PRINT CONFIGURATION Red Flag Server5 has improved the designs of the printer configuration tool to facilitate you to conduct print configuration and print tasks management in a more convenient and familiar way. The Asianux 2.0 uses CUPS printing subsystem, the most advanced, powerful and easy to configure printing subsystem in the UNIX system. CUPS uses the Internet Printing Protocol ("IPP") as the basis for managing printing jobs and queues, and at the same time supports simplified LPD, SMB, JetDirect and other protocols; it also adds network printer browsing and other printing options based on PostScript Printing Description ("PPD"). In addition to more options and types of printers supported, CUPS is very easy to configure and allows any computer on the Internet to access individual CUPS server through LANs. Main Features: Add Printer Wizard: help user to add and configure a new printer. Help you find the printer by browsing available printers and queues in the LAN. This function is active for TCP network/appsocket, HP JetDirect, IPP and SMB network connections. Manage print tasks: display such operations as printing job information and status, stop/start print queues, move print job in the queue to another printer, and cancel print queues, etc. Print Preview: preview the file to be printed in the preview dialogue box. Printer sharing: share local printer as Samba print server. Provide special and pseudo-printer options: printing files to PDF, sending files as PDF attachment, printing to PostScript files and sending files as fax are allowed with the help of external programs. While functions to support LPD, RLPR, LPRng and other print subsystems are added to the print manager in the process of designing, only the functions of CUPS are fully realized in this version, so only the default printing system, CUPS (common Unix Printing System) is recommended for use. 1. Printer Configuration Access the main window of printer configuration tool by double clicking the printconf icon in the System area of the control panel, as shown in figure below. 1
Main Window of Printer Manager Information about installed printers (including pseudo-printers or special printers) appears on the main window, and a wizard designed to help users to install printers is also provided. Start Add Printer Wizard by clicking the Add Printer icon, or by right clicking at the blank space in the printer list area and selecting Add Printer/Class. The wizard will guide you to install and configure the following types of printers in the system: Local printer (parallel, serial, USB): a local printer attached directly to the computer through a parallel, serial or USB port. SMB sharing printer(windows): a printer attached to a different system which is sharing a printer over a SMB network. Network printer (TCP): a printer connected directly to the network (TCP, HP JetDirect and AppSocket) instead of to a computer. Remote LPD queue: a printer attached to a different UNIX system that can be accessed over a TCP/IP network. Network printer (IPP/HTTP):a printer that can be accessed over a network via IPP/HTTP Protocol. Here is a brief introduction of ways to install popular types of printers with the help of the Add Printer Wizard wizard. In the first place, the installation procedure of a local printer is demonstrated step by step. As installation procedures are basically the same except for configuration methods of printer interfaces for other types of connections, in these instances, only explanations about printer interface configurations are given. 1.1 Local printer addition This chapter introduces ways to add a local printer to the system, using the printer directly connected to the parallel port of the computer as an example. Start the Add Printer Wizard wizard, the welcome message is followed by a list of types of printers for selection (see below figure). Now we are going to install a printer that is directly attached to a local parallel port (the most popular instance); Select Local printer (Parallel, Serial and USB) and click Next to continue. 2
Select the type of the printer In normal cases, the system is able to automatically detect the model and connection port of the printer; otherwise you have to manually select an effective connection port and the printer model, as shown in below figure. Select the local port Click Next, the system shall load the database for printer models. Please locate the model of your printer in the list of printer models illustrated in below figure. 3
Select the model of the printer Printers are divided by manufacturers. Select the manufacturer of the printer from the manufacturers list on the left, such as HP; the list of models on the right shows various printer models produced by that manufacturer, select one that you wish to install, such as LaserJet 4050, by clicking on it. Click the button of Next to proceed, and configure the printer with the fitted print driver in the window illustrated in below figure and conduct pre-installation tests. Select the driver for the printer The printing system may automatically detect some drivers for that printer model and display the recommended driver programs on the screen. In case you want to change the defaulting option or the default driver can not work in a normal way, single click the button of Select Other Drivers and then select another driver from the list as shown in below figure. 4
Select other drivers for the printer For a printer of a certain model, not all drivers demonstrated in the list are applicable. If you are not sure which one of the drivers is to be used, you may visit http://www.linuxprinting.org or http://www.cups.org for help. To ensure that the forward-going configuration is correct, a test page should be printed prior to the completion of the installation. Please check the default size of the paper before printing the test page. The average default value is A4. If paper of other sizes is used by the printer, please click Setup button to change the default value of Page Size to avoid the test page being retained during test printing. Press Test button upon finishing the configuration and wait for the result of the test. If error occurs in the test, use Back button to return to the previous configuration item for re-configuration; If the test printing is successful, press Next to proceed. The print driver processes the data that you want to print into a format the printer can understand. Since a parallel printer is attached directly to local computer, you need