laserjet|ljet4d;r=600x600;q=high;c=full;p=a4;m=auto:\
  :rm=192.168.100.100:\
  :rp=raw:\
  :lp=:\
  :if=/opt/libexec/ps2pcl-dup.sh:\
  :sd=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet:\
  :lf=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet/log:\
  :af=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet/acct:\
  :mx#0:\
  :sh:
 
 The name Laserjet is set in $PRINTER as the system's default
 printer. There's also Laserjet-nodup where the filter simply
 omits the duplexing functionality.
 
 I assume you did something similarly?

That's quite a bit different, in that the output device for mine is the ijs 
daemon with hpijs as the ijs server.  That part's from the hp sample script 
with the hpijs port.  As you can see from the script and the commented out 
lines, the -sDeviceModel=XXX is what is changing the behavior.  If I swap 
that one argument, it works.

 Can you provide the command you've used for printing? By default,
 the printer subsystem accepts PS (which is the normal printing
 output format of _any_ printing application).

lpr foo.txt
lpr foo.pdf

 Also, the ppd.gz files from the port *did not* include any
 ppd.gz file for this printer.  However, the cups port did,
 but they were installed elsewhere.  So I just copied them
 over, but I'm wondering if there is a db or internal cache
 somewhere that has to be rebuilt.
 
 The ppd handling tool usually manages that.

I never saw that mentioned.  What's the ppd handling tool?

 It looks to me like it is unable to locate a .ppd.gz or .ppd
 which matches the device name enough to be used.  Anyone know
who is generating the error
 
 It's lpd (see message).

I'm not certain about that.  
It may be an error passed up by the ijs subsystem and simply spit out by lpd.

 It's accessing a printer called lp (does it exist with tha
 name?) and loses the connection, and try to restart it. The
 inability is expressed as unable to set device=HP Officejet
 Pro 8500 a909g hpijs, I'm not sure if spaces are allowed?
 (Check man 5 printcap to be sure.)

Spaces are allowed; DESKJET 960 works.
But that name is coming from the :if: script, not printcap.
Again, I don't think it's a printcap / lpr issue.  
lpr is simply running the script it found by looking up device lp.
The script passes the DeviceModel on to gs, 
which feeds it to ijs (-sDEVICE=ijs)
which uses the hpijs implementation
which is what I think is failing to find the ppd file or its contents.
(which I think it has cached, see below; 
I think the actual files are irrelevant at this point)

lpr passes the appropriate stuff to gs,
which creates a file,
which lpr then sends on to the output device :rm=aa.bb.cc.dd:
The gs process gets cut short because hpijs or ijs can't fine the ppd 
file/contents its looking for,
so the file created by gs is empty 
and the error gets passed on up to lpd
and nothing gets sent to the device.

Here's my printcap entry:

lp|hp|text|hp8500|HP Officejet Pro 8500 a909g:\
:lp=:\
:sh:\
:mx=1000:\
:rm=aa.bb.cc.dd:\
:rp=lp:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/hp8500

Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-03 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 03 Jun 2012 01:01:07 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
 On 06/02/12 18:35, Polytropon wrote:
  On Sat, 02 Jun 2012 18:08:55 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
  I've deinstalled cups and its dependencies and rebuilt only hpijs.
  
  You could have kept it installed (maybe some ports will want
  it as a dependency), just disable it in /etc/rc.conf.
 
 I'm probably going to have to rebuild anyway, as I was totally
 unclear on what cups was initially and whether or not it was
 needed / wanted. 

As a summary, CUPS is both a replacement of the system's default
printer spooler (lpr) and its command line tools (lpr, lpq, lprm,
plus lpstat, lpconfig), as well as a collection of printer filters
(to turn PS into different printer languages) and preprocessors
(to turn non-PS input files into PS prior to printing). It's being
considered _the_ standard meanwhile for many modern software
packages that have hardcoded expectations that CUPS is present
and running, in order to print (instead of just to submit the PS
data to whatever is there - lpr is _always_ there).



 One of the problems with not having another system and display
 when starting out, and not understanding the architecture at
 first.

As soon as you've got the the basic system up and running,
a minimal windowing environment, some xterms, a MUA and a
web browser should be sufficient.



  However, when I try to use gs + hpijs as a filter, it fails.
  
  Did you write your own filter?
 
 I used a tweaked version of the one Wojciech Puchar just posted,
 which appears to be a tweaked version of the one supplied with the hpijs port.
 I turned off some of the batch type options to help see what was going on.
 
 #!/bin/sh
 
 #export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin
 export 
 PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/share/ppd
 
 /usr/local/bin/gs -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dNOPAUSE \
 -sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=hpijs -sDeviceManufacturer=HEWLETT-PACKARD \
 -sDeviceModel=Officejet Pro 8500 A909g \
 -dIjsUseOutputFD -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=595 -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=842 -r600 \
 -sIjsParams=Quality:Quality=0,Quality:ColorMode=2,Quality:MediaType=0,Quality:PenSet=2
  \
 -sOutputFile=/tmp/$$ - /dev/null
 #-sDeviceModel=DESKJET 960 \
 #/usr/local/bin/gs -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE \
 #-sOutputFile=- -  exit 0
 cat /tmp/$$
 #rm /tmp/$$

Ah okay, this uses ijs, _not_ a .ppd file. See the -sDEVICE
parameter which is the main entry to what printer filter
will be used (to compare, in my case it's ljet4d which
produces PCL that gets then sent).



  For comparison: I'm using a HP Laserjet 4000 duplex here,
  networked, with /opt/libexec/ps2pcl-dup.sh being the
  filter for use with duplexing:
  
  #!/bin/sh
  printf \033k2G || exit 2
  gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dPARANOIDSAFER -dSAFER -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -r600x600 \
   -sDEVICE=ljet4d -dDuplex=true \
   -sOutputFile=- -  exit 0
  exit 2
  
  The entry for this printer in /etc/printcap is:
  
  Laserjet|ljet4d;r=600x600;q=high;c=full;p=a4;m=auto:\
   :rm=192.168.100.100:\
   :rp=raw:\
   :lp=:\
   :if=/opt/libexec/ps2pcl-dup.sh:\
   :sd=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet:\
   :lf=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet/log:\
   :af=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet/acct:\
   :mx#0:\
   :sh:
  
  The name Laserjet is set in $PRINTER as the system's default
  printer. There's also Laserjet-nodup where the filter simply
  omits the duplexing functionality.
  
  I assume you did something similarly?
 
 That's quite a bit different, in that the output device for mine
 is the ijs daemon with hpijs as the ijs server.  That part's from
 the hp sample script with the hpijs port. 

Correct. If the ijs system supports your printer, it should be fine.



 As you can see from the script and the commented out lines, the
 -sDeviceModel=XXX is what is changing the behavior.  If I
 swap that one argument, it works.

Good!



  Can you provide the command you've used for printing? By default,
  the printer subsystem accepts PS (which is the normal printing
  output format of _any_ printing application).
 
 lpr foo.txt
 lpr foo.pdf

For diagnostics, you should always start with a PS file. This
is what the printer spooler accepts as input. Before printing,
check the PS file with gv filename to make sure it contains
what you expect it to contain. All applications that have a
print to file option will output PS.

In the past, I've been using apsfilter to do the preprocessing
(? - PS), but its backend was the same simple gs command as I'm
using today, even the automatically generated printcap entry was
similar (except at that time, the printer destination was parallel).



  Also, the ppd.gz files from the port *did not* include any
  ppd.gz file for this printer.  However, the cups port did,
  but they were installed elsewhere.  So I just copied them
  over, but I'm wondering if there is a db or internal cache
  somewhere that has to be rebuilt.
  
  The ppd handling

Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-03 Thread Warren Block


On Sun, 3 Jun 2012, Polytropon wrote:


By the way, have you tried using your filter directly for testing?
As mentioned before, prepare a printable PS file, then do:

# cat test.ps | /var/spool/lpd/hp8500/diff.2 | nc 123.45.67.890

Note: nc is from port nc (netcat). It will send it directly to
the IP address, which will normally be done by lpr, but just for
diagnostics, always work with the smallest possible variables. :-)


nc(1) is also in the base system as /usr/bin/nc.
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-03 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 3 Jun 2012 10:17:28 -0600 (MDT), Warren Block wrote:
 On Sun, 3 Jun 2012, Polytropon wrote:
 
  By the way, have you tried using your filter directly for testing?
  As mentioned before, prepare a printable PS file, then do:
 
  # cat test.ps | /var/spool/lpd/hp8500/diff.2 | nc 123.45.67.890
 
  Note: nc is from port nc (netcat). It will send it directly to
  the IP address, which will normally be done by lpr, but just for
  diagnostics, always work with the smallest possible variables. :-)
 
 nc(1) is also in the base system as /usr/bin/nc.

Damn, you're right! Maybe that is because of netcat hasn't always
been part of the OS? I talked about it as something so common
that I didn't even mention it. :-)




-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-03 Thread Thomas Mueller

Polytropon, you mention ppd files (.ppd or .ppd.gz).

Is this the binary plugin that hplip was unable to install for me?

Or am I grasping at straws?

Somehow I thought the binary plugin was much bigger than the .ppd.gz files 
found in 
/usr/local/share/ppd/HP/

Tom
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-03 Thread Robert Bonomi


 From: Thomas Mueller muelle...@insightbb.com

 Polytropon, you mention ppd files (.ppd or .ppd.gz).

 Is this the binary plugin that hplip was unable to install for me?

No.  '.ppd' files are 'postscript printer description' files.
They ontain 'device dependant information about a specific make/model
of Postscript-capable printer.

They consist of 'feature' names, 'values' for that feature, and the
postscript code fragment that tells that printer how to use a particular 
'value' for that particular feature.  e.g. one can select the input
paper tray by 'name' -- e.g. 'upper', 'lower', etc. -- without having
to know whether trays are numbered starting at zero or one, or whether
the numbering goes 'up' or 'down'.

'.ppd' files are relevent _only_ if you are producing postscript output,


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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-03 Thread Wojciech Puchar

ppd file are actually human readable, you get a fragment that tell you how 
to filter postscript to produce output.


eg. my OfficeJet 8500 filter is based on it.

On Sun, 3 Jun 2012, Thomas Mueller wrote:


Polytropon, you mention ppd files (.ppd or .ppd.gz).

Is this the binary plugin that hplip was unable to install for me?

Or am I grasping at straws?

Somehow I thought the binary plugin was much bigger than the .ppd.gz files 
found in
/usr/local/share/ppd/HP/

Tom



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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-02 Thread Wojciech Puchar


seems you like to incredibly complicated things.

It just happens that i configured that printer in one office and there is 
NO NEED for this windows-style crappy shit from HP.


/usr/ports/print/hplip (make config and disable GUI trash) is enough.


scanning works directly to SMB exported shares or mails - just connect by 
WWW browser to http://yourprinterip and configure it.


printing works fine with this lpr filter

#!/bin/sh
export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin
/usr/local/bin/gs -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE \
-sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=hpijs -sDeviceManufacturer=HEWLETT-PACKARD \
-sDeviceModel=deskjet 5600 -dIjsUseOutputFD -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=595 \
-dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=842 -r600 \
-sIjsParams=Quality:Quality=0,Quality:ColorMode=2,Quality:MediaType=0,Quality:PenSet=2
 \
-sOutputFile=/tmp/$$ - /dev/null
cat /tmp/$$
rm /tmp/$$


that's all. Work for whole office without trash software installed on 
(windoze) workstation or unix server.

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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-02 Thread Thomas Mueller

From: Wojciech Puchar woj...@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl:

 seems you like to incredibly complicated things.

 It just happens that i configured that printer in one office and there is
 NO NEED for this windows-style crappy shit from HP.

 /usr/ports/print/hplip (make config and disable GUI trash) is enough.


 scanning works directly to SMB exported shares or mails - just connect by
 WWW browser to http://yourprinterip and configure it.

 printing works fine with this lpr filter

 #!/bin/sh
 export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin
 /usr/local/bin/gs -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE \
 -sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=hpijs -sDeviceManufacturer=HEWLETT-PACKARD \
 -sDeviceModel=deskjet 5600 -dIjsUseOutputFD -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=595 \
 -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=842 -r600 \
 -sIjsParams=Quality:Quality=0,Quality:ColorMode=2,Quality:MediaType=0,Quality:PenSet=2
  \
 -sOutputFile=/tmp/$$ - /dev/null
 cat /tmp/$$
 rm /tmp/$$


 that's all. Work for whole office without trash software installed on
 (windoze) workstation or unix server.
___

Your message is worth saving, gives me some new ideas on getting that 
recalcitrant printer (HP M1212nf MFP) to work.

Tom
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-02 Thread Wojciech Puchar





that's all. Work for whole office without trash software installed on
(windoze) workstation or unix server.

