Clemson:Printing

From Linux 101, The beginner's guide to all things Linux.

1 Introduction
2 Printing with CUPS
3 Printing on Campus
4 Links

[edit] Introduction

There are many printers around Clemson campus set up by various departments or CCIT. Most of them are black & white HP LaserJet printers. Generally, any student or faculty member who can sign on to the Clemson Netware system can use them in Windows, although some are not publicly listed (usually those in offices, classrooms etc.). This article aims to explain how to use them in Linux.

[edit] Printing with CUPS

CUPS stands for Common UNIX Printing System. It consists of a daemon for processing print jobs, a web server, and a lot of good printer drivers. You distribution undoubtedly has some way of setting up CUPS and starting it when your computer boots. You can use cupsdconf to set up the daemon, also you can edit your /etc/cups/cupsd.conf for more options. There is a probably a printing administration tool that comes with your distribution, but if you can't find it or it's not there, you can use your web browser to administrate CUPS by going to http://localhost:631/ - this is CUPS' built in web server.

[edit] Printing on Campus

There are several "public" printers in different labs across campus. These printers are managed by CCIT, or the college or department that houses them. Different people manage printers in different ways.

Note: Before you try printing, make sure you have CUPS set up correctly on your machine. Do not print to printers that you do not have access to, and make sure to test your print configuration before printing any large jobs.

[edit] Computer Science printers

This is by far the easiest because you can just use the Computer Science department's print server at printhost.cs.clemson.edu. This is a standard LPD print queue, just add it as such in your CUPS configuration.

[edit] College of Engineering & Science (CES) printers

These are fairly easy to use because all the printers have IP printing enabled, they have fixed (static) IP addresses, and there are DNS addresses corresponding to their addresses. This includes most of the printers in the Math Sciences building (except the ones in Martin CCIT lab).

[edit] CCIT printers

There are two methods to install CCIT printers and print to them in Linux, via iPrint or direct CUPS install using the printer's IP printing URI.

[edit] iPrint Linux Client

Clemson uses the Novell iPrint printer management system for accessing printers on campus manageed by CCIT. Novell has provided a Linux client for iPrint for some time, but it has been difficult for many Clemson Linux users since Novell only provides as a SuSE package of the iPrint client. However, recently new progress has been made getting this client to work in other distributions, particularly Ubuntu. Currently, there is not a Ubuntu package available, but this will be available for download on the Clemson iPrint web site soon.

To get the iPrint Client, as well as browse and install printers, visit the Clemson Novell iPrint web site. The Linux client downloads are available here.

[edit] IP printing

If you are not able to get the iPrint Linux Client working, you may fall back to installing printers using the IPP URI. While most of the CCIT printers on campus now have IP printing enabled, they don't have DNS addresses or even fixed IPs for the printers. Thus, while it is not difficult to print to these printers if you know their addresses, it can be hard to find the printers' addresses. Once you find them, it's possible the printer's IP will change, and you'll have to find the new address. Luckily, some CUPS configuration tools have built-in utilities for scanning the printer ports of many machines on the network to see if there are any printers available.

[edit] Your department's printers

How you access the printers local to your department depends on how your department's printers are set up. Ask your deparment's system administrator, CCIT representative, or computer guru for more information.