[gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Alan Grimes]

Ok. I'm going to have to do it. I'm going to have to get my blessed 
printer working.

It is the finest laser printer money can buy. God himself uses it to 
process the paperwork involved in assigning souls to either heaven or 
hell... What I'm saying is that the printer is such an immaculate 
example of printing perfection that linux is going to give me absolute 
hell getting it working.

I will be sthocked if I can get it working in less than two weeks 
working full time and without influcting a migraine and/or an ulcer on 
myself.

(meanwhile, Windows can print to the thing effortlessly....)

Right now linux is so broken that the CUPS web interface will deny all 
attempts to administer the printer and reject any password. The config 
file is written in moonspeak, I just need the motherfucking thing to say 
yes when I tell it to do a thing. I expect it to take 2-3 days just to 
get over this hurdle.

How can people actually go around installing linux on people's computers 
as if they were doing them a favor when it really is this bad?

-- 
Beware of Zombies. =O
#EggCrisis  #BlackWinter
White is the new Kulak.
Powers are not rights.

Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[tastytea]

On 2022-09-08 12:52-0400 Alan Grimes <alonzotg@verizon.net> wrote:

> […]
> 
> Right now linux is so broken that the CUPS web interface will deny
> all attempts to administer the printer and reject any password. The
> config file is written in moonspeak, I just need the motherfucking
> thing to say yes when I tell it to do a thing. I expect it to take
> 2-3 days just to get over this hurdle.

I solved this problem by replacing the contents of every <Location>
block with:

  Order allow,deny
  Allow localhost
  Allow from fd69:0:0:0:*
  Allow from 192.168.69.*
 
> How can people actually go around installing linux on people's
> computers as if they were doing them a favor when it really is this
> bad?

It's not bad at all if you use a distribution with a better default
configuration, pre-installed drivers and a pre-installed GUI for setting
up the automatically detected printer in less than 5 clicks.
Unless you have a printer from a shitty company, of course.

Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Michael]

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On Thursday, 8 September 2022 19:04:42 BST tastytea wrote:
> On 2022-09-08 12:52-0400 Alan Grimes <alonzotg@verizon.net> wrote:
> > […]
> > 
> > Right now linux is so broken that the CUPS web interface will deny
> > all attempts to administer the printer and reject any password. The
> > config file is written in moonspeak, I just need the motherfucking
> > thing to say yes when I tell it to do a thing. I expect it to take
> > 2-3 days just to get over this hurdle.
> 
> I solved this problem by replacing the contents of every <Location>
> block with:
> 
>   Order allow,deny
>   Allow localhost
>   Allow from fd69:0:0:0:*
>   Allow from 192.168.69.*
> 
> > How can people actually go around installing linux on people's
> > computers as if they were doing them a favor when it really is this
> > bad?
> 
> It's not bad at all if you use a distribution with a better default
> configuration, pre-installed drivers and a pre-installed GUI for setting
> up the automatically detected printer in less than 5 clicks.
> Unless you have a printer from a shitty company, of course.

You'll need the right drivers for the printer you have.  This page is a good 
start for CUPS and usually it doesn't take long to connect to the printer and 
start printing.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Printing

Modern printers invariably offer their own http(s) web GUI for administration, 
which may also need configuring, but just printing alone should be achievable 
by using the guidance in the wiki above.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Lee]

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Who needs to go to the hassle maintaining a printer of their own, buying
cartridges, paper etc? I set up an online account at my neighborhood
Kinkos, and I just upload whatever docs I need and they print out in HD
whatever I need for pennies a page. Ymmv.