___

Your message is worth saving, gives me some new ideas on getting that 
recalcitrant printer (HP M1212nf MFP) to work.

if you want mail my privately i have quite large practice in making 
modern printers to work normal way.


i don't think there are HP printers that cannot be made to work normally.

If not hplip or hpijs then

/usr/ports/print/foo2zjs

is your friend. Most probably this printer will need foo2... tools.

And fortunately none of this solution requires CUPS, even if some ports 
are made so cups are installed (not a problem anyway) there is no need to 
use it.


Normal (==ancient) way of using printers under unix is to use lpd and 
write a filter that will translate at least postscript to printer's 
format.


If your machine is a network server for windoze computers then use samba 
and just add


printing = bsd
load printers = yes


in [global]

and all your printers in /etc/printcap are available. Install generic 
postscript driver in windows. Actually - Any Apple postscript printer 
driver in windows XP (their postscript is actually compatible with 
postscript).


this way you gain independence - changing printer doesn't need fooling 
with windows drivers, and you print from anything.

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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-02 Thread Gary Aitken

On 06/02/12 02:29, Wojciech Puchar wrote:
 seems you like to incredibly complicated things.

No, but it does seem like I did, hopefully unnecessarily...
Thanks.

 /usr/ports/print/hplip (make config and disable GUI trash) is enough.
...
 printing works fine with this lpr filter
 
 #!/bin/sh
 export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin
 /usr/local/bin/gs -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE \
 -sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=hpijs -sDeviceManufacturer=HEWLETT-PACKARD \
 -sDeviceModel=deskjet 5600 -dIjsUseOutputFD -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=595 \
 -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=842 -r600 \
 -sIjsParams=Quality:Quality=0,Quality:ColorMode=2,Quality:MediaType=0,Quality:PenSet=2
  \
 -sOutputFile=/tmp/$$ - /dev/null
 cat /tmp/$$
 rm /tmp/$$

I've deinstalled cups and its dependencies and rebuilt only hpijs.
lpr works to the printer for the simple demo text filter hp supplies 
(The printer is directly connected to the network, not via USB or parallel port)
However, when I try to use gs + hpijs as a filter, it fails.

There are a number of gs_xx and n files left in /tmp, zero length.
The n files are the OutputFile from the filter (I commented out the rm).
The n files are one number larger than the pid for lpd indicated in the log,
no surprise there.

the log shows:
Jun  2 16:58:18 fbsdbox lpd[10367]: lp: lost connection
Jun  2 16:58:18 fbsdbox lpd[10367]: restarting lp
unable to set device=HP Officejet Pro 8500 a909g hpijs, err=16
unable to read client data err=-2
Jun  2 16:38:54 fbsdbox lpd[10367]: lp: lost connection
Jun  2 16:38:54 fbsdbox lpd[10367: lp: job could not be sent to remote host ...
Jun  2 16:38:54 fbsdbox lpd[10367]: mail sent to user garya about job unknown 
on printer lp (FATALERR)

The .ppd.gz file was not located in the path exported from the filter script.
However, when I put /usr/local/share/ppd/HP in the path, it made no difference.
Where are your .ppd files or .ppd.gz files located?

Also, the ppd.gz files from the port *did not* include any ppd.gz file for this 
printer.  However, the cups port did, but they were installed elsewhere.  So I 
just copied them over, but I'm wondering if there is a db or internal cache 
somewhere that has to be rebuilt.

It looks to me like it is unable to locate a .ppd.gz or .ppd which matches the 
device name enough to be used.  Anyone know
  who is generating the error
  what err=16 is exactly
  how to get the path it is searching
  what the match criteria is?

.

Ok, I tweeked /etc/printcap and the filter to call the printer a DESKJET 960 
and it worked.  So one obviously has to do more than just supply the correct 
.ppd.gz file in the correct spot.

ideas?

Thanks,

Gary
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-02 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 02 Jun 2012 18:08:55 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
 I've deinstalled cups and its dependencies and rebuilt only hpijs.

You could have kept it installed (maybe some ports will want
it as a dependency), just disable it in /etc/rc.conf.



 lpr works to the printer for the simple demo text filter hp supplies 
 (The printer is directly connected to the network, not via USB or parallel 
 port)
 However, when I try to use gs + hpijs as a filter, it fails.

Did you write your own filter?

For comparison: I'm using a HP Laserjet 4000 duplex here,
networked, with /opt/libexec/ps2pcl-dup.sh being the
filter for use with duplexing:

#!/bin/sh
printf \033k2G || exit 2
gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dPARANOIDSAFER -dSAFER -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -r600x600 \
-sDEVICE=ljet4d -dDuplex=true \
-sOutputFile=- -  exit 0
exit 2

The entry for this printer in /etc/printcap is:

Laserjet|ljet4d;r=600x600;q=high;c=full;p=a4;m=auto:\
:rm=192.168.100.100:\
:rp=raw:\
:lp=:\
:if=/opt/libexec/ps2pcl-dup.sh:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet:\
:lf=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet/log:\
:af=/var/spool/lpd/Laserjet/acct:\
:mx#0:\
:sh:

The name Laserjet is set in $PRINTER as the system's default
printer. There's also Laserjet-nodup where the filter simply
omits the duplexing functionality.

I assume you did something similarly?



 the log shows:
 Jun  2 16:58:18 fbsdbox lpd[10367]: lp: lost connection
 Jun  2 16:58:18 fbsdbox lpd[10367]: restarting lp
 unable to set device=HP Officejet Pro 8500 a909g hpijs, err=16
 unable to read client data err=-2
 Jun  2 16:38:54 fbsdbox lpd[10367]: lp: lost connection
 Jun  2 16:38:54 fbsdbox lpd[10367: lp: job could not be sent to remote host 
 ...
 Jun  2 16:38:54 fbsdbox lpd[10367]: mail sent to user garya about job 
 unknown on printer lp (FATALERR)

Can you provide the command you've used for printing? By default,
the printer subsystem accepts PS (which is the normal printing
output format of _any_ printing application).

CUPS, as well as apsfilter, offer some built-in functionality
for converting data from non-PS (e. g. text, images) to PS when
you call lpr, for example:

% lpr picture.jpg
% lpr source.c
% lpr stuff.txt

As long as you print PS (or from any application within X that
outputs PS), this shouldn't be an issue for you.



 The .ppd.gz file was not located in the path exported from the filter script.
 However, when I put /usr/local/share/ppd/HP in the path, it made no 
 difference.
 Where are your .ppd files or .ppd.gz files located?

Depends. CUPS puts them into /usr/local/etc/cups/ppd, there's
also the possibility that other tools that handle PPD files
search for them in a location defined in their documentation.
For example, the CUPS ppd files are already extracted.



 Also, the ppd.gz files from the port *did not* include any
 ppd.gz file for this printer.  However, the cups port did,
 but they were installed elsewhere.  So I just copied them
 over, but I'm wondering if there is a db or internal cache
 somewhere that has to be rebuilt.

The ppd handling tool usually manages that.



 It looks to me like it is unable to locate a .ppd.gz or .ppd
 which matches the device name enough to be used.  Anyone know
   who is generating the error

It's lpd (see message).

It's accessing a printer called lp (does it exist with tha
name?) and loses the connection, and try to restart it. The
inability is expressed as unable to set device=HP Officejet
Pro 8500 a909g hpijs, I'm not sure if spaces are allowed?
(Check man 5 printcap to be sure.)



 Ok, I tweeked /etc/printcap and the filter to call the printer
 a DESKJET 960 and it worked. 

Is your $PRINTER set to this name? In that case, you could
easily move from lp (the default name) to omitting -Pname
in the lp* commands.



 So one obviously has to do more than just supply the correct
 .ppd.gz file in the correct spot.

Right. If you look into a .ppd file, you'll see PostScript in
there. It's (highly inaccurately described) code that instructs
the PS interpreter (usually gs) on how to create the correct
output language for the particular printer, tell details about
options and parameters of the printer (such as paper feeds,
duplexer, paper sizes and so on).



 ideas?

Some of your code (scripts and commands) would help (at least
me) to understand your current state better.





-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-01 Thread Adam Vande More

On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 6:59 PM, Thomas Mueller muelle...@insightbb.comwrote:

 I have an HP LaserJet M1212nf MFP, and hplip/hp-setup in FreeBSD finds the
 printer all right when connected by Ethernet, but then fails on installing
 the required binary plugin.  Printer is not detected at all when connected
 by USB.

 NetBSD 5.1_STABLE i386 with hplip 3.11.1 built from pkgsrc-wip couldn't
 find the printer on Ethernet, next step is to login to wireless router,
 and/or check the dmesg.boot, and then use the IP address found therefrom.

 pkgsrc-wip URL: http://pkgsrc-wip.sourceforge.net/
 pkgsrc URL: http://www.netbsd.org/docs/software/packages.html

 I wonder if I should have bought a printer, non-HP, with wireless, as long
 as it also had USB and Ethernet capability.

 Seeing security advisories for FreeBSD, my next move might be to update
 the source tree by csup, then rebuild (RELENG_9: 9.0-STABLE) for amd64 and
 build for i386 as well.  Then I would have the possibility of building wine
 from the ports, and I could try the MS-Windows software.  I also need to
 update the other ports, including but not limited to hplip and dependencies.


I added a HP Photosmart C6300 series via CUPS using HP Photosmart c6300
Series hpijs, 3.11.5 socket://192.168.25.15:9100

Prints fine over wireless.

-- 
Adam Vande More
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-06-01 Thread Gary Aitken

On 06/01/12 10:51, Gary Aitken wrote:
 On 05/31/12 17:59, Thomas Mueller wrote:
From Gary Aitkena...@dreamchaser.org   :

 I've got an HP printer directly connected to the local network.

 hp-probe finds it:

 #hp-probe -bnet

 HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.12.2)
 Printer Discovery Utility ver. 4.1
 ...
 Device URI   Model  
Name
 ---  
   
 hp:/net/Officejet_Pro_8500_A909g?ip=aa.bb.cc.dd  
 Officejet_Pro_8500_A909g  HP4356E6

 Found 1 printer(s) on the 'net' bus.

 However, hp-setup and hp-uri refuse to use it:

 #hp-makeuri -ldebug aa.bb.cc.dd

 HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.12.2)
 Device URI Creation Utility ver. 5.0
 ...
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Trying IP address aa.bb.cc.dd
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Not found.
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Trying serial number aa.bb.cc.dd
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Probing bus: usb
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Probing bus: par
 error: Device not found

 When the gui comes up, only the USB option is enabled.  There is no 
 parallel port active and no wireless on the box, but at least the network 
 connection should be available.

 The probe which succeeds takes several seconds, but the hp-setup gui and 
 makeuri fail immediately, and the missing ability to set the network 
 discovery option in the gui lead me to believe it's not even trying the ip 
 addr.

 Anyone with experience setting these guys up have any advice?

 Alternately, is there anything other than a special lp filter really 
 needed, and if not, any suggestions on the best one to use?  I looked at 
 apsfilter but the installation SETUP driver options didn't seem to include 
 this printer.
 Thanks

 I have an HP LaserJet M1212nf MFP, and hplip/hp-setup in FreeBSD finds the 
 printer all right when connected by Ethernet, but then fails on installing 
 the required binary plugin.  Printer is not detected at all when connected 
 by USB.

 NetBSD 5.1_STABLE i386 with hplip 3.11.1 built from pkgsrc-wip couldn't find 
 the printer on Ethernet, next step is to login to wireless router, and/or 
 check the dmesg.boot, and then use the IP address found therefrom.

 pkgsrc-wip URL: http://pkgsrc-wip.sourceforge.net/
 pkgsrc URL: http://www.netbsd.org/docs/software/packages.html

 I wonder if I should have bought a printer, non-HP, with wireless, as long 
 as it also had USB and Ethernet capability.

 Seeing security advisories for FreeBSD, my next move might be to update the 
 source tree by csup, then rebuild (RELENG_9: 9.0-STABLE) for amd64 and build 
 for i386 as well.  Then I would have the possibility of building wine from 
 the ports, and I could try the MS-Windows software.  I also need to update 
 the other ports, including but not limited to hplip and dependencies.
 
 I am in the process of trying to sort mine out.
 Found this via one of the hp linux support pages
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/support.html
 I'm in the process of trying to get mine working with their help.
 We'll see how that goes; will post results.
 
 In my case (network connection) they suggested running and sending them the 
 output of:
 
 $ hp-check
 $ hp-probe -ldebug
 $ hp-makeuri -ldebugipaddress
 $ hp-setup -ldebugipaddress
 
 I'm in the process of sorting that out, as it may be an issue of how cups and 
 dbus are installed which may be preventing access (file ownership issues)

hp-check indicated what it thought were inconsistencies;
things it couldn't find but should have because they were there.
the output didn't jibe with file permissions and running daemons,
but I did see one potential issue (a missing python capability which was not 
one of the defaults.  can't remember which, maybe in the cups install)
I did a make clean, make config, make install, and that got me a lot further.
In the config, I think for something cups related, I checked the python 
capability.