a print driver to process the data that is sent to the printer. If you are configuring a remote printer (SMB, IPP, LPD, etc), the remote print server usually has its own print driver. If you select an additional print driver on your local computer, the data is filtered multiple times and is converted to a format that the printer can not understand. To make sure the data is not filtered more than once, first try to select original print queue or Postscript Printer as the printer model, and then print a test page to try out this new configuration. If the test fails, the remote print server might not have a print driver configured. Try to select a print driver according to the manufacturer and model of the remote printer, and then print a test page. You must designate a unique name for the installed printer for easy identification in case that multiple printers are installed in the system; then type in the address and descriptions of the printer (the two items are optional), see figure below. 5
Name a Printer In the end, the configuration information of the printer will be displayed in the confirmation dialogue box. If you accept these configurations, single click the complete button, the newly configured local parallel printer is added into the printer list on the main window. Confirm the configuration of a Printer 1.2 SMB shared printer addition A SMB shared printer has two connection types, one is attached to Windows systems as a shared printer, and the other is connected to a Linux Samba server. Select SMB shared printer(windows) from the Printer Type Selection dialog box of the adding printer wizard, press Next button to make user identity setup. 6
Samba User Configuration If the default anonymous access mode is used, anonymous Access option will be in selected status; If the shared printer to be added requires authorization authentication, cancel the anonymous Access option and type in the Login and Password with valid permission to access the SMB shared printer. Click Next to set up SMB shared print server. There are two ways as shown below: Specify workgroup Select Use workgroup name from the SMB Printer Settings window, as shown in below figure. Specify the workgroup of the shared printer Type in description about the SMB shared printer in following detailed items: Workgroup The name of the SMB workgroup for the shared printer Server The name of the remote host server sharing the SMB printer. 7
Printer The name of the shared SMB printer. As stated above, for SMB network connections, you can quickly and easily locate an available printer in the network with the help of the browsing function. Click the Scan button in the window shown in the above figure, the system will start to detect all available SMB shared printers in the LAN. Select the SMB shared printer from the list by order of Workgroup Server Printer. The configuration information of the selected printer will appear in corresponding text box, as shown in above figure. The option Specify Workgroup of the Shared Printer is recommended; errors may occur with the following option Specify IP Address in certain network environments. Specify IP Select Specify IP from the SMB Printer Settings window, as shown in below figure. Specify the IP address of the shared printer Type in description about the SMB shared printer in following detailed items: Assign Server IP The IP address of the remote host server sharing the SMB printer. Printer The name of the shared SMB printer. In case you only know the IP address of the remote server instead of the name of SMB shared printer, single click the Scan button after typing in the IP address of the server, the system will browse the network for any available SMB shared printers and demonstrate the result in a list. Select the SMB shared printer you wish to use. The name of the selected SMB share printer appears in the Printer text box. 1.3 Network printer addition Select Network printer (TCP) from the Printer Type Selection dialog box of the adding printer wizard, press Next button to input description about the network printer in the window displayed in below figure. 8
Input description about the Network Printer For the same reason, you can rapidly browse over the network for printers (port 9100). You have to set up the browsing parameters, including subnet IP address range, port and timeout limit before conducting the browse. Configure the window as shown in below figure by clicking Settings button. Configure browsing parameters In case direct TCP/IP print connection is provided via other port numbers by some of the printers or printer manufacturers, you must find out the specific port number. Press the button Scan, the browsing results appear on the left side of the window. Click the network printer to be added, information about the selected printer appears in the text box on the right side of the window. 9
Select a Network Printer 1.4 Remote LPD queue addition From the Printer Type Selection dialog box of the adding printer wizard, first select Other print system, and then select Remote LPD queues. When you press Next button, a dialog box containing LPD queues information appears as shown in below figure. Configure Remote LPD queues Host The hostname or IP address of the remote machine to which the printer is attached. Queue The remote printer queue. The default printer queue is usually lp0. This information should be known beforehand. If you have any problems, please contact the system administrator. 10
The remote machine must have printer queues successfully configured and accept print jobs from the local system. Create the /etc/hosts.lpd file with the identity of the root user on the remote machine to which the printer is attached. Add to the file the IP address or hostname of each machine that has the right to print. 1.5 IPP network printer addition From the Printer Type Selection dialog box of the adding printer wizard, first select Other print system, then select Network printer (IPP/HTTP), and finally press Next button to proceed with IPP printer information setup. The setup of IPP network printer is much the same with that of the network printer described in the above chapter ---- both need to setup browsing parameters and then browse over the network, with exception that the default port number is 631. The browsing results appear on the left side of the window. Click the IPP printer you wish to add, information about the selected printer appears in the text box on the right side as shown in below figure. IPP printer interface setup 2. Printer Properties Setup If no display filter is set up, all added printers over the system will appear in the printers list. The Printer Configuration Tool can easily manage multiple printers in the system. You can use the Filter option from the right key menu of the main window to set up display filter properties. Select a printer, and set up and manage related properties of the printer by the right key shortcut menu, as shown in below figure. 11