Lee 😎

On Thu, Sep 8, 2022, 11:05 AM tastytea <gentoo@tastytea.de> wrote:

> On 2022-09-08 12:52-0400 Alan Grimes <alonzotg@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > […]
> >
> > Right now linux is so broken that the CUPS web interface will deny
> > all attempts to administer the printer and reject any password. The
> > config file is written in moonspeak, I just need the motherfucking
> > thing to say yes when I tell it to do a thing. I expect it to take
> > 2-3 days just to get over this hurdle.
>
> I solved this problem by replacing the contents of every <Location>
> block with:
>
>   Order allow,deny
>   Allow localhost
>   Allow from fd69:0:0:0:*
>   Allow from 192.168.69.*
>
> > How can people actually go around installing linux on people's
> > computers as if they were doing them a favor when it really is this
> > bad?
>
> It's not bad at all if you use a distribution with a better default
> configuration, pre-installed drivers and a pre-installed GUI for setting
> up the automatically detected printer in less than 5 clicks.
> Unless you have a printer from a shitty company, of course.
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Wols Lists]

On 08/09/2022 21:24, Lee wrote:
> Who needs to go to the hassle maintaining a printer of their own, buying 
> cartridges, paper etc? I set up an online account at my neighborhood 
> Kinkos, and I just upload whatever docs I need and they print out in HD 
> whatever I need for pennies a page. Ymmv.

YMMV. But if your neighbouhood Kinkos is fifty miles away your mileage 
most definitely does vary :-)

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Peter Humphrey]

On Thursday, 8 September 2022 21:40:25 BST Wols Lists wrote:
> On 08/09/2022 21:24, Lee wrote:
> > Who needs to go to the hassle maintaining a printer of their own, buying
> > cartridges, paper etc? I set up an online account at my neighborhood
> > Kinkos, and I just upload whatever docs I need and they print out in HD
> > whatever I need for pennies a page. Ymmv.
> 
> YMMV. But if your neighbouhood Kinkos is fifty miles away your mileage
> most definitely does vary :-)

What is a Kinkos?

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[David M. Fellows]

>On Thursday, 8 September 2022 21:40:25 BST Wols Lists wrote:
>> On 08/09/2022 21:24, Lee wrote:
>> > Who needs to go to the hassle maintaining a printer of their own, buying
>> > cartridges, paper etc? I set up an online account at my neighborhood
>> > Kinkos, and I just upload whatever docs I need and they print out in HD
>> > whatever I need for pennies a page. Ymmv.
>> 
>> YMMV. But if your neighbouhood Kinkos is fifty miles away your mileage
>> most definitely does vary :-)
>
>What is a Kinkos?

Was a copy shop chain. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx_Office
DaveF
>
>-- 
>Regards,
>Peter.
>
>
>
>

Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Ramon Fischer]

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Hello Alan,

>> (meanwhile, Windows can print to the thing effortlessly....)
I guess, that you are going to configure a network printer.

I will try to explain you my setup; maybe you or others can derive 
something from this.

Make sure, that the user, which you configure the printer with, is a 
member of the group "lpadmin":

    $ gpasswd --add <some_user> lpadmin
    $ getent group lpadmin
    lpadmin:x:<some_group_id>:<some_user>

On the server-site, the configuration file "/etc/cups/cupsd.conf" should 
be configured like so. See comments for explanations:

    # Only listen for connections from the local machine.
    Listen localhost:631
    # custom - 20210706 - rfischer: set custom listen address to
    "192.168.1.80" to make it available via the network
    Listen 192.168.1.80:631
    Listen /run/cups/cups.sock

    # custom - 20210706 - rfischer: make cups available via "hostname"
    or "domain"
    ServerAlias *

    # Restrict access to the server...
    #<Location />
    #  Order allow,deny
    #</Location>
    # custom - 20210706 - rfischer: allow access from "localhost" and
    via the network
    <Location />
       Order allow,deny
       Allow localhost
       Allow from 192.168.1.*
    </Location>

    # Restrict access to the admin pages...
    #<Location /admin>
    #  Order allow,deny
    #</Location>
    # custom - 20210706 - rfischer: make administration page available
    via the network
    <Location /admin>
       Encryption Required
       Order allow,deny
       Allow localhost
       Allow from 192.168.1.*
    </Location>

Restart the daemon on the server-site:

    $ systemctl restart cups

This will also restart the Systemd socket unit "cups.socket" and 
"cups.path".

