foomatic-db-engine for Debian
-----------------------------
The structure of the OpenPrinting (foomatic) printer configuration system in
Debian (and upstream) consists of 3 core packages:
* foomatic-db: Contains the foomatic printer database, split in
openprinting-ppds and openprinting-ppds-extra.
* foomatic-db-engine (this package): Contains the foomatic-configure script.
* foomatic-filters: Contains the filter scripts for various backend
printing systems.
If you want a GUI to configure your printer, you may want to try
* system-config-printer and system-config-printer-kde, which are printer
configuration tools integrated in GNOME and KDE system configuration tools
** How to configure a queue manually **
The command "foomatic-configure" handles this. Set up the queue as follows:
foomatic-configure -n <queue-name> -N <description> -L <location>
-c <connection> -p <printer> -d <driver> -s <spooler>
where:
queue-name: What you want the queue to be called.
description: A human-readable description of the queue.
location: The physical location of the printer.
connection: How the printer is connected. e.g.:
Parallel port: file:/dev/lp0
USB port: file:/dev/usb/lp0
IPP/CUPS: ipp://printserver.example.org/printers/lj4500
Samba/Windows: smb://WORKGROUP/PC/Canon
JetDirect: socket://jetdirect.example.org:9100/
printer: The printer database name. Generally:
Manufacturer_Model-Name
driver: The driver backend to use. For most modern printers, one of:
hpijs (if you have foomatic-db installed)
gutenprint (if you have foomatic-db-gutenprint installed)
Postscript
Your best bet on these two items is looking them up in the database at
OpenPrinting (http://www.openprinting.org/) or looking through the
XML files in /usr/share/foomatic/db/source/printer/
spooler: one of: cups, lpd, lprng, ppd, direct, ppr, pdq, gnulpr
(You can omit the -s option and it will try to guess.)
** Notes for CUPS users **
IMPORTANT: If your printer filter is not working (dumping raw
PostScript to the printer) immediately after setting up a queue with
foomatic-configure, you may need to reload the CUPS daemon. e.g. use:
# invoke-rc.d cups reload
-- Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org>, Tue Jul 1 19:15:43 2003
Updated by:
-- Didier Raboud <didier@raboud.com> Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:36:27 +0200