Printer support

[stream]

Went ahead and ordered an HP network laser printer..

In the meantime, I have been fiddling with raspberry pi- tried couple of different operating systems- Arch linux, and Raspbian. Even though it is Debian based, the Canon driver did not install, because they are meant for x86 only, darn the pi are Arm chips!

I also got another Canon printer MG5620 this is a wireless color inkjet. I did manage to get this working with the Pi print server. Gutenprint has some drivers for this printer, and installation was easy. During installation, the Cups interface detected both the USB and the Network printer, and I chose the USB option, and the share-printer options.

Now am trying to print to this network printer on my Freebsd client machine. Unfortunately, the localhost Cups does not detect the printer. During installation, the network printer shows nothing! I can ping to the Pi server just fine.

Can the the experts here point me all the steps involved to get network printing up and running. I tried the online handbook/doc. That didnt work, I maybe doing something wrong. To recap, I'd like to print from freebsd 11 into the printer hosted in a raspbery pi print server, running raspbian.

 

[ralphbsz]

With lpr/lpd this is easy: Configure lpd on the Raspbian Pi as usual, then in /etc/printcap on your "client" FreeBSD machine you just need the fields rm and rp; set them to the host name of the Raspian server and the queue name on that server. I don't know how to do it with Cups though.

 

[stream]

With lpr/lpd this is easy: Configure lpd on the Raspbian Pi as usual, then in /etc/printcap on your "client" FreeBSD machine you just need the fields rm and rp; set them to the host name of the Raspian server and the queue name on that server. I don't know how to do it with Cups though.

Unfortunately, I still don't have any luck with the ras-pi print server setup. Can you provide a concrete example of lpr/lpd. How do you setup lpd on the pi? I didn't find any online examples- they all seem to be cups based. And FreeBSD cups web site just does not list the network shared printer!

Also, my /etc/printcap follows the example laid out in http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/lpdprinting.html.
Am not sure that entirely applies here, because it assumes that the printer can accept raw data format. Do you suggest I do anything different?

lp:\
        :lp=:\
        :sh:\
        :mx#0:\
        :rm=192.168.1.33:\
        :rp=raw:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:\
        :lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:

 

[ralphbsz]

How do you setup lpd on the pi?

It seems that Raspbian (=Debian) no longer ships lpr/lpd by default. There is no lpd at all. And all the other lp* utilities are part of cups. Probably would have to first apt-get an lpr/lpd package. A quick web search (60 seconds) didn't even find any supported version of lpd for Debian any longer. Oops; maybe my advice to try lpr/lpd is not feasible, if Raspbian/Debian no longer supports it.

[BGCOLOR=transparent]I didn't find any online examples- they all seem to be cups based.[/BGCOLOR]

Here is a printcap stanza for a remote printer that uses lpd:

hp2055dn:\
        :lp=:\
        :rm=hp2055:rp=AUTO:\
        :sd=/var/spool/output/hp2055dn:\
        :lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:\
        :sh:

Am not sure that entirely applies here, because it assumes that the printer can accept raw data format.

Why do you say that? The "rp" string in here is name of the remote print queue, not the data format.

 

[bxbzq]

I'm looking for solution to set up a canon iR2420 network printer in my office using either CUPS or lpd and this thread comes up.
Using CUPS, OP actually went further than I do as I couldn't find the pstoufr2cpca file, after looking for it on internet for half a day. I also tried to install cnrdrvcups-ufr2-uk-5.30-1.x86_64.rpm on my BSD machine and an ubuntu WSL platform, but the said file just isn't there. Maybe the installation isn't successful but I'm not sure as there was no sufficient info to tell.
Is there still some hope?

 

[shepper]

bxbzq

In a nutshell, when you click print in an application, it generates a Postscript file that is feed through a spooler to the printer. If the Canon iR2420 was Postscript (*.ps) capable it would print it.
According to Canon's Spec sheet under page description language:
https://www.canon.com.cy/for_work/p...ack_white/imagerunner_2420/specification.html

Page Description Language(s) UFRII-LT(Standard)

In order for you to print, Postscript needs to be filtered through a program, prior to the spooler, that changes *.ps to URFII-LT.
URFII-LT is proprietary and not open source. Canon does provide Linux drivers but NO FreeBSD driver. You may be able to use it by installing Linux emulation in FreeBSD but IMHO, that is a complex/bloated approach.

