Re: [gentoo-user] USB printer and new cups

[Alex Schuster <wonko@wonkology.org>]

Mick writes:

> On Saturday 15 May 2010 22:56:22 Alex Schuster wrote:

> > I want to setup an USB printer. So I http://localhost:631/, and
> > notice that the interface has changed. And when I try to add a
> > printer, the only options for a local printer are SCSI-printer and
> > HAL printing backend. And on the next screen, I have to enter the
> > device URI by hand. How should I know what to enter there? And
> > wasn't there an autodetect feature? Is the new CUPS (1.4.3)
> > generally behaving like this lately, or is something wrong with my
> > setup?
> > 
> > The usb use flag is set. lsusb shows the printer as "Bus 001 Device
> > 003: ID 04a9:10a5 Canon, Inc. iP5200".
> > 
> > What is a HAL printing backend? Do I have to add some crazy fdi stuff
> > for the printer? CUPS does not even have a hal use flag. Dale, help!
> 
> Did you ever get this printer working with this particular gentoo
> installation?  

I never used an USB printer at all. But I installed a lot of network 
printers, and one local parallel printer. I could select the device in the 
web frontend then, it had stuff like 'LPT #1' or 'USB Printer #1' in the 
device menu.

The Gentoo Printing Howto has this:

  USB Printer #1   Select this when the printer is locally attached to a
                   USB port. The printer name should automatically be
                   appended to the device name.

But I see no USB printer here.

> If not have you seen this page:
> 
> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Canon_Pixma_Series
> 
> They make suggestions for drivers that may work.  CUPs requires that
> you have installed the correct drivers for your device first.  Sorry I
> can't help more. Last time I tried to get a canon working was more
> than 5 years ago and I couldn't find a driver or ppd info at the time.

Thanks, this made me install gutenprint which claims to support the 
printer directly. I thought I had to use the iP4200 driver and hope it 
would work. 

But my main problem is another one: How do I tell CUPS which device my 
printer is? I tried usb:/dev/usb/lp0 (found this notation when googling 
'usb printer device uri'), but nothing happens when I try to print.

And now it gets really crazy: In the printer overview I see not only the 
'iP5200' I just created, but also a 'iP52002' that has the device URI 
'usb://Canon/iP5200'. What did create this?!

But printing to that does not work either.

	Wonko