When I run hp-setup now, it finds the printer, but it can't find an appropriate 
ppd file.  
Working on that now.
The right one is there, but for some reason it claims it's not a close-enough 
match.

Gary
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HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-05-31 Thread Gary Aitken

I've got an HP printer directly connected to the local network.

hp-probe finds it:

#hp-probe -bnet

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.12.2)
Printer Discovery Utility ver. 4.1
...
  Device URI   Model 
Name
  ---    

  hp:/net/Officejet_Pro_8500_A909g?ip=aa.bb.cc.dd  Officejet_Pro_8500_A909g  
HP4356E6

Found 1 printer(s) on the 'net' bus.

However, hp-setup and hp-uri refuse to use it:

#hp-makeuri -ldebug aa.bb.cc.dd

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.12.2)
Device URI Creation Utility ver. 5.0
...
hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Trying IP address aa.bb.cc.dd
hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Not found.
hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Trying serial number aa.bb.cc.dd
hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Probing bus: usb
hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Probing bus: par
error: Device not found

When the gui comes up, only the USB option is enabled.  There is no parallel 
port active and no wireless on the box, but at least the network connection 
should be available.

The probe which succeeds takes several seconds, but the hp-setup gui and 
makeuri fail immediately, and the missing ability to set the network discovery 
option in the gui lead me to believe it's not even trying the ip addr.

Anyone with experience setting these guys up have any advice?

Alternately, is there anything other than a special lp filter really needed, 
and if not, any suggestions on the best one to use?  I looked at apsfilter but 
the installation SETUP driver options didn't seem to include this printer.
Thanks
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Re: HP networked printer -- hp-setup won't use, hp-probe finds

2012-05-31 Thread Thomas Mueller

 From Gary Aitken a...@dreamchaser.org :

 I've got an HP printer directly connected to the local network.

 hp-probe finds it:

 #hp-probe -bnet

 HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.12.2)
 Printer Discovery Utility ver. 4.1
 ...
   Device URI   Model 
 Name
   ---    
 
   hp:/net/Officejet_Pro_8500_A909g?ip=aa.bb.cc.dd  Officejet_Pro_8500_A909g  
 HP4356E6

 Found 1 printer(s) on the 'net' bus.

 However, hp-setup and hp-uri refuse to use it:

 #hp-makeuri -ldebug aa.bb.cc.dd

 HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.12.2)
 Device URI Creation Utility ver. 5.0
 ...
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Trying IP address aa.bb.cc.dd
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Not found.
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Trying serial number aa.bb.cc.dd
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Probing bus: usb
 hp-makeuri[63924]: debug: Probing bus: par
 error: Device not found

 When the gui comes up, only the USB option is enabled.  There is no parallel 
 port active and no wireless on the box, but at least the network connection 
 should be available.

 The probe which succeeds takes several seconds, but the hp-setup gui and 
 makeuri fail immediately, and the missing ability to set the network 
 discovery option in the gui lead me to believe it's not even trying the ip 
 addr.

 Anyone with experience setting these guys up have any advice?

 Alternately, is there anything other than a special lp filter really needed, 
 and if not, any suggestions on the best one to use?  I looked at apsfilter 
 but the installation SETUP driver options didn't seem to include this printer.
 Thanks

I have an HP LaserJet M1212nf MFP, and hplip/hp-setup in FreeBSD finds the 
printer all right when connected by Ethernet, but then fails on installing the 
required binary plugin.  Printer is not detected at all when connected by USB.

NetBSD 5.1_STABLE i386 with hplip 3.11.1 built from pkgsrc-wip couldn't find 
the printer on Ethernet, next step is to login to wireless router, and/or check 
the dmesg.boot, and then use the IP address found therefrom.

pkgsrc-wip URL: http://pkgsrc-wip.sourceforge.net/
pkgsrc URL: http://www.netbsd.org/docs/software/packages.html

I wonder if I should have bought a printer, non-HP, with wireless, as long as 
it also had USB and Ethernet capability.

Seeing security advisories for FreeBSD, my next move might be to update the 
source tree by csup, then rebuild (RELENG_9: 9.0-STABLE) for amd64 and build 
for i386 as well.  Then I would have the possibility of building wine from the 
ports, and I could try the MS-Windows software.  I also need to update the 
other ports, including but not limited to hplip and dependencies.

Tom
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-04 Thread perryh

Jerry je...@seibercom.net wrote:

   Furthermore, there are means of encrypting print data ...
  
  Utterly irrelevant to the topic under discussion, which is
  the additional malware exposure that a PDF-accepting printer
  has relative to a printer that accepts only PCL and/or PS.

 FROM YOUR ORIGINAL POST:
 All the more reason to avoid wireless.  (I had been thinking more
 along the lines of someone intercepting sensitive print files, e.g.
 tax returns, as they were being sent to the printer.)

I think you must have missed the parentheses, and the had been.
When I initially stated my distrust of wireless (in a post prior to
the one you quoted here), I didn't specify a particular security-
related reason, just general concern that it effectively bypasses
the firewall.  Here I note that Poly's concern about a printer
being corrupted by receiving a malicious firmware update job is
important, and acknowledge that my original concern about sniffing
pales by comparison.

 I again restate my original statement that there exists means of
 encrypting data sent to a printer.

Yes, provided the printer supports the corresponding decryption
operation, but that capability is still irrelevant to the question
of whether the printer's firmware can be corrupted by a malicious
firmware update job.  According to the report that Poly linked
to, there are at least some printers that are vulnerable to that
kind of attack.
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-03 Thread perryh

Jerry je...@seibercom.net wrote:

 Obviously you are not aware of the latest trend towards the
 movement to standardize PDF as the standard print format. I would
 recommend you start by reading the documentation located at:
 http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
 and continue on from there.

That page seems to be concerned with using PDF, rather than PS, as
a common intermediate print language in CUPS.  I see nothing there
relevant to sending PDF directly to a printer.

 While there might be some rational for your security concerns on
 a business network in regards to wireless networks, they are not
 really relevant on a home networks. The simple ease of use that a
 wireless network gives a user on a home network far outweigh any
 pseudo claims of espionage.

Following that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion would
lead one to believe that home networks have no need of any malware
protection, e.g. anti-virus.  Any ISP which has had to deal with
incidents precipitated by customers' infected machines -- including
but likely not limited to DDoS and spambots -- would likely disagree.

 Furthermore, there are means of encrypting print data ...

Utterly irrelevant to the topic under discussion, which is
the additional malware exposure that a PDF-accepting printer
has relative to a printer that accepts only PCL and/or PS.

I maintain that an attacker can more easily trick a less-than-
paranoid user into sending a malware print file to a PDF-accepting
printer than to a non-PDF-accepting printer, simply because PDF
is such a commonly used distribution format.  If someone prints a
malware PDF file that they have downloaded, and the process of
printing it does not require that it be transformed in any way (such
as conversion to PS) before being sent to the printer, their only
protection from disaster is whatever validation may be built into
the printer itself.  (Keep in mind that what started the malware
discussion was Poly's link to a report stating that some printers
do not sufficiently validate an update firmware job.)

Granted the identical exposure exists for a PS printer if the
downloaded malware file is identified as a PS file, however the
risk is much less in practice because distribution of PS files
is sufficiently uncommon that most unsophisticated users would
have no idea what to do with one if they were to come across it.

 By the way, since you seem so concerned over your printers security,
 I assume that you all ready have it at least password protected.

No need.  I have no wireless at all -- everything is hardwired --
and I trust my firewall.  There's no way for anyone to either sniff
or inject anything from outside (i.e. without physical access to
the network on the secure side of the firewall).
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-03 Thread Da Rock


On 04/04/12 04:22, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:

Jerryje...@seibercom.net  wrote:


By the way, since you seem so concerned over your printers security,
I assume that you all ready have it at least password protected.

No need.  I have no wireless at all -- everything is hardwired --
and I trust my firewall.  There's no way for anyone to either sniff
or inject anything from outside (i.e. without physical access to
the network on the secure side of the firewall).


And of course you can't login to firewall from the internet, and 
therefore no CE devices exposed. This then allows you to concentrate on 
what happens inside your network, without worrying about outside forces 
getting in without your knowledge.

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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-03 Thread Jerry

On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:22:24 -0700
per...@pluto.rain.com articulated:

 Jerry je...@seibercom.net wrote:
 
  Obviously you are not aware of the latest trend towards the
  movement to standardize PDF as the standard print format. I would
  recommend you start by reading the documentation located at:
  http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
  and continue on from there.
 
 That page seems to be concerned with using PDF, rather than PS, as
 a common intermediate print language in CUPS.  I see nothing there
 relevant to sending PDF directly to a printer.

PDF is slowly, but surely, becoming the default printing format on
several operating systems. A relatively quick check will reveal that
more and more manufacturers are now starting to natively support this
print format.

  While there might be some rational for your security concerns on
  a business network in regards to wireless networks, they are not
  really relevant on a home networks. The simple ease of use that a
  wireless network gives a user on a home network far outweigh any
  pseudo claims of espionage.
 
 Following that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion would
 lead one to believe that home networks have no need of any malware
 protection, e.g. anti-virus.  Any ISP which has had to deal with
 incidents precipitated by customers' infected machines -- including
 but likely not limited to DDoS and spambots -- would likely disagree.

Your line of reasoning has somehow gotten totally sidetracked. At no
point did I state that NO security measures were ever need. Obviously,
everyone needs to establish a certain security baseline for his/her
system. Whether or not that system is wireless or hard wired makes
absolutely no difference. In fact, I might make a case that it is
easier to navigate a hard wired system as opposed to a wireless one
since most hard wired systems do not require passwords or certificates
to access various components of said system. You stated further on that
you have no password or certificate protection on your system. One
grenade and you all die.

  Furthermore, there are means of encrypting print data ...
 
 Utterly irrelevant to the topic under discussion, which is
 the additional malware exposure that a PDF-accepting printer
 has relative to a printer that accepts only PCL and/or PS.


FROM YOUR ORIGINAL POST:
All the more reason to avoid wireless.  (I had been thinking more
along the lines of someone intercepting sensitive print files, e.g.
tax returns, as they were being sent to the printer.)

I again restate my original statement that there exists means of
encrypting data sent to a printer. Whether or not you choose to employ
them is your business. Requiring security certificates to access the
printer offers even greater protection.

 I maintain that an attacker can more easily trick a less-than-
 paranoid user into sending a malware print file to a PDF-accepting
 printer than to a non-PDF-accepting printer, simply because PDF
 is such a commonly used distribution format.  If someone prints a
 malware PDF file that they have downloaded, and the process of
 printing it does not require that it be transformed in any way (such
 as conversion to PS) before being sent to the printer, their only
 protection from disaster is whatever validation may be built into
 the printer itself.  (Keep in mind that what started the malware
 discussion was Poly's link to a report stating that some printers
 do not sufficiently validate an update firmware job.)

And some do. It is a constantly moving target. You make a better mouse
trap, they make a better mouse. It is the degree of paranoia that you
are willing to live with. If the user spends his/her time visiting
porno sites, then they can reasonably expect to be infected with a
malignant file. It is virtually impossible to protect someone from
their own bad habits. Please, don't waste your time with the, I caught
it from a toilet seat explanation. While you could get infected
spending a day in the Smithsonian Institution, your odds greatly
increase if you spend it in a whore house.

 Granted the identical exposure exists for a PS printer if the
 downloaded malware file is identified as a PS file, however the
 risk is much less in practice because distribution of PS files
 is sufficiently uncommon that most unsophisticated users would
 have no idea what to do with one if they were to come across it.

By your own words, the problem exists. The question here is the degree
of exposure.

  By the way, since you seem so concerned over your printers security,
  I assume that you all ready have it at least password protected.
 
 No need.  I have no wireless at all -- everything is hardwired --
 and I trust my firewall.  There's no way for anyone to either sniff
 or inject anything from outside (i.e. without physical access to
 the network on the secure side of the firewall).

Don't worry Captain Smith, this ship can't sink.

On a serous note, I have spent the last

Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-03 Thread Polytropon

On Tue, 3 Apr 2012 08:40:05 -0400, Jerry wrote:
 On a serous note, I have spent the last 12 hours, more or less,
 checking with my friends and business associates. Not a single one has
 ever had or knows of a single incident of anyone actually ever being
 infected or having suffered any negative reaction to having printed a
 PDF file. Most, but not all of these friends / associates are Microsoft
 users; however, that should not invalidate the statistics.

