How To Install Network Printer In Suse Linux

Applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1

20 Printer Performance #Edit source

SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server supports printing with many types of printers, including remote network printers. Printers tin exist configured manually or with YaST. For configuration instructions, refer to Department 19.iii, "Setting Upward a Printer". Both graphical and command line utilities are bachelor for starting and managing print jobs. If your printer does not work every bit expected, refer to