How to add a remote printer in linux

[frederick hannah]

Does anyone know how to add a host printer to a remote system via command line? I have used several commands/options but not only doesnt the printer not dq, it drops to a "disabled" state when I try to print to it.

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Shalom,

http://redhat.activeventure.com/71/customizationguide/printconf-smb-printer.html

http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/2001-October/029487.html

More:
http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/classicalprinting.html

http://tldp.org/LDP/lame/LAME/linux-admin-made-easy/samba-file-and-print.html

SEP

[frederick hannah]

No, Samba is not involved in this issue. I want to use lpadmin to add a host printer to a remote server. Is there a command for this effort?

[Matti_Kurkela]

What is the model of the printer and how is it connected to the remote host?

CUPS specifies printer connections by a device URI: exactly what device URI are you trying?

The fact that the printer drops to a "disabled" state might indicate the queue has been successfully configured at the CUPS level, but the printer does not respond as expected.
Do you see the disabled state at the CUPS level, or at the actual printer itself?

Possible reasons:
- no connectivity/wrong device URI (printer is not connected where you think it is)
- permissions problem (if the printer is directly connected to the remote host, the parallel/serial/USB port has permissions that prevent cupsd from accessing it)
- incorrect PPD chosen (causing the CUPS to apply an inappropriate conversion to the data to be printed)

If it is a networked printer, the network connection from the remote host to the printer may be blocked by a firewall, or you selected a network printing protocol that is either disabled or not supported at the printer side.

The error messages in the CUPS error log (of the remote system) would probably help a great deal in understanding what is wrong.
Most likely the log is at /var/log/cups/error_log,

MK

[frederick hannah]

cups]# lpstat -t | grep faxprnt
device for faxprnt: lpd://jeafaxgw1.corp.jea.com/faxprnt
faxprnt accepting requests since Thu 30 Jul 2009 03:13:22 PM EDT
printer faxprnt disabled since Thu 30 Jul 2009 03:13:22 PM EDT -

The above is what I am seeing. "faxprnt" is not a physical server, but a means from customers on the local server to use the services of remote printer server: jeafaxgw1.

[Matti_Kurkela]

So you're using LPD protocol to send print jobs to jeafaxgw1.
LPD uses TCP port 515.

What happens if you run this command on your Linux host:

telnet jeafaxgw1.corp.jea.com 515

If the telnet command says "Connection established", the basic connectivity is probably OK. (You may have to press Ctrl-] and then type "close" to disconnect the telnet command in this case.)

But if telnet says "Connection refused by the remote host" or hangs a while and then says "Connection timed out", there is a connectivity problem. That would explain why the printer queue becomes disabled: the CUPS printing daemon cannot connect to jeafaxgw1.

Perhaps there is a firewall that does not allow access, or some other network problem.

The jeafaxgw1 device might even have an access control list of IP addresses that can send pages to it. If this is the case, you must get your system added to the list to be able to use the printer.

MK

[frederick hannah]

Gents, I am still working this issue. If you care to still communicate with me, great. I am attempting to use lpadmin to add this server to print queue. If not, I will close this session EOD tomorrow. Either way, thanks for your support.

[skt_skt]

"disabled" state from lpsatt is same as "stoped printer" from CUPS' GUI.

under GUI there is an option for 'set rpinter options` for each queue and default error policy is "stop printer" . this bring the queue disabled under error conditions.

[frederick hannah]

I know I am making this more complicated than it is. I want to set up a print queue that will "route" output to a windows print server:

"remote to: on "

[frederick hannah]

thanks for everyone's participation