That might be a problem: Malicious acts take place in the
background. The time where a virus would pop a funny message
on the screen are long over. In Windows land, there are
limited resources for means of diagnostics and troubleshooting.
Many people believe (and please take that word seriously)
that they have no virus, and if you bring a laptop with
a traffic scanner (e. g. Wireshark, ex Ethereal), you can
see scary things happen on their network. In worst case,
the police rushes in, takes all the PCs, and the sloppy
explaination they give is: We're investigating a case of
copyright infringement, we suspect your PCs being an active
sharepoint of copyrighted material. While Windows and
its programs presents lots of bells  whistles to the user,
there's no real chance to find out what's _really_ happening
behind that curtain.

There are _tons_ of programs out there that can be considered
snake oil in regards of security. Windows users know 'em,
many of them use 'em. I can imagine if PDF printers spread
more and more, they become more interesting to attackers, and
malware like Professional Printer Anti-Malware Check XXL Super
High Security Programs will spread, waiting for the poor-minded
victims to run them, and BANG! printer pwn'd. This is the _first_
step into turning a corporate network into a botnet. If the
attacker is able to hide inside a printer, it's much easier
for him to do sniper attacks with precision as he is in
control of a full-featured networking devices that nobody
recognizes... or verifies. Running virus scans, malware scans
and so on on Windows PCs has become standard by the majority
of its users. Printers are not concerned here, and maybe there
are no proper tools available to do the pending tests.

Applying that consideration to PDF files, virus scanners
would have to check them before they are sent to the printer.



 In fact, the
 FOSS society claims MS is more vulnerable to infections/hijacking
 then they are.

This is due to its usage share. I believe if Linux (for example)
would run on 90% of home PCs, attackers would concentrate
their activities on that platform. Given the statement that
the platform is more secure in a technical way (by design and
implementation), attackers would potentially try to access the
weakest part: the user. This kind of attack is different from
those that work in a technical way (e. g. overwriting a printer's
firmware silently and secretly), because it does not depend on
technical vulnerabilities in the first place.

FOSS or not, people have to understand that security is not
a static thing, it's a process that involves _them_ to act.
A Linux server with telnet enabled and empty root password
is as dangerous as a Windows PC in a corporate network.

Now there's something interesting hidden: Let's say a malicious
file is sent to the printer to compromise it. It's send from
a Linux workstation. Will Linux (to keep this example) have
to contain a kind of PDF virus scanner by default? Take
into mind what I said about behind the curtain. When a printer
is compromised, and it acts maliciously within a Linux environment
that is poorly secured, I agree with your statement that using
a FOSS system does not imply security per se.



 The original PDF code was written years ago. Since about 2006 hackers
 have started finding vulnerabilities in it.

That's a well-known fact in IT security. As I said, it's up
to the manufacturers to properly deal with the security issues
as good as possible. If they _can_ remove certain attack vectors
for example by ignoring specific sections of PDF data, it would
be a benefit for security without actually reducing functionality.
It starts beginning complicated if there is a feature that is
needed which can be used _against_ the system. Maybe data
validation can help here...



 There was one that attacked
 scanned documents in MS Office. That problems was fixed over two years
 ago. Virtually all PDF attacks now target Web Browsers. A case can be
 made that viewing PDF files in a Web Browser is far more likely to
 infect a machine than printing such document ever could.

Yes, that approach is welcome to attackers as it allows them
to take over a full-featured Windows PC within seconds - the
user just has to visit a certain web page. By auto-open magic
of certain MUAs it's even easier to accomplish.

Attacking a printer, however, is much more silent. Why?
Because nobody CARES. Printers are not in the scope of
security. Does anyone imagine to run a virus check on a
printer? Does

Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-03 Thread Polytropon

On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:22:24 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:
Jerry je...@seibercom.net wrote:

Obviously you are not aware of the latest trend towards the
movement to standardize PDF as the standard print format. I would
recommend you start by reading the documentation located at:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
and continue on from there.

That page seems to be concerned with using PDF, rather than PS, as
a common intermediate print language in CUPS. I see nothing there
relevant to sending PDF directly to a printer.

See this page:

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/pdfasstandardprintjobformat

It discusses (quite short, I admit) programs outputting PDF
instead of PS when generating printing data. Handing that
data over to the printer does not involve any conversion
or intermediate formats anymore.

The functionality of CUPS would then be reduced to what
the system's default printer spooler does (and did since
the 1970's): Read data from a program and send it to the
printer. Only the format of data has changed: pure text,
text with control characters, PS, PCL, PDF. It starts at
the application front.

While there might be some rational for your security concerns on
a business network in regards to wireless networks, they are not
really relevant on a home networks. The simple ease of use that a
wireless network gives a user on a home network far outweigh any
pseudo claims of espionage.

Following that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion would
lead one to believe that home networks have no need of any malware
protection, e.g. anti-virus. Any ISP which has had to deal with
incidents precipitated by customers' infected machines -- including
but likely not limited to DDoS and spambots -- would likely disagree.

Home networks and carelessly treated corporate networks
make the majority of what causes trouble on the Internet.
Don't notice == doesn't exist. :-)

I maintain that an attacker can more easily trick a less-than-
paranoid user into sending a malware print file to a PDF-accepting
printer than to a non-PDF-accepting printer, simply because PDF
is such a commonly used distribution format.

In regards of the web being a main source of attacks, few
lines of Javascript would allow to automatically access the
printer and send it some PDF data, drive-by attacks made
simple.

If someone prints a
malware PDF file that they have downloaded, and the process of
printing it does not require that it be transformed in any way (such
as conversion to PS) before being sent to the printer, their only
protection from disaster is whatever validation may be built into
the printer itself. (Keep in mind that what started the malware
discussion was Poly's link to a report stating that some printers
do not sufficiently validate an update firmware job.)

That's why I _hope_ printer manufacturers will take care
about that topic. As far as it's _possible_ to validate
PDF data that _might_ be a threat, it should be done, and
in worst case, malicious portions of the data should be
ignored.

Granted the identical exposure exists for a PS printer if the
downloaded malware file is identified as a PS file, however the
risk is much less in practice because distribution of PS files
is sufficiently uncommon that most unsophisticated users would
have no idea what to do with one if they were to come across it.

Furthermore, PS files would - on most cases - undergo another
conversion, for example to PCL. A PS interpreter would have to
be exploited to carry malicious code from PS to PCL (if the
PCL language allows the same kind of hostile manipulation as
the PS language would). In this case, FOSS is a good shield.
Code that gets many reviews by the _public_ is less prone to
contain backdoors (phrase incorrectly used) that would allow
such mis-interpretation.

--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-03 Thread Da Rock


On 04/03/12 23:30, Polytropon wrote:

On Tue, 3 Apr 2012 08:40:05 -0400, Jerry wrote:

On a serous note, I have spent the last 12 hours, more or less,
checking with my friends and business associates. Not a single one has
ever had or knows of a single incident of anyone actually ever being
infected or having suffered any negative reaction to having printed a
PDF file. Most, but not all of these friends / associates are Microsoft
users; however, that should not invalidate the statistics.

That might be a problem: Malicious acts take place in the
background. The time where a virus would pop a funny message
on the screen are long over. In Windows land, there are
limited resources for means of diagnostics and troubleshooting.
Many people believe (and please take that word seriously)
that they have no virus, and if you bring a laptop with
a traffic scanner (e. g. Wireshark, ex Ethereal), you can
see scary things happen on their network. In worst case,
the police rushes in, takes all the PCs, and the sloppy
explaination they give is: We're investigating a case of
copyright infringement, we suspect your PCs being an active
sharepoint of copyrighted material. While Windows and
its programs presents lots of bells  whistles to the user,
there's no real chance to find out what's _really_ happening
behind that curtain.

There are _tons_ of programs out there that can be considered
snake oil in regards of security. Windows users know 'em,
many of them use 'em. I can imagine if PDF printers spread
more and more, they become more interesting to attackers, and
malware like Professional Printer Anti-Malware Check XXL Super
High Security Programs will spread, waiting for the poor-minded
victims to run them, and BANG! printer pwn'd. This is the _first_
step into turning a corporate network into a botnet. If the
attacker is able to hide inside a printer, it's much easier
for him to do sniper attacks with precision as he is in
control of a full-featured networking devices that nobody
recognizes... or verifies. Running virus scans, malware scans
and so on on Windows PCs has become standard by the majority
of its users. Printers are not concerned here, and maybe there
are no proper tools available to do the pending tests.


No. A traffic sniffer would be required to intercept traffic and 
discover any abnormalities. Most sysadmins wouldn't pay much attention, 
but you can bet it _will_ require a printer technician with training on 
the model to fix it- firmware usually requires either passworded telnet 
access or similar, possibly in conjunction with service software only 
available to the dealer- and may provide yet a whole new market for 
office machine service. I'd say sysadmins would expect the manufacturer 
to actually handle this issue.


Applying that consideration to PDF files, virus scanners
would have to check them before they are sent to the printer.




In fact, the
FOSS society claims MS is more vulnerable to infections/hijacking
then they are.

This is due to its usage share. I believe if Linux (for example)
would run on 90% of home PCs, attackers would concentrate
their activities on that platform. Given the statement that
the platform is more secure in a technical way (by design and
implementation), attackers would potentially try to access the
weakest part: the user. This kind of attack is different from
those that work in a technical way (e. g. overwriting a printer's
firmware silently and secretly), because it does not depend on
technical vulnerabilities in the first place.

FOSS or not, people have to understand that security is not
a static thing, it's a process that involves _them_ to act.
A Linux server with telnet enabled and empty root password
is as dangerous as a Windows PC in a corporate network.

Now there's something interesting hidden: Let's say a malicious
file is sent to the printer to compromise it. It's send from
a Linux workstation. Will Linux (to keep this example) have
to contain a kind of PDF virus scanner by default? Take
into mind what I said about behind the curtain. When a printer
is compromised, and it acts maliciously within a Linux environment
that is poorly secured, I agree with your statement that using
a FOSS system does not imply security per se.

Having found a poorly 'written' pdf, I believe a simple pdf2pdf (using 
gs with similar commands as pdf2ps) will be sufficient to 'clean' the 
pdf file- or render it harmless. But essentially running through the 
cups filters (speaking of the general user) will do this I think- easily 
verified.


Incidentally the pdf was written using MS Office, which offers yet 
another can o' worms.



The original PDF code was written years ago. Since about 2006 hackers
have started finding vulnerabilities in it.

That's a well-known fact in IT security. As I said, it's up
to the manufacturers to properly deal with the security issues
as good as possible. If they _can_ remove certain attack vectors
for example by ignoring specific sections of PDF

Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-02 Thread perryh

Polytropon free...@edvax.de wrote:

 On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:01:43 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:
  I personally don't trust wireless, because it's well nigh
  impossible to truly secure it.

 In that case, one should also pay attention to secure the
 printer. Wait - secure the printer? What am I talking about?

 Firmware attacks!

 Yes - malware has already reached printers ...

All the more reason to avoid wireless.  (I had been thinking more
along the lines of someone intercepting sensitive print files, e.g.
tax returns, as they were being sent to the printer.)

A printer connected to a hard-wired network, behind a firewall with
no tunnelling to it allowed, is not going to get anything sent to it
from outside.  Granted this does not protect against malware jobs
sent from a local machine, but it at least avoids having malware
sent wirelessly to the printer by someone parked out front, thus
there's one less pathway needing to be secured.

It may also be a reason to _avoid_ printers that accept PDF directly.
Since PDFs are often downloaded and printed, an attacker could post
a bogus firmware download under an innocent-sounding name like
manual.pdf leading someone to do

$ fetch http://.../manual.pdf  lpr manual.pdf

Oops.

However if said PDF has to first be locally converted to PS (e.g.
by xpdf) before being sent to the printer, an attacker would have
to (somehow) formulate a PDF that would cause xpdf to emit a
PostScript file that looked to the printer like a firmware
download.  I don't know enough about either PDF or xpdf to say
whether that's possible, but I imagine it would at least be a
whole lot more difficult than in the direct PDF case.
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-02 Thread Da Rock


On 04/03/12 01:09, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:

Polytroponfree...@edvax.de  wrote:


On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:01:43 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:

I personally don't trust wireless, because it's well nigh
impossible to truly secure it.

In that case, one should also pay attention to secure the
printer. Wait - secure the printer? What am I talking about?

Firmware attacks!

Yes - malware has already reached printers ...

All the more reason to avoid wireless.  (I had been thinking more
along the lines of someone intercepting sensitive print files, e.g.
tax returns, as they were being sent to the printer.)

A printer connected to a hard-wired network, behind a firewall with
no tunnelling to it allowed, is not going to get anything sent to it
from outside.  Granted this does not protect against malware jobs
sent from a local machine, but it at least avoids having malware
sent wirelessly to the printer by someone parked out front, thus
there's one less pathway needing to be secured.

It may also be a reason to _avoid_ printers that accept PDF directly.
Since PDFs are often downloaded and printed, an attacker could post
a bogus firmware download under an innocent-sounding name like
manual.pdf leading someone to do

$ fetch http://.../manual.pdf;  lpr manual.pdf

Oops.

However if said PDF has to first be locally converted to PS (e.g.
by xpdf) before being sent to the printer, an attacker would have
to (somehow) formulate a PDF that would cause xpdf to emit a
PostScript file that looked to the printer like a firmware
download.  I don't know enough about either PDF or xpdf to say
whether that's possible, but I imagine it would at least be a
whole lot more difficult than in the direct PDF case.


Sounds pretty good to me. I'd implement it.
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-02 Thread Jerry

On Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:09:07 -0700
per...@pluto.rain.com articulated:

 Polytropon free...@edvax.de wrote:
 
  On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:01:43 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:
   I personally don't trust wireless, because it's well nigh
   impossible to truly secure it.
 
  In that case, one should also pay attention to secure the
  printer. Wait - secure the printer? What am I talking about?
 
  Firmware attacks!
 
  Yes - malware has already reached printers ...
 
 All the more reason to avoid wireless.  (I had been thinking more
 along the lines of someone intercepting sensitive print files, e.g.
 tax returns, as they were being sent to the printer.)
 
 A printer connected to a hard-wired network, behind a firewall with
 no tunnelling to it allowed, is not going to get anything sent to it
 from outside.  Granted this does not protect against malware jobs
 sent from a local machine, but it at least avoids having malware
 sent wirelessly to the printer by someone parked out front, thus
 there's one less pathway needing to be secured.
 
 It may also be a reason to _avoid_ printers that accept PDF directly.
 Since PDFs are often downloaded and printed, an attacker could post
 a bogus firmware download under an innocent-sounding name like
 manual.pdf leading someone to do
 
 $ fetch http://.../manual.pdf  lpr manual.pdf
 
 Oops.
 
 However if said PDF has to first be locally converted to PS (e.g.
 by xpdf) before being sent to the printer, an attacker would have
 to (somehow) formulate a PDF that would cause xpdf to emit a
 PostScript file that looked to the printer like a firmware
 download.  I don't know enough about either PDF or xpdf to say
 whether that's possible, but I imagine it would at least be a
 whole lot more difficult than in the direct PDF case.

Obviously you are not aware of the latest trend towards the movement to
standardize PDF as the standard print format. I would recommend you
start by reading the documentation located at:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
and continue on from there.

While there might be some rational for your security concerns on a
business network in regards to wireless networks, they are not really
relevant on a home networks. The simple ease of use that a wireless
network gives a user on a home network far outweigh any pseudo claims of
espionage. Furthermore, there are means of encrypting print data. I
leave the mastery of that matter up to the student.

By the way, since you seem so concerned over your printers security, I
assume that you all ready have it at least password protected.
Personally, I prefer using certificates. Now that is real security.
Again, I assume you are using printers capable of that security.

-- 
Jerry ♔

Disclaimer: off-list followups get on-list replies or get ignored.
Please do not ignore the Reply-To header.
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-02 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 2 Apr 2012 07:33:03 -0400, Jerry wrote:
Obviously you are not aware of the latest trend towards the movement to
standardize PDF as the standard print format. I would recommend you
start by reading the documentation located at:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
and continue on from there.

Seconded, good introductional read.

Addition:

PDF as Standard Print Job Format
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/pdfasstandardprintjobformat

While there might be some rational for your security concerns on a
business network in regards to wireless networks, they are not really
relevant on a home networks. The simple ease of use that a wireless
network gives a user on a home network far outweigh any pseudo claims of
espionage.

I think you're underestimating the threat coming from hijacked
home consumer networks. Of course, business networks are more
interesting, as they might contain data one could sell (personnel
data, inventions, business figures, pricing, internal products
calculations and so on), but home networks seem to be more
easily to crack. The typical point of attack is a Windows PC
in such a network, and the result is a machine controlled by
a criminal, acting as a spam server, as part of a botnet, as
a participant in illegal file sharing or as a storage point
for child pornography. The user itself often doesn't recognize
any of those activities.

In today's Internet, more than 90% of the traffic generated
in email is spam. What do you think they come from?

Now let's assume printers are easily exploitable because
manufacturers are careless when implementing the PDF printing
standard, or they leave extensions active that can be
abused. While average Windows users are more and more
aware of caring about viruses, trojans, malware and other
attacks for their _own_ security, such considerations
about a printer aren't wide spread. But it's only a
printer, it can't do anything!

What I want to say: Printers _are_ and _will be_ attack
vectors that need attention. If the manufacturers provide
a good basis, that would be great. For example, if a PDF
file contained malicious code, the printer accepts it,
prints it, but doesn't do anything more, it would be a
safe procedure. But as PDF is _known_ to be unsafe in
regards that it _can_ contain stuff to attack a computer,
the conclusion is that (depending on what manufacturers
actually implement) it might do so to a printer too.
The danger of PDF is comparable to the danger of Office
files (typically macros as hooks for malicious code).
Now add some auto-opening functionality to a MUA, and
you're done.

Summary: PDF as a printing standard is very welcome, as
long as it takes the chance to be a secure thing.

Furthermore, there are means of encrypting print data. I
leave the mastery of that matter up to the student.

That's interesting, I'll investigate on that further.

Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-02 Thread Peter A. Giessel

On 2012, Mar 30, at 11:17, Warren Block wrote:

 It should work with FreeBSD, certainly for text.  For graphics
 output, Gutenprint doesn't have a setting specifically for the
 6500, but one of the similar printers probably will work.  Don't
 expect photo quality, color lasers have to do halftones.

It doesn't surprise me that Gutenprint doesn't have a setting
specifically for the 6500 because Xerox provides one:

http://www.support.xerox.com/support/phaser-6500/downloads/enus.html?operatingSystem=linuxfileLanguage=en

I have a Phaser 6300 (older model), and it has worked well for every
OS that I have thrown at it, including Mac, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD,
iOS, etc.

Echoing others, get a real postscript printer, get a real network printer
(not USB), and get a laser printer (although Thermal Wax would also be
acceptable).

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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-02 Thread C. P. Ghost

On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 12:09 PM, Da Rock
freebsd-questi...@herveybayaustralia.com.au wrote:
 On 04/01/12 19:29, Polytropon wrote:

 Firmware attacks!

 ROFL! Sorry my mind went to an interesting place with this one images of
 printers on spring break flashing their cartridges, opening flaps to show
 off their drums... :D

Reminds me of the VAXorcist... ;-)

http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/vaxorcist.html

-cpghost.

-- 
Cordula's Web. http://www.cordula.ws/
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-01 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:20:41 +0200, Lino Miklav wrote:
 On 31.03.2012 00:16, Peter A. Giessel wrote:
  It doesn't surprise me that Gutenprint doesn't have a setting
  specifically for the 6500 because Xerox provides one:
 
 Uf, I have this idea to only use LPD and filters.

That should be no problem. If I read the specifications
for the Xerox Phaser 6280V DN correctly, it supports both
PS and PCL.

Here's an example for a PCL printer filter:

#!/bin/sh
printf \033k2G || exit 2
gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dPARANOIDSAFER -dSAFER -sPAPERSIZE=a4 
-r600x600 \
-sDEVICE=ljet4 -sOutputFile=- -  exit 0
exit 2

The ljet4 produces PCL, it can also be used to access
features like duplexer (add -dDuplex=true). It basically
does the same as the apsfilter filter, except that the
apsfilter one has support for pretty printing and
direct command line printing, so

% lpr foo.c

or

% lpr bar.png

can be issued directly, no need to create a PS stream
by another application.

You can easily add that filter to /etc/printcap's if= setting,
add rm= with the IP or hostname of the printer, prepare the
spool and it should work.



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-01 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:01:43 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:
I personally don't trust wireless, because it's well nigh impossible
to truly secure it.

In that case, one should also pay attention to secure the
printer. Wait - secure the printer? What am I talking about?

Firmware attacks!

Yes - malware has already reached printers. As they contain
all typical parts of a computer and are equipped with net-
working capabilities, they can cause trouble in networks
the same way as what hujacked Windows PCs typically do.
They can be turned into networked allies, carrying out
the attackers orders within networks.

Those who are interested may find some information here:

Exclusive: Millions of printers open to devastating hack attack, researchers say
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9076395-exclusive-millions-of-printers-open-to-devastating-hack-attack-researchers-say

ShmooCon 2011: Printers Gone Wild!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZgLX60U3sY#t=3m40s

ShmooCon 2011: Printer to PWND: Leveraging Multifunction Printers During
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPhisPLwm2A

Printer malware: print a malicious document, expose your whole LAN
http://boingboing.net/2011/12/30/printer-malware-print-a-malic.html

Print Me If You Dare
Firmware Modification Attacks and the Rise of Printer Malware
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4780.en.html

HP firmware to 'mitigate' LaserJet vulnerability
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57347817-83/hp-firmware-to-mitigate-laserjet-vulnerability/

It seems that printers can be infected via specific network
traffic or closed-source malicious drivers (that nobody
can examine content-wise) that will find their way to the
device. Depending on your local legislation, that can develop
into dangerous (and expensive) directions...

2. Standard language.
Postscript and PCL. Make sure the printer understands at least
one of them.

or, alternatively, PDF (which some of the newer printers are reputed
to take directly, rather than requiring the host to convert it to PS
or PCL).

Jerry mentioned this, and I think it's a feature worth demanding
when buying a new printer. Still if PDF input is not possible,
PCL or PS should be looked for. All those considerations make
sure you can use the printer with _any_ OS you like, and due
to this fact it will be usable even after the target OS will
be out of support (and follow-up drivers won't be provided).

Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-01 Thread Da Rock

On 04/01/12 19:29, Polytropon wrote:

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:01:43 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:

I personally don't trust wireless, because it's well nigh impossible
to truly secure it.

In that case, one should also pay attention to secure the
printer. Wait - secure the printer? What am I talking about?

Firmware attacks!

Those who are interested may find some information here:

ShmooCon 2011: Printers Gone Wild!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZgLX60U3sY#t=3m40s
ROFL! Sorry my mind went to an interesting place with this one
images of printers on spring break flashing their cartridges, opening
flaps to show off their drums... :D

The content isn't funny though. They really should consider their
headlines before releasing...

ShmooCon 2011: Printer to PWND: Leveraging Multifunction Printers During
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPhisPLwm2A

Printer malware: print a malicious document, expose your whole LAN
http://boingboing.net/2011/12/30/printer-malware-print-a-malic.html

Print Me If You Dare
Firmware Modification Attacks and the Rise of Printer Malware
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4780.en.html

HP firmware to 'mitigate' LaserJet vulnerability
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57347817-83/hp-firmware-to-mitigate-laserjet-vulnerability/

2. Standard language.
Postscript and PCL. Make sure the printer understands at least
one of them.

or, alternatively, PDF (which some of the newer printers are reputed
to take directly, rather than requiring the host to convert it to PS
or PCL).

From my memory Xerox are pretty good with this. Besides schmoozing the
printed graphics industry they've been a _big_ proponent of the Unix
system; in particular the birth of X-Windows, and various print
standards long before and after M$ came on the scene. They have still
remained a strong supporter of the Unix and printing community. The
Phaser is a good choice.

Unfortunately they are a bit of an elite brand which puts them out of
most home users price range :)

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Re: Printer recommendation please


On 03/31/12 05:17, Warren Block wrote:

On Fri, 30 Mar 2012, Karel Miklav wrote:

Could you please recommend me a home printer that works nicely with 
FreeBSD?


HP inkjets aren't that bad, FreeBSD drivers are allright, but I'd 
like to shift towards some kind of PostScript laser. Xerox Phaser 
6500 looks nice, but I can not economically justify my appetite. Is 
there a cheaper alternative or maybe PostScript printers aren't that 
good idea anyway, heh?


The Phaser 6500 has some good specifications.  Genuine Adobe 
PostScript 3, gigabit Ethernet, 24 PPM.  The duty cycle is 4,000 pages 
per month, which is very low.  Toner is expensive.  Reviews are 
somewhat mixed.


It should work with FreeBSD, certainly for text.  For graphics output, 
Gutenprint doesn't have a setting specifically for the 6500, but one 
of the similar printers probably will work.  Don't expect photo 
quality, color lasers have to do halftones.
Depending. Xerox C410 used a Fiery engine onboard which produced 
dramatic results- awesome photo quality I have yet to see even in an inkjet.


Not sure what the Phasers are like though; they're not actually Xerox 
designed per se, but use the Xerox processes so hence the brand.


Anyway, I digress. The critical point is the print engine- if it says 
Fiery grab it don't let go! :) Results may vary a little between brands, 
but anything with Fiery in it is better than without. And you don't need 
Gutenprint because thats what Gutenprint is attempting to emulate.

