Printing with CUPS (Linux, BSD, UNIX)

In our VLANs, we announce a subset of our printers with Cups. In those networks, you could install Cups without configuring printers. In other places, you should prefere printing over LPR as described in Printing with LPR (Linux, BSD, UNIX).

You just need to install CUPS base installation and BSD compatibilty commands from your distribution - with Debian GNU/Linux apt-get install cups cups-bsd is enough.

Change the Cups configuration (typically in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf) as following:

Browsing On
Printcap /etc/printcap

Now (re-)start cupsys with /etc/init.d/cups restart and watch /var/log/cups/error.log. You should see entrys like:

I [13/Feb/2004:17:10:39 +0100] Added remote printer “hpt_d17”…

Now you see all available printers in /etc/printcap and can use them with the command

lpr -Phpt_d17 <filename>

See also How to use lpr for details on lpr command line usage.

Printer configuration and state may be checked on https://printer.phys.ethz.ch/. Feel free to contact us in case you like to get a printer in the CUPS environement.

Most applications get the printers without your intervention.

If KDE doesn't show you the printers, you need to switch KDE to use CUPS. In any printing dialog press the Options button at the lower left corner of the dialog box:

Then choose CUPS as printing system: