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- foomatic-db-engine for Debian
- -----------------------------
-
- Note that the structure of the OpenPrinting (foomatic) printer
- configuration system in Debian (and upstream) has changed from the 2.0
- series. There are 3 core packages:
-
- * foomatic-db: Contains the foomatic printer database.
-
- * foomatic-db-engine (this package): Contains the foomatic-configure script.
-
- * foomatic-filters: Contains the filter scripts for various backend
- printing systems.
-
- In addition, the new foomatic-db-hpijs package includes the database
- entries for printers supported by the HPIJS print filter developed by
- Hewlett-Packard for their non-PostScript printers.
-
- The foomatic-bin package is provided for upgrade purposes from
- Foomatic 2.0, and can be purged after its dependencies have been
- installed.
-
- If you want a GUI to configure your printer, you may want to try
- "foomatic-gui," a GNOME-based printer configuration tool that works
- with Foomatic and all of the spoolers it supports.
-
- ** 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-hpijs 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 cupsys reload
-
- There used to be a package called "cupsomatic-ppd" that provided PPD
- files for all printers supported by CUPS. A similar package called
- "foomatic-filters-ppds" is now available in Debian.
-
- This package saves the step of using foomatic-configure to generate
- and install a PPD file for your printer and driver. Perhaps more
- importantly, it provides an easy way to select printers from within
- CUPS's web-based administration tool. However, it is also 15 MB when
- compressed, so is not recommended unless you need to use the CUPS web
- interface to initially set up printers.
-
- -- Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org>, Tue Jul 1 19:15:43 2003
-