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Re: Printer recommendation please


On 03/31/12 07:23, Polytropon wrote:

On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:38:36 +0200, Karel Miklav wrote:

Could you please recommend me a home printer that works nicely with FreeBSD?

HP inkjets aren't that bad, FreeBSD drivers are allright, but I'd like
to shift towards some kind of PostScript laser. Xerox Phaser 6500 looks
nice, but I can not economically justify my appetite. Is there a cheaper
alternative or maybe PostScript printers aren't that good idea anyway, heh?

Allow me to mention some things that are worth investing in.

1. Network connection.
Don't bother with USB stuff. Buy a printer that offers Ethernet
and maybe also WLAN, this will save you many trouble, and you
are free to put the printer wherever you want.

2. Standard language.
Postscript and PCL. Make sure the printer understands at least
one of them. PCL is very common among HP printers. Regarding
drivers - you don't need them. PS is the default output format
for printing from every application. Printer filter collections
such as apsfilter or CUPS tend to support non-PS printers very
well, and it's quite easy to write your own printer filter (may
even be a one-liner) using ghostscript. There's nothing wrong
with PS because (as I said) you don't need any drivers, but the
data transfer may need some time, and the processing speed
depends on how fast and how good (!) the PS interpreter in the
printer is. In my experience (with the printers I'm going to
mention at the end of this message) PCL is faster.

+1.

+1 +1 +1 ;) A definite must! Cannot be emphasised enough; the others 
are manufacturer errors!


3. Laser printer.
Don't believe that inkpee printers are genereally cheaper. They
are not. The only excuse for using them is that you need photo
quality color prints (requiring the proper paper, too).
Usually by the time you need to replace a cartridge you may want to buy 
another printer- it will take you that long to go through the cartridge 
(4000 prints as opposed to the 40 in an inkjet that you _may_ get out of 
it). Remember you have to pay nearly the same amount _somewhere_; either 
through ink/toner or initial cost (or pain :) ).


4. Additional functionalities.
Before buying something, ask yourself what you need. Does it
need to have a scanner? Does the scanner part support FreeBSD?
Is there a way to scan to local storage (e. g. USB stick)
in the printer? Does it need a sheet feeder for scan input?
Does it need to scan photo positive/negative films? Does it
need to fax?

I have had good luck with my army of laser printers here.
HP Laserjet II, 4, 4000 duplex, as well as a Samsung color
laserprinter CLX-2160. All this stuff works out of the box.
I don't have any need for inkpee. Photos can be printed at
much better quality at my local drugstore, if I need that.
The printer filters are gs one-liners I wrote myself, because
I speak PCL to the laser printer, and some splix gibberish
using foo2qpdl to the (sadly USB connected) color printer.






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Re: Printer recommendation please


On 03/31/12 08:32, RW wrote:

On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:14:20 -0400
Mike Jeays wrote:


I strongly recommend a laser printer over an inkjet even for home
use. The reduced running costs and better reliability are easily
worth the lack of colour, IMO.

How do they compare for light and  occasional use? I'm thinking in
terms of a few pages, a few times a year, so presumably the
consumables become perishables.

Quite well. Toner doesn't dry up :)

Watch the older type fusers though- they can develop 'flat spots' on the 
rollers. The newer printers use a ceramic type fuser which has fast 
warm-up and no flat spot troubles.


Also keep the dust low on _any_ printer and it will last longer and 
perform better. Dusty paper can cause major issues (both printing and 
mechanical) as well.

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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-31 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:17:52 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
 Watch the older type fusers though- they can develop 'flat spots' on the 
 rollers. The newer printers use a ceramic type fuser which has fast 
 warm-up and no flat spot troubles.

But it's still possible to get replacement parts for older
office printers. I said _office_ printers, even used ones
that you can pick up for few dollars or a bottle of beer.
Spare parts aren't expensive, and in many cases, you can
install them yourself. The funny thing: Even for 10 years
old printers (and even older ones), they are available.

Try _that_ with a home consumer inkpee printer! :-)



 Also keep the dust low on _any_ printer and it will last longer and 
 perform better. Dusty paper can cause major issues (both printing and 
 mechanical) as well.

Sometimes rubber parts tend to harden. There are a few
tricks to make them soft again, but the typical solution
is to replace them for few dollars. Note that this isn't
something you'll notice in 2 - 5 years of use. You often
need 10 or more years to find fail and trouble in a good
printer. Good printer == office printer, as I said befire. :-)

-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-31 Thread Jerry

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:08:57 +0700
Erich Dollansky articulated:

 I know a person who did this too. But for the purpose of saving
 money. It was during a time when new printers with refill have been
 cheaper than the refill. This guy actually saved money and has had
 the latest model.

Kodak made a major change in their price structure to actually front
load the cost of the printer while most other manufacturers still
basically give away the printer with the expectations of making profit
on the selling of the ink. Hence, many individuals, especially college
students purchase cheap ink-jet printers that can actually rival the
output of many high priced color laser units and simply discard them in
six months when the ink runs dry. Plus, they have the functionality of
being able to plug those ink-jets into virtually any Microsoft product,
sans driver and still have a fully functional device.

By the way, PS is going the way of the dodo bird. PDF is quickly
becoming the printing norm. If you are going to spend a significant
amount of money on a printing device, make sure it supports native PDF.

-- 
Jerry ♔

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Re: Printer recommendation please


On 03/31/12 21:32, Polytropon wrote:

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:17:52 +1000, Da Rock wrote:

Watch the older type fusers though- they can develop 'flat spots' on the
rollers. The newer printers use a ceramic type fuser which has fast
warm-up and no flat spot troubles.

But it's still possible to get replacement parts for older
office printers. I said _office_ printers, even used ones
that you can pick up for few dollars or a bottle of beer.
Spare parts aren't expensive, and in many cases, you can
install them yourself. The funny thing: Even for 10 years
old printers (and even older ones), they are available.

Try _that_ with a home consumer inkpee printer! :-)




Also keep the dust low on _any_ printer and it will last longer and
perform better. Dusty paper can cause major issues (both printing and
mechanical) as well.

Sometimes rubber parts tend to harden. There are a few
tricks to make them soft again, but the typical solution
is to replace them for few dollars. Note that this isn't
something you'll notice in 2 - 5 years of use. You often
need 10 or more years to find fail and trouble in a good
printer. Good printer == office printer, as I said befire. :-)

All absolutely true. My point was the few 'gotchas' for printers and 
what to watch for. Also the better features for new printers.


I seem to remember using eucalyptus oil to revive cracked rubber - not 
that it happened much with the latest rubbers (2k+). A little alcohol 
cleaner will clean them up usually to get them going again for another 
100 or so pages- usually a lot more :) You can also use a little mag 
polish on the exterior panels of the older ones to remove stubborn marks 
and make them look new again (unless they've gone mediteranean and been 
a bit sunburnt).


Parts (for the old and new - trick is to find a supplier, a quick google 
will do) are a dime a dozen almost - can be touchier on the colour 
printers though, not that the parts on those wear out too quickly: you 
can usually expect 30k out of those parts anyway- a lifetime for those 
printers.


Try and get a printer _designed_ to run 100k before servicing (like 
Kyocera), and you'll buy a new printer before buying a new cartridge 
(possibly). A 1010/1020 did that, I'm not sure what the (descendant) 
newer models are.

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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-31 Thread Daniel Toschläger


Hello
I use a HP LaserJet 1320n from a handicap workshop for some Euros. it 
works great. It is connected via internal LAN with a lot of features. I 
put it into the WLAN via an access point and a switch. No problems so 
far. Can also get connected via USB. ps works just fine.


best regards
Daniel

Am 30.03.2012 17:38, schrieb Karel Miklav:

Could you please recommend me a home printer that works nicely with
FreeBSD?

HP inkjets aren't that bad, FreeBSD drivers are allright, but I'd like
to shift towards some kind of PostScript laser. Xerox Phaser 6500 looks
nice, but I can not economically justify my appetite. Is there a cheaper
alternative or maybe PostScript printers aren't that good idea anyway, heh?

--

Thanks,
Karel
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-31 Thread perryh

Polytropon free...@edvax.de wrote:

 On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:38:36 +0200, Karel Miklav wrote:
  Could you please recommend me a home printer that works nicely
  with FreeBSD?
  
  HP inkjets aren't that bad, FreeBSD drivers are allright, but
  I'd like to shift towards some kind of PostScript laser. Xerox
  Phaser 6500 looks nice ...

 Allow me to mention some things that are worth investing in.

 1. Network connection.
 Don't bother with USB stuff. Buy a printer that offers Ethernet

+1

 and maybe also WLAN,

I personally don't trust wireless, because it's well nigh impossible
to truly secure it.

 2. Standard language.
 Postscript and PCL. Make sure the printer understands at least
 one of them.

or, alternatively, PDF (which some of the newer printers are reputed
to take directly, rather than requiring the host to convert it to PS
or PCL).

 3. Laser printer.
 Don't believe that inkpee printers are genereally cheaper. They
 are not.

+1, especially if used only occasionally.

If I needed a monochrome printer this weekend, I'd head for the
local Fry's where they're advertising the (network  duplex capable)
Samsung ML-2955ND for $80.  I haven't used that model, but it looks
very similar to the (network-capable, but no duplex) ML-2571N that's
been working just fine since I got it a few years ago.

 The only excuse for using them is that you need photo
 quality color prints (requiring the proper paper, too).

I've gotten quite adequate printing of digital-camera photos from
a Xerox Phaser 6130 (about $400 a few years ago IIRC).
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-31 Thread Lino Miklav


On 31.03.2012 00:16, Peter A. Giessel wrote:

On 2012, Mar 30, at 11:17, Warren Block wrote:

It should work with FreeBSD, certainly for text.  For graphics
output, Gutenprint doesn't have a setting specifically for the
6500, but one of the similar printers probably will work.  Don't
expect photo quality, color lasers have to do halftones.


I've requested a test printout, but they claim their 600 x 600 x 16 
technology gives similar results than 1200 dpi inkjets.



It doesn't surprise me that Gutenprint doesn't have a setting
specifically for the 6500 because Xerox provides one:


Uf, I have this idea to only use LPD and filters.


I have a Phaser 6300 (older model), and it has worked well for every
OS that I have thrown at it, including Mac, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD,
iOS, etc.

Echoing others, get a real postscript printer, get a real network printer
(not USB), and get a laser printer (although Thermal Wax would also be
acceptable).


Just got an incredible deal, Xerox Phaser 6280V DN with toners for 2000+ 
pages for 362 EUR. That's exactly the price I've paid for ink in the 
last five years. I think I'll go with this one.


Regards and thanks to everyone who chimed in with a piece of good advice.

Karel
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Julian H. Stacey

Karel Miklav wrote:
 Could you please recommend me a home printer that works nicely with FreeBSD?
 
 HP inkjets aren't that bad, FreeBSD drivers are allright, but I'd like 
 to shift towards some kind of PostScript laser. Xerox Phaser 6500 looks 
 nice, but I can not economically justify my appetite. Is there a cheaper 
 alternative or maybe PostScript printers aren't that good idea anyway, heh?

Postscript printers make [more] sense If:
- Corporate use .. maybe ?
- Trying to offload connected PC CPU (rarely need to for home
  use, now PCs are fast).
- Coms link to printer is slow 
Worst case: I once had a serial cable to a serial 
to parallel converter, then you notice how big PCL data is.
especially if doing own font rendering, not using printer
built in font sets, ( I made my own Russian font sets once).

So now CPU load no longer an issue,  as
these days an ethernet to centronics type converter is cheap, connect
any old PCL laser with centronics (eg my Old HP 4L cost me ~ 3 beers)

Ghostscript converts { PS  PDF etc } to PCL, 
called automatically as a filter from /etc/printcap

I wrote my own filter,
http://berklix.com/~jhs/src/bsd/jhs/bin/local/lpf_vsl/lpf_vsl
before becoming aware there's a standard one:
/usr/ports/print/apsfilter

There's a section in the Handbook about CUPS you should read
For some new HP USB you want certain options in  out of kernel.

Cheers,
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com
 Reply below not above, cumulative like a play script,  indent with  .
 Format: Plain text. Not HTML, multipart/alternative, base64, quoted-printable.
Mail from @yahoo dumped @berklix.  http://berklix.org/yahoo/
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Jerry

On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:14:20 -0400
Mike Jeays articulated:

 I strongly recommend a laser printer over an inkjet even for home
 use. The reduced running costs and better reliability are easily
 worth the lack of colour, IMO. I have used an HP 1020 for three years
 now, and it works fine after three cartridges. I had an inkjet fail
 at the first cartridge change, after I bought new cartridges. (EPSON
 - never again).

I know several students that purchase inexpensive ink-jet printers that
work perfectly. When the ink runs out, they just replace the unit. The
cost is about the same.

I could replace probably four cheap ink-jet units for what it is gong to
cost me just to replace the cartridges in my Brother Laser Color unit.
Then when you factor in the other parts that eventually will need
replacement, it really gets expensive.