Make sure, that CUPS is running on "192.168.1.80:631":

    $ ss -tulpan | grep "631"
    tcp    LISTEN   0        5          192.168.1.80:631 0.0.0.0:*      
    users:(("cupsd",pid=2190,fd=8))
    tcp    LISTEN   0        5              127.0.0.1:631
    0.0.0.0:*       users:(("cupsd",pid=2190,fd=7))
    tcp    LISTEN   0        5 [::1]:631               [::]:*
    users:(("cupsd",pid=2190,fd=6))


If printing via hostname is desired, you can add the following entry for 
your local DNS server:

    192.168.1.80 cups.intern

This Forward DNS lookup entry can also be entered on the client-site in 
the configuration file "/etc/hosts".

Your CUPS isntance should be now available via "cups.intern:631". There 
you should be able to configure your printer.

I configured the server-site via USB:

    usb:/<some_printer_name>?serial=<some_serial_number>

In the best case, CUPS already has a pre-installed printer driver or you 
have a PPD (PostScript Printer Description) file, which you can upload, 
when adding the printer.

Once configured, the directory tree of "/etc/cups/" on the server-site 
should look like this:

    $ tree -ugp --noreport --charset iwantprintableasciiplease /etc/cups
    /etc/cups
    |-- [-rw------- root     lp      ]  classes.conf
    |-- [-rw-r--r-- root     root    ]  cups-browsed.conf
    |-- [-rw-r--r-- root     root    ]  cupsd.conf
    |-- [-rw-r--r-- root     root    ]  cups-files.conf
    |-- [drwxr-xr-x root     root    ]  interfaces
    |-- [drwxr-xr-x root     lp      ]  ppd
    |   |-- [-rw-r----- root     lp      ] <some_printer_name>.ppd
    |-- [-rw------- root     lp      ]  printers.conf
    |-- [-rw-r--r-- root     root    ]  raw.convs
    |-- [-rw-r--r-- root     root    ]  raw.types
    |-- [-rw-r--r-- root     root    ]  snmp.conf
    |-- [drwx------ root     lp      ]  ssl
    |   |-- [-rw-r--r-- root     root    ]
    <some_hostname_from_/etc/hostname>.crt
    |   |-- [-rw-r--r-- root     root    ]
    <some_hostname_from_/etc/hostname>.key
    `-- [-rw-r----- root     lp      ]  subscriptions.conf

Since I do not want to install the printer driver on every client and 
let the clients render the pages, I want to let the server handle these 
things.

On the client-site (localhost:631) therefore, I can just add the printer 
via "http/s" or "ipp/s" and transfer everything either via "IPP 
everywhere" or "raw":

    ipps://cups.intern:631/printers/<some_printer_name>

Be aware, that "raw" is deprecated and newer versions of CUPS will 
remove it. So "IPP everywhere" would be the choice, but I stick to 
"raw", since the former shuffles print jobs for some reason, when I want 
to print multiple files via "lpr <some_file1> <some_file2>" on either 
the client- or server-site.

You should now be able to print a test page on the client- and server-site.

Much success and a pinch of luck! :)

-Ramon

On 08/09/2022 18:52, Alan Grimes wrote:
> Ok. I'm going to have to do it. I'm going to have to get my blessed 
> printer working.
>
> It is the finest laser printer money can buy. God himself uses it to 
> process the paperwork involved in assigning souls to either heaven or 
> hell... What I'm saying is that the printer is such an immaculate 
> example of printing perfection that linux is going to give me absolute 
> hell getting it working.
>
> I will be sthocked if I can get it working in less than two weeks 
> working full time and without influcting a migraine and/or an ulcer on 
> myself.
>
> (meanwhile, Windows can print to the thing effortlessly....)
>
> Right now linux is so broken that the CUPS web interface will deny all 
> attempts to administer the printer and reject any password. The config 
> file is written in moonspeak, I just need the motherfucking thing to 
> say yes when I tell it to do a thing. I expect it to take 2-3 days 
> just to get over this hurdle.
>
> How can people actually go around installing linux on people's 
> computers as if they were doing them a favor when it really is this bad?
>