List of Printers Start/Stop a printer Select a printer from the printers list, and you can switch between starting and stopping the printer by checking the Start/Stop Printer item from the right key menu. A red warning sign will appear on the icon of the stopped printer. Set local default printer Select a printer from the printers list, and set the printer as local default printer by checking the Set as Local Default item from the right key menu. Set user default printer Select a printer from the printers list, and set the printer as default printer of current user by checking the Set as User Default item from the right key menu. Remove printer Select the printer to be deleted from the printers list, and remove the printer by checking Remove item from the right key menu. Configure printer properties Select a printer from the printers list, and adjust the configuration options of the printer, including General, Image, Text, Margins, and Driver Settings, etc, by checking the Configuration item from the right key menu. Refer to below figure. 12
Adjust Configuration Options Test printing Select a printer from the printers list, and right click to select Test Printer option in the shortcut menu; and a test page will be printed to see if it s functioning properly. If you changed the port type or driver program of the printer, you should print a test page to make sure the printer is functioning properly. Printer IPP Report Select a printer from the printers list and check the Printer IPP Report item, detailed IPP information of the printer will pop up. 3. Printer Sharing Setup Printers already installed in the system can be set as Samba printer server, allowing other Linux or Windows host machines over the network to do print jobs. Select the printer to be shared from the printers list, single right click to select Share Printer from the popped up menu, and the sharing configuration window composed of Share and Global Setting will pop up. Sharing setup 13
Activate the Share option in the window shown in below figure, and the name of the printer will be the name of the shared printer displayed over the network, that is the name used by the remote host on browsing and adding that shared printer. Related description and explanations can be input in the comment text box if needed. Printer Sharing Setup Finally select sharing type. There are two sharing types: Needn t Account and Need Account. Needn t Account indicates that the printer allows anonymous usage; if users allowed to use the printer have to be specified, select Need Account, and single click Setting button, the dialog box shown in below figure will be displayed: Configure access account and password Existing users in current system are listed in the Sharing Users list, select the user name, and add it to the Accessible Users list by clicking the Add button. Select user name from the Accessible Users list. You can remove a user from sharing users by clicking the Remove button. 14
The Accessible Users list must retain at least one user. Global Setting Click the Global Setting label page, and type in the names of the work group and host machine where the printer is located to facilitate searching. Refer to below figure. The Workgroup can be any existing workgroup over the network, or you are allowed to type in another name in order to set up a new workgroup. Global Setup Press the OK button to make the configuration effective. Now, other Linux or Windows host machines are allowed to add it as their own SMB shared printer and use it to complete print jobs with appropriate driver configurations. 4. Print Job Management The print system of Asianux 2.0 integrates the print management function. When the print system is processing print jobs, a print icon appears on the tray of the desktop panel, and you can open the print task manager window by double clicking on the icon. In addition, you can start the print task manager by using the kjobviewer command. The print task manager can display and manage all print tasks of all the printers in the system, including checking finished or active printer jobs; it can also control some of the operations in the print queue, such as suspend, continue, cancel or re-start print jobs, and change priority levels, etc. Below figure shows the main window of the print task manager. 15
Print Job Management Window You can set print tasks that display all the printers or an individual printer. The information of major displayed print tasks includes: Job ID Owner Name State Serial number of the print task in the system, provided by the system. Owner of the print task, print order given by the owner. Route and file name of the print job. Current status of the print job, including: Queued indicates print job has entered the print queue and is waiting to be printed. Processing this print job is in the process of being printed. Hold indicates this print job is being temporarily suspended. Finished indicates this print task has been finished. Canceled indicates this print job has been canceled. Size Priority The size of the print job, calculated in bytes. The priority of the print job with 0 being the lowest and 100 being the highest. The above print job information is displayed in the form of lists, single clicking any heading of the column can change the sort order of that column, such as ascending or descending order. There are multiple command buttons on the top of the print task manager window, which respectively correspond to following operations: Suspend the print job that is in the process of printing or queued to be printed. Re-start the suspended print job. Delete unfinished print job in the queue. Transfer unfinished print job to another printer. Restart finished or canceled print job. 16
Display IPP information about the print job. Raise priority level of selected printer job. Reduce priority level of selected printer job. Edit and set print properties. Switch between finished/canceled print task and unfinished print job. Set print job that only display a certain user. Refresh. 17