10.3: Print to a remote CUPS server
Jan 19, '04 11:22:00AM
Contributed by: biglug
In Panther, it can be difficult to print to a remote CUPS server. This is because Panther runs CUPS as its own print engine, and will attempt to render the PostScript for you once you select your correct printer driver. It will then send the rendered file to the remote CUPS server. The remote CUPS server will then try to render the already rendered file and will give a no_file error. The work-around is to make one end of the chain a 'raw' printer.
The Solution:
Make the printer on the mac into a 'raw' printer. Here's how:
- Open a webbrowser and go to http://127.0.0.1:631/. This is a front end to the printer admin, Apple's 'Printer Setup Utility' is just a front end to the same place. However Apple have not included every option. Like making a raw printer.*
- Click the 'Printers' link. This will give you a list of currently installed printers on your Mac.
- Have you already created the printer? If not click the 'Add Printer' button and enter a name for the printer. The name must only be made up of printable characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _, no spaces!)..
- If you have already created the printer, click 'Modify Printer'
- Set a printer description. The description will be in your Print settings when you print and it can contain spaces. Click Continue.
- On the next screen select 'Internet Printing Protocol (ipp)' and press 'Continue'.
- Enter the device URI. This will look like ipp://1.2.3.4/printers/queue_name, where 1.2.3.4 is the IP (or the address) of the print server. Check with your sysadmin if you're not sure. If you created the printer with Apple's 'Printer Setup Utility', you'll need to change the /ipp/ to /printers/ at this point (Apple seem to be redefining standards ... grrr ... M$). Click Continue.
- Select 'Raw' from the list. Click Continue
- Select 'Raw Queue (en)' (or anything else if you have other languages) and Click Continue.
- Your printer is now set up and will be in the list of Shared Printers when you go to print.
So what's the problem? We need to use the web interface to set this printer up because Apple (in their wisdom) have decided not to include Raw printing in their setup. Because we have to set up the printer in this manner, it will appear in our print settings as a 'Shared' printer and thus cannot be the default printer (if you know of a way to get it back into the list of local printers, please post in the comments). This means you have to select it every time. If you find some way to select Raw from Apple's Printer Setup Utility, please post it in the comments.
Comments (13)
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040101194202284