 

[tuxador]

I'm looking for solution to set up a canon iR2420 network printer in my office using either CUPS or lpd and this thread comes up.
Using CUPS, OP actually went further than I do as I couldn't find the pstoufr2cpca file, after looking for it on internet for half a day. I also tried to install cnrdrvcups-ufr2-uk-5.30-1.x86_64.rpm on my BSD machine and an ubuntu WSL platform, but the said file just isn't there. Maybe the installation isn't successful but I'm not sure as there was no sufficient info to tell.
Is there still some hope?

Normally the image runner 2420 does support apple's airprint. So using **ippeverywhere** with cusp should work out of the box.

 

[decuser]

... and I thought my Brother MFC-8670DN was painful to set up - but at least it supports postscript, has a ppd that works, has ipp, and once you get it configured, works flawlessly since like 2008.

 

[gpw928]

It seems that Raspbian (=Debian) no longer ships lpr/lpd by default. There is no lpd at all. And all the other lp* utilities are part of cups. Probably would have to first apt-get an lpr/lpd package. A quick web search (60 seconds) didn't even find any supported version of lpd for Debian any longer. Oops; maybe my advice to try lpr/lpd is not feasible, if Raspbian/Debian no longer supports it.

It's available on Buster:

[pi4.566] $ uname -a
Linux pi4 5.10.17-v7l+ #1403 SMP Mon Feb 22 11:33:35 GMT 2021 armv7l GNU/Linux
[pi4.567] $ cat /etc/debian_version
10.9
[pi4.568] $ apt-cache search lpd | grep "^lpr"
lpr - BSD lpr/lpd line printer spooling system
lprng - lpr/lpd printer spooling system
lprng-doc - lpr/lpd printer spooling system (documentation)

 

[gpw928]

bxbzq
In order for you to print, Postscript needs to be filtered through a program, prior to the spooler, that changes *.ps to URFII-LT.
URFII-LT is proprietary and not open source. Canon does provide Linux drivers but NO FreeBSD driver. You may be able to use it by installing Linux emulation in FreeBSD but IMHO, that is a complex/bloated approach.

The latest CUPS Linux drivers for the Canon imageRUNNER 2420 support X86 and ARM.

As well as the common Linux packages, there is source code with "a CUPS filter module to convert a CUPS raster file into the UFR2/LIPSLX/UFR2 LT/CARPS2 printer readable form". So, with some effort, it may be possible to port it to FreeBSD.

So the plausible options are:

• a hardware Linux print server (if you buy a Pi4, get a CNC milled passively cooled case);
• a virtual Linux print server; or
• port the CUPS filter to FreeBSD.

 

[bxbzq]

bxbzq

In a nutshell, when you click print in an application, it generates a Postscript file that is feed through a spooler to the printer. If the Canon iR2420 was Postscript (*.ps) capable it would print it.
According to Canon's Spec sheet under page description language:
https://www.canon.com.cy/for_work/p...ack_white/imagerunner_2420/specification.html



In order for you to print, Postscript needs to be filtered through a program, prior to the spooler, that changes *.ps to URFII-LT.
URFII-LT is proprietary and not open source. Canon does provide Linux drivers but NO FreeBSD driver. You may be able to use it by installing Linux emulation in FreeBSD but IMHO, that is a complex/bloated approach.

I have zero experience with linux emulator but I followed the instructions in the handbook and went as far as # rpm2cpio < ~/cnrdrvcups-ufr2-uk-5.30-1.x86_64.rpm | cpio -id. The message from shell is 148009 blocks. I don't find the filter file pstoufr2cpca.
By the way, not sure if it's relevant, but the /etc/rc.d/ABI doesn't seem exist on my system. No idea why.

 

[bxbzq]

Normally the image runner 2420 does support apple's airprint. So using **ippeverywhere** with cusp should work out of the box.

You mind sharing more? Obviously this ippeverywhere is not a port or pkg. Is it a script? How do I find and use it? Instructions would be great.