-- 
GPG public key: 5983 98DA 5F4D A464 38FD CF87 155B E264 13E6 99BF


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Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Paul Colquhoun]

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On Friday, September 9, 2022 2:52:01 A.M. AEST Alan Grimes wrote:
> Ok. I'm going to have to do it. I'm going to have to get my blessed
> printer working.
> 
> It is the finest laser printer money can buy. God himself uses it to
> process the paperwork involved in assigning souls to either heaven or
> hell... What I'm saying is that the printer is such an immaculate
> example of printing perfection that linux is going to give me absolute
> hell getting it working.
> 
> I will be sthocked if I can get it working in less than two weeks
> working full time and without influcting a migraine and/or an ulcer on
> myself.
> 
> (meanwhile, Windows can print to the thing effortlessly....)
> 
> Right now linux is so broken that the CUPS web interface will deny all
> attempts to administer the printer and reject any password. The config
> file is written in moonspeak, I just need the motherfucking thing to say
> yes when I tell it to do a thing. I expect it to take 2-3 days just to
> get over this hurdle.
> 
> How can people actually go around installing linux on people's computers
> as if they were doing them a favor when it really is this bad?


Two points.

1) Did you bother to research the Linux support situation before you purchased the 
printer? World's finest printer or not, if they keep parts of the interface as proprietry 
secrets then there is not much the Linux maintainers can do.

2) Remind us again why you still try to run Gentoo when you obviously dislike it.


-- 
Reverend Paul Colquhoun, ULC.     http://andor.dropbear.id.au/
  Asking for technical help in newsgroups?  Read this first:
     http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#intro


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Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Wols Lists]

On 10/09/2022 01:18, Paul Colquhoun wrote:
> 2) Remind us again why you still try to run Gentoo when you obviously 
> dislike it.

snark :-)

A couple of things to remember:

Gentoo IS a pita to install and run compared to most other distros - 
I've had a brand new laptop lying around for 6 months which has been an 
absolute pain and is still not working ...

RTFM is NOT an acceptable answer - half the time the documentation is 
worse than the program, the other half of the time you can't find it and 
the stuff on the web is out-or-date, irrelevant, or some other rabbit 
hole ...

IBM used to have a "black team", apparently. Anybody who was just plain 
useless at their job, or could never get things to work, or just took 
pleasure in breaking things, was put on this team. Telling developers 
their work was being handed over to this lot for testing was considered 
pure torture. I guess Alan belongs on that team - at least if the devs 
are reading it helps gentoo get more robust :-)

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[karl]

Wol:
...
> A couple of things to remember:
> 
> Gentoo IS a pita to install and run compared to most other distros - 
...

That really depends. Other distros might not have what you want or
they force upon you desicions you don't like. Just beeing easy to
install and running something irrelevant doesn't mean much if they
don't deliver what you want.

Regards,
/Karl Hammar

[gentoo-user] Re: Getting printer working, the road of Pain.

[Grant Edwards]

On 2022-09-10, Wols Lists <antlists@youngman.org.uk> wrote:
> On 10/09/2022 01:18, Paul Colquhoun wrote:
>> 2) Remind us again why you still try to run Gentoo when you obviously 
>> dislike it.
>
> snark :-)
>
> A couple of things to remember:
>
> Gentoo IS a pita to install and run compared to most other distros -

Until you want to do something even vaguely unique or out-of-the
ordinary. Then most other distros are a PITA compared to Gentoo.

If all you want to do is run a web browser, then Gentoo is almost
definitely the wrong choice.

--
Grant