Thanks for the write-up Stewart, very useful for a non-admin home user like me.
John. > > ---------- Original Message ---------- > From: "Stewart C. Russell via talk" <[email protected]> > Date: June 1, 2020 at 12:20 PM > > > On 2020-06-01 10:14 a.m., Christopher Browne via talk wrote: > > > > But I had gotten myself accustomed to the impression that > > "with CUPS, It Just Works(tm)", so colour me surprised. > > > > Has Microsoft pushed back to try to get WinPrinters back to be a > > thing? > > I don't think so. Since all printers (except cheap USB-only disposable > ones) need to print over wireless from an iPad/iPhone, it's got much > simpler. Different, yes, but simpler for the user. > > I've got a 2012-vintage Epson WorkForce WF7520 large-format inkjet AiO. > It supports wireless and IPP v1.0. I've also got a 2019 Brother > MFC-L2750DW. It supports wireless and AirPrint (aka IPP v2.0, pretty > much). Both are auto-discovered by all my (non-embedded) Linux systems, > and I don't need any drivers. The entire installation process of the > Brother went like this: > > 1) unpack from box; > 2) remove packing materials; > 3) install toner and paper; > 4) plug in power; > 5) join wireless network from front panel. > > By the time I got downstairs from where I'd installed the printer, all > the computers in the house had found the new printer and added it as a > device. This includes an Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu laptop, a couple of > Macs, a Windows 10 machine, two Raspberry Pis and an iPad. The only > thing that needed a little work was my Android phone, but that wasn't > any more than "Find printer" then say yes to the Brother printer driver. > > All of this is made possible by three technologies: > > 1) CUPS > 2) Bonjour (mDNS/DNS-SD, typically Avahi under Linux) > 3) IPP > > Bonjour announces that the printer's there, IPP negotiates the printer's > capabilities, and CUPS sends the data in the right format. If even one > of these three is missing, it's endless fighting and pain. > > The Debian packages I have on my desktop system(s) that enable this are: > > avahi-autoipd avahi-daemon avahi-utils cups > cups-browsed cups-bsd cups-client cups-common > cups-core-drivers cups-daemon cups-filters > cups-filters-core-drivers cups-ipp-utils cups-pk-helper > cups-ppdc cups-server-common printer-driver-cups-pdf > printer-driver-gutenprint system-config-printer > system-config-printer-common system-config-printer-udev > > Most of these are installed automatically. I think I had to add > cups-ipp-utils, system-config-printer and (oddly) cups to make this work > seamlessly on the Raspberry Pis. > > * I don't strictly need avahi-autoipd and avahi-utils; the Raspberry Pis > do fine without them. > > * cups-bsd is only needed if your fingers automatically type 'lpr -P' > instead of 'lp -d', as mine do. > > * printer-driver-cups-pdf isn't necessary, but gives you print to PDF > from everywhere. Since CUPS puts every print job into PDF anyway, this > is just a *really* fancy wrapper around 'cat'. > > * printer-driver-gutenprint gives a bit more control to colour printing > for those rare times I need things to be really fiddly. I could do > without for 99% of print jobs. > > All the above did pretty much require me to forget everything I thought > I knew about printer admin. I'm glad I don't need that any more. > > cheers, > Stewart > > --- > Post to this mailing list [email protected] > Unsubscribe from this mailing list > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk >
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