Re: [gentoo-user] Unable to locate printer

[Wol <antlists@youngman.org.uk>]

On 28/01/2024 17:43, Thelma wrote:
> The solution was to change printer setting:
> 
> lpd://BRN30055C898DF9/BINARY_P1
> lpd://brother-5370/BINARY_P1
> 
> with:
> lpd://printer-IP-address/BINARY_P1
> lpd://printer-IP-address/BINARY_P1

That implies the problem is your router or printer - nothing to do with 
gentoo.

Using the IP address is dangerous - unless you've explicitly configured 
stuff, it can change ... At the end of the day, everything here is a 
pain in the arse if you are using DHCP, and if you're using static IPs 
it's a pain in the arse too ... :-)

What you want to do is configure your printer to send its DHCP with an 
"I am called X" message. Your DHCP server (I guess it's your router) 
then needs to configure DNS so that X matches whatever IP address it 
hands out (that *should* happen automatically). Then everything "just 
works (TM)".

The trouble is it sometimes doesn't "just work". With my router, I know 
I have a local range of 192.168.1/8. And it's configured so that 1..127 
are available for random DHCP allocation. 128..254 are static addresses. 
and 0 and 255 are broadcast and router respectively. That's of course 
all if IIRC.

But then, for my server(workstation) and printers I've then allocated a 
static mac->IP mapping, so I can put a hard-coded entry in my hosts 
file. Stuff I don't care about, laptops, mobile phones, games boxes, etc 
just get a random IP.

Basically, you need to understand how DNS, DHCP, and all this name 
allocation stuff works, and it's pretty logical. It just takes quite a 
bit getting your head round it.

Cheers,
Wol