-- 
Jerry ♔

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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Polytropon

On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:38:36 +0200, Karel Miklav wrote:
 Could you please recommend me a home printer that works nicely with FreeBSD?
 
 HP inkjets aren't that bad, FreeBSD drivers are allright, but I'd like 
 to shift towards some kind of PostScript laser. Xerox Phaser 6500 looks 
 nice, but I can not economically justify my appetite. Is there a cheaper 
 alternative or maybe PostScript printers aren't that good idea anyway, heh?

Allow me to mention some things that are worth investing in.

1. Network connection.
Don't bother with USB stuff. Buy a printer that offers Ethernet
and maybe also WLAN, this will save you many trouble, and you
are free to put the printer wherever you want.

2. Standard language.
Postscript and PCL. Make sure the printer understands at least
one of them. PCL is very common among HP printers. Regarding
drivers - you don't need them. PS is the default output format
for printing from every application. Printer filter collections
such as apsfilter or CUPS tend to support non-PS printers very
well, and it's quite easy to write your own printer filter (may
even be a one-liner) using ghostscript. There's nothing wrong
with PS because (as I said) you don't need any drivers, but the
data transfer may need some time, and the processing speed
depends on how fast and how good (!) the PS interpreter in the
printer is. In my experience (with the printers I'm going to
mention at the end of this message) PCL is faster.

3. Laser printer.
Don't believe that inkpee printers are genereally cheaper. They
are not. The only excuse for using them is that you need photo
quality color prints (requiring the proper paper, too).

4. Additional functionalities.
Before buying something, ask yourself what you need. Does it
need to have a scanner? Does the scanner part support FreeBSD?
Is there a way to scan to local storage (e. g. USB stick)
in the printer? Does it need a sheet feeder for scan input?
Does it need to scan photo positive/negative films? Does it
need to fax?

I have had good luck with my army of laser printers here.
HP Laserjet II, 4, 4000 duplex, as well as a Samsung color
laserprinter CLX-2160. All this stuff works out of the box.
I don't have any need for inkpee. Photos can be printed at
much better quality at my local drugstore, if I need that.
The printer filters are gs one-liners I wrote myself, because
I speak PCL to the laser printer, and some splix gibberish
using foo2qpdl to the (sadly USB connected) color printer.




-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread RW

On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:14:20 -0400
Mike Jeays wrote:

 I strongly recommend a laser printer over an inkjet even for home
 use. The reduced running costs and better reliability are easily
 worth the lack of colour, IMO. 

How do they compare for light and  occasional use? I'm thinking in
terms of a few pages, a few times a year, so presumably the
consumables become perishables.
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Chris Hill


On Fri, 30 Mar 2012, RW wrote:


On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:14:20 -0400
Mike Jeays wrote:

I strongly recommend a laser printer over an inkjet even for home 
use. The reduced running costs and better reliability are easily 
worth the lack of colour, IMO.


How do they compare for light and occasional use? I'm thinking in 
terms of a few pages, a few times a year, so presumably the 
consumables become perishables.


In exactly that scenario, ink nozzles can dry out, rendering your inkjet 
printer inoperable. I only print every few weeks, and if I had to 
replace ink for every print just because it dried out, I think I might 
become angry. My laser printer works even after months of inactivity.


For the record, I completely agree with Mike. I also would not buy a 
printer that did not speak Postscript. My PS-speaking LaserJet was 
working as fast as I could edit /etc/printcap - no CUPS, no drivers, no 
ghostscript, no filters.


--
Chris Hill   ch...@monochrome.org
** [ Busy Expunging / ]
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RE: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Graeme Dargie

-Original Message-
From: owner-freebsd-questi...@freebsd.org 
[mailto:owner-freebsd-questi...@freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Karel Miklav
Sent: 30 March 2012 16:39
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Printer recommendation please

Could you please recommend me a home printer that works nicely with FreeBSD?

HP inkjets aren't that bad, FreeBSD drivers are allright, but I'd like to shift 
towards some kind of PostScript laser. Xerox Phaser 6500 looks nice, but I can 
not economically justify my appetite. Is there a cheaper alternative or maybe 
PostScript printers aren't that good idea anyway, heh?

--

Thanks,
Karel
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Not exactly conclusive, I have a Dell 1320C with the Ethernet module, and while 
I have never needed to connect it to one of my FreeBSD machines, it would work 
with OS X and CUPS, since then Dell has released an official driver for OS X. 
However I am not sure as to how much use an OS X driver would be for FreeBSD, 
for £90 I am satisfied with its performance.

Regards

Graeme
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RE: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Matt Emmerton

On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:14:20 -0400
 Mike Jeays wrote:
 
  I strongly recommend a laser printer over an inkjet even for home use. 
  The reduced running costs and better reliability are easily worth the 
  lack of colour, IMO.

 How do they compare for light and  occasional use? I'm thinking in terms
of a few pages,
 a few times a year, so presumably the consumables become perishables.

Toner really doesn't go bad, and good laser printers are built to last.  My
first laser printer was an HP LaserJet 5P that my local bank branch was
throwing away in 2003. It ran on its existing toner cartridge for 5 or 6
years under light use - maybe 500 pages per year.

Matt



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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:12:07 -0400, Matt Emmerton wrote:
 Toner really doesn't go bad, and good laser printers are built to last.  My
 first laser printer was an HP LaserJet 5P that my local bank branch was
 throwing away in 2003. It ran on its existing toner cartridge for 5 or 6
 years under light use - maybe 500 pages per year.

Ha, that's nothing!

I _still_ have a fully functional HP Laserjet 4. I got it
in a heavily used state in 1996, and I've never treated it
in a polite way: always quite heavy use. The printer is
still working today, after more than 15 years. It has
been on pause for some years, and right after plugging
it in again, it produced regular quality results. Just
try _that_ with typical home consumer inkpee stuff. :-)

I can't tell you how many pages the printer has done in
its life. The page counter must have encountered an overrun
and now says some 4 digit number which doesn't increase
anymore. So now I can sell it as only few pages printed,
like new... :-)

If durability is interesting, buying a laser printer will
be the right choice. Today's inkpee printers seem to be
the same price as a full ink cartridge refill (or even
lower), creating cheaper devices on one hand (good), but
creating more electronic waste at the other hand (bad).
So if you want to reduce garbage, get a printer that will
serve you for a long time.

When I was at university, there was a student, a rich one
as one could assume: When he had emptied a printer, he
bought a new one, dropping the old one into the garbage
can. He even bought a new printer when he failed to plug
in the one he just bought, and he also bought a new one
when he didn't get the drivers installed of another new
printer. He threw away two (maybe more?) fully functional
printers.

You see, money can compensate stupidity. His educational
result? He got a degree in computer science. :-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Robert Bonomi


RW rwmailli...@googlemail.com wrote:
 Mike Jeays wrote:

  I strongly recommend a laser printer over an inkjet even for home
  use. The reduced running costs and better reliability are easily
  worth the lack of colour, IMO. 

 How do they compare for light and  occasional use? I'm thinking in
 terms of a few pages, a few times a year, so presumably the
 consumables become perishables.

Laser 'consumables' do _not_ suffer problems if the printer is only used
occasionally.  This is, in fact, one of the *BIG* advantaes of lasers 
over inkpee units.  The 'cost per page' of output, at the rated pagecount
is substantially lower for lasers, *AND* you will get the rated pagecount,
even if it takes a decade, or longer.

I've got a low-end laser I bought, *used*, over a decade ago.  I have
-yet- to replace the _used_ toner cartridge that came with the printer.
Print quality is still as good as when I got it.

My 'total cost of ownership' is, so far, around $3/year, and _declining_. 
Or, under two cents per page, _including_ the cost of the hardware.

With inkpee printers you have to print a some pages every couple of weeks
(preferably somewhat more often) or you run a _high_ probability of the
cartridge having gotten 'gummed up', and rendered unusable, *despite* the
amount of ink remaining in it.   In 'lightly used' units, this can result
in a _tripling_ (or more) of the (already high) 'true cost' per page of 
output.

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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Erich Dollansky

Hi,

On Saturday 31 March 2012 11:28:55 Polytropon wrote:
 On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:12:07 -0400, Matt Emmerton wrote:
 
 When I was at university, there was a student, a rich one
 as one could assume: When he had emptied a printer, he
 bought a new one, dropping the old one into the garbage
 can. He even bought a new printer when he failed to plug
 in the one he just bought, and he also bought a new one
 when he didn't get the drivers installed of another new
 printer. He threw away two (maybe more?) fully functional
 printers.

I know a person who did this too. But for the purpose of saving money. It was 
during a time when new printers with refill have been cheaper than the refill. 
This guy actually saved money and has had the latest model.

I do not know if the pricing is still this strange.

Erich
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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Erich Dollansky

Hi,

On Saturday 31 March 2012 11:12:07 Matt Emmerton wrote:
 On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:14:20 -0400
  Mike Jeays wrote:
  
   I strongly recommend a laser printer over an inkjet even for home use. 
   The reduced running costs and better reliability are easily worth the 
   lack of colour, IMO.
 
  How do they compare for light and  occasional use? I'm thinking in terms
 of a few pages,
  a few times a year, so presumably the consumables become perishables.
 
 Toner really doesn't go bad, and good laser printers are built to last.  My
 first laser printer was an HP LaserJet 5P that my local bank branch was
 throwing away in 2003. It ran on its existing toner cartridge for 5 or 6
 years under light use - maybe 500 pages per year.

yes, take a laser. Inkjets just dry out before the next use. You need then to 
take some time to fix it. I have had only one in my life. I thought it was a 
good buy until I realised this problem.

My first laser printer was a IIP running for at least a decade until the 
electronics gave way. I just realised that I have had no laser printer failing 
mechanically.

The problem might will be to find a cheap one which works with FreeBSD. Friends 
bought the cheapest Samsung AIO. It did not give them any problems running 
Linux.

Erich
 
 Matt
 
 
 
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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-03 Thread perryh

Michel Talon ta...@lpthe.jussieu.fr wrote:

 If you want to avoid such problems the only solution is to buy
 a printer with postscript or pdf support and direct network
 connection, that is an expensive one ...

I've been using a Samsung ML-2571N for something like a couple of
years now.  It has a direct net connection, supports PostScript,
directly supports both lpd and Bonjour (Mac) protocols, and cost
something like $60 or $70 (US) at Fry's.  Granted that was a sale
price -- regular was probably around $100 -- but even $100 does
not seem all that expensive.

I don't see the ML-2571N on frys.com today -- the closest is the
ML-2545 ($70, I think it uses the same engine but without network
support and may not have PostScript).  If I were choosing from
today's Fry's list, I would probably pick the ML-2955ND ($130) which
does duplexing.  (They also have wireless models, but I would not
trust wireless unless the printer and all its clients were inside
a Faraday cage :)

And no, I don't work for either Fry's or Samsung.
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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-03 Thread Bill Tillman

From: Da Rock freebsd-questi...@herveybayaustralia.com.au
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 
Sent: Friday, March 2, 2012 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: Brother Printer

On 03/02/12 23:57, Michel Talon wrote:
 On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:40:21 +1000 Da Rock wrote:
 Are you sure its just a script? Any clue as to what shell it is using?
 Bash? I do believe there should be some binaries there somewhere as well.
 Yes im sure. I have a ppd File, they linked
 to /usr/local/libexec/brlpdwrapperMFC730 and thats a shell scipt.

 I just went to the Brother site and downloaded a cups driver from here. It is 
 not exactly
 the same as yours, it is for the MFC7320 but for sure there is a shell script 
 plus a binary.
 called brcupsconfig3, which is called in the shell script called 
 cupswrapperMFC7320-2.0.2.

 The binary is
 niobe% file brcupsconfig3
 brcupsconfig3: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), 
 dynamically linked (uses shared libs),
 for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, not stripped

 So at best you can hope to run it with Linux emulation. Personally i have an 
 Epson dot printer
 and it is the same, the Linux driver contains binary blobs and cannot be run 
 under FreeBSD.

 If you want to  avoid such problems the only solution is to buy a printer 
 with postscript
 or pdf support and direct network connection, that is an expensive one. Here 
 at the lab we are very happy
 with Xerox sublimation models (i think it is an evolution of the old 
 Tektronix phaser)
 for doing color prints. In particular the use costs are low, much lower than 
 with color laser printers,
 in par with black and white laser printers.
 But if you want to produce nice photographic prints, unfortunately you have 
 to rely on good
 epson dot printers or similar, which means FreeBSD is excluded, unfortunately.
How good are the sublimation printers? When I was at Xerox, the C410 produced 
brilliant photographic prints and it was laser; I'd expect better from the 
subs. I'm also surprised epson doesn't work.

As to this brother problem, I've also heard from Robert, so this also 
influences this discussion.

Could it be possible to run the binaries under linuxulator? Don't port it as 
such. The whole premise of cups is a pipeline, so this should work surely? 
Forget compiling and run it all under linuxulator - main program _and_ .so. I 
considered this before with other printers.
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I'm just a cheap, lazy hack and when faced with a similar problem with my 
Brother Laser printer I opted for the cheap, lazy way out. I plugged the 
printer into a USB port, installed Ghostsctipt (free), made a simple printer 
filter file which redirected the PS input to ghostscript, setup the needed 
spooling directories under /var and installed lpd with the -w switch so it 
would take print jobs from wireless laptops which are running on another router 
in my home. Then on each Windows workstation and my son's Mac book, we 
installed a simple PS printer, on the Windows machines I had to install Unix 
Printing Services, then directed these printers to lpr port on my FreeBSD 
server. It works without CUPS, without Samba, it just works. I don't know if 
ghostscript would have a compatible driver for your model of printer but it 
didn't have one for mine either. I just found one that was compatible and it's 
been working now for several years without any hassles.
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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-03 Thread Jerry

On Sat, 3 Mar 2012 04:03:52 -0800 (PST)
Bill Tillman articulated:

 I'm just a cheap, lazy hack and when faced with a similar problem
 with my Brother Laser printer I opted for the cheap, lazy way out. I
 plugged the printer into a USB port, installed Ghostsctipt (free),
 made a simple printer filter file which redirected the PS input to
 ghostscript, setup the needed spooling directories under /var and
 installed lpd with the -w switch so it would take print jobs from
 wireless laptops which are running on another router in my home. Then
 on each Windows workstation and my son's Mac book, we installed a
 simple PS printer, on the Windows machines I had to install Unix
 Printing Services, then directed these printers to lpr port on my
 FreeBSD server. It works without CUPS, without Samba, it just works.
 I don't know if ghostscript would have a compatible driver for your
 model of printer but it didn't have one for mine either. I just found
 one that was compatible and it's been working now for several years
 without any hassles.

I had an acquaintance who described something similar to me a few years
ago. It is amazing how, if one is willing to do a little investigation,
how to bypass FreeBSD's horrific printer support and actually get
something printed without pulling you hair out. Although it is
certainly not as easy as turning on the printer, having the PC find its
wireless IP address and just print to it (I doubt that FBSD will ever
achieve that level of sophistication) it beats banging your head
against a wall for days trying to achieve a simple level of usability.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324078
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457002.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb463212.aspx

-- 
Jerry ♔

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Brother Printer

Hello,


i use a Brother MFC-7320 printer at a vodafone Box. The printer can used 
with the adress lpd://192.168.0.2/MFC7320. I copied the Linux driver and 
adapted, but unfortunately, the printer would not work on FreeBSD. On 
Windows and Gentoo, there are no problems.

Has someone run the Brother Printer MFC-7320 and can share the way?


Regards
Silvio
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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-02 Thread Da Rock


On 03/02/12 21:25, siefke_lis...@web.de wrote:

Hello,


i use a Brother MFC-7320 printer at a vodafone Box. The printer can used
with the adress lpd://192.168.0.2/MFC7320. I copied the Linux driver and
adapted, but unfortunately, the printer would not work on FreeBSD. On
Windows and Gentoo, there are no problems.

Has someone run the Brother Printer MFC-7320 and can share the way?

Unfortunately according to openprinting this printer is a paperweight :)

Thats using foomatic. It may be possible to use the linuxulator to run 
the linux filters, but it maybe more trouble than its worth. You need to 
ensure the elf is set right in the binaries.

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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-02 Thread Jerry

On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 12:25:43 +0100
siefke_lis...@web.de articulated:

 i use a Brother MFC-7320 printer at a vodafone Box. The printer can
 used with the adress lpd://192.168.0.2/MFC7320. I copied the Linux
 driver and adapted, but unfortunately, the printer would not work on
 FreeBSD. On Windows and Gentoo, there are no problems.
 
 Has someone run the Brother Printer MFC-7320 and can share the way?

I have an MFC-9560CDW that works (somewhat) but it needs CUPS
installed. Even then it doesn't work with a program that does
not offer an LPR print option.

The fact that it works under Windows is not surprising. Printing under
Windows just works. There is a movement towards that goal now in
progress for now-Windows based systems. See
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
for further details.

Brother does supply print drivers for Linux; however (and I have
checked), they have no intention of writing ones for other operating
systems. I have spend some time trying to port those drivers to BSD;
however, I just don't have the necessary time required to complete the
project. This is where a paid entity or organization to accomplish
such a task would be of immeasurable use.

-- 
Jerry ♔

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Re: Brother Printer

Hello,

On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 06:52:20 -0500 Jerry wrote:
 I have an MFC-9560CDW that works (somewhat) but it needs CUPS
 installed. Even then it doesn't work with a program that does
 not offer an LPR print option.

I installed cups. The printer is created but also, and the Linux drivers are
also found. But he refuses to print. I would say this is due to the shell 
script.
 
 The fact that it works under Windows is not surprising. Printing under
 Windows just works. There is a movement towards that goal now in
 progress for now-Windows based systems. See
 http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
 for further details.

It is clear under Windows would be running a cow with no effort. :)


 Brother does supply print drivers for Linux; however (and I have
 checked), they have no intention of writing ones for other operating
 systems. I have spend some time trying to port those drivers to BSD;
 however, I just don't have the necessary time required to complete the
 project. This is where a paid entity or organization to accomplish
 such a task would be of immeasurable use.

Yes it's true. I asked if Brother can not create a PPD file, without the 
junction with the shell scripts. Until now has not answered Brother.


Regards
Silvio
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Re: Brother Printer

On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:40:20 +1000 Da Rock wrote:
 On 03/02/12 21:25, siefke_lis...@web.de wrote:
 Unfortunately according to openprinting this printer is a paperweight :)

Yes, but he does his service reliably and inexpensively, and my duty cycle is
not small.
 
 Thats using foomatic. It may be possible to use the linuxulator to run 
 the linux filters, but it maybe more trouble than its worth. You need to 
 ensure the elf is set right in the binaries.

The filters are just shell scripts. I have this as far as it adjusted. The
four programs are available on BSD. Do not understand why this will not run.

I find annoying. If you have a great operating system, and must again be
annoyed by vendors. I've tested enough and Linux systems on my Pentium 4
computer, FreeBSD and Gentoo are the best choice.

Always make any one a spanner in the works. How can we be satisfied?

Regards
Silvio
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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-02 Thread Da Rock


On 03/02/12 22:15, siefke_lis...@web.de wrote:

Hello,

On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 06:52:20 -0500 Jerry wrote:

I have an MFC-9560CDW that works (somewhat) but it needs CUPS
installed. Even then it doesn't work with a program that does
not offer an LPR print option.

I installed cups. The printer is created but also, and the Linux drivers are
also found. But he refuses to print. I would say this is due to the shell
script.
Are you sure its just a script? Any clue as to what shell it is using? 
Bash? I do believe there should be some binaries there somewhere as well.


Do you know what printer language it is using? This was mostly obscured 
on the net, but I presume GDI.


You also may have some success using another similar driver (trial and 
error though).

The fact that it works under Windows is not surprising. Printing under
Windows just works. There is a movement towards that goal now in
progress for now-Windows based systems. See
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
for further details.

It is clear under Windows would be running a cow with no effort. :)

Love this response :D

Brother does supply print drivers for Linux; however (and I have
checked), they have no intention of writing ones for other operating
systems. I have spend some time trying to port those drivers to BSD;
however, I just don't have the necessary time required to complete the
project. This is where a paid entity or organization to accomplish
such a task would be of immeasurable use.

Yes it's true. I asked if Brother can not create a PPD file, without the
junction with the shell scripts. Until now has not answered Brother.
You'll be lucky if you get an answer, but it will invariably be no. 
Piss off, its not worth our time.


Its always hard to give up on a piece of hardware that _should_ work. 
Depends how hard you want to work to get it to operate: you can probably 
get one of those old pdp systems they've mentioned here recently to run 
FreeBSD, but it will take a lot of work :) But you do have a lot of help 
here...

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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-02 Thread Jerry

On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 13:15:54 +0100
siefke_lis...@web.de articulated:

 On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 06:52:20 -0500 Jerry wrote:
  I have an MFC-9560CDW that works (somewhat) but it needs CUPS
  installed. Even then it doesn't work with a program that does
  not offer an LPR print option.
 
 I installed cups. The printer is created but also, and the Linux
 drivers are also found. But he refuses to print. I would say this is
 due to the shell script.

Turn up error logging in CUPS, restart it and see what the log file
says. Does it even print a test page? Does the printer even eject a
blank page?

  Brother does supply print drivers for Linux; however (and I have
  checked), they have no intention of writing ones for other operating
  systems. I have spend some time trying to port those drivers to BSD;
  however, I just don't have the necessary time required to complete
  the project. This is where a paid entity or organization to
  accomplish such a task would be of immeasurable use.
 
 Yes it's true. I asked if Brother can not create a PPD file, without
 the junction with the shell scripts. Until now has not answered
 Brother.

The do for several models. I am not sure if yours is included.

-- 
Jerry ♔

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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-02 Thread Da Rock


On 03/02/12 23:13, siefke_lis...@web.de wrote:

Hello,

On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:40:21 +1000 Da Rock wrote:

Are you sure its just a script? Any clue as to what shell it is using?
Bash? I do believe there should be some binaries there somewhere as well.

Yes im sure. I have a ppd File, they linked
to /usr/local/libexec/brlpdwrapperMFC730 and thats a shell scipt.

Bash, its start with #! /bin/sh.


Do you know what printer language it is using? This was mostly obscured
on the net, but I presume GDI.

Yes the printer use GDI. I have try other Brother Printer Driver, but thats
most end in empty letter print without end.



You'll be lucky if you get an answer, but it will invariably be no.
Piss off, its not worth our time.

That makes me really angry. I understand it even if software companies keep
your code closed, every programmer has to eat too. But why not give hardware
manufacturers enough information so that other programmers can assemble a
capable driver, is beyond my understanding.
Same with most hardware- makes no sense whatsoever. But thats the 
ridiculous world we live in where greedy nutters rule the roost and 
demand every last blood soaked dollar in the twisted name of 
intellectual property.

Its always hard to give up on a piece of hardware that _should_ work.
Depends how hard you want to work to get it to operate: you can probably
get one of those old pdp systems they've mentioned here recently to run
FreeBSD, but it will take a lot of work :) But you do have a lot of help
here...

I know FreeBSD now for 4 years. I started on my servers, then I am also
change the Ubuntu Desktop (shame) to Freebsd. Only now I have
installed Gentoo, because FreeBSD will not run some programms.
Gentoo comes very close to Freebsd. The community from FreeBSD
is really the best i see. The community of Freebsd share the knowledge,
without making to smart.
The lists are so vastly different, and for FreeBSD they're really quite 
welcoming as opposed to being narky and flammable. Desktop usage on 
FreeBSD has also greatly improved; I've been using FreeBSD for about 5 
years now on laptops as well, and have rid myself of linux for the past 
2. For servers I've been using it a lot longer.

PS. When u want see the scripts i can send it. Its really all shell scripts.
That might be interesting to see as I'm surprised there are no binaries 
at all. Might be able to figure out a solution too...

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Re: Brother Printer

2012-03-02 Thread Michel Talon

On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:40:21 +1000 Da Rock wrote:
 Are you sure its just a script? Any clue as to what shell it is using? 
 Bash? I do believe there should be some binaries there somewhere as well.

Yes im sure. I have a ppd File, they linked
to /usr/local/libexec/brlpdwrapperMFC730 and thats a shell scipt. 

I just went to the Brother site and downloaded a cups driver from here. It is 
not exactly
the same as yours, it is for the MFC7320 but for sure there is a shell script 
plus a binary.
called brcupsconfig3, which is called in the shell script called 
cupswrapperMFC7320-2.0.2.

The binary is 
niobe% file brcupsconfig3 
brcupsconfig3: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), 
dynamically linked (uses shared libs), 
for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, not stripped

So at best you can hope to run it with Linux emulation. Personally i have an 
Epson dot printer
and it is the same, the Linux driver contains binary blobs and cannot be run 
under FreeBSD.

If you want to  avoid such problems the only solution is to buy a printer with 
postscript
or pdf support and direct network connection, that is an expensive one. Here at 
the lab we are very happy
with Xerox sublimation models (i think it is an evolution of the old Tektronix 
phaser)
for doing color prints. In particular the use costs are low, much lower than 
with color laser printers,
in par with black and white laser printers.
But if you want to produce nice photographic prints, unfortunately you have to 
rely on good
epson dot printers or similar, which means FreeBSD is excluded, unfortunately.


--

Michel Talon
ta...@lpthe.jussieu.fr





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Re: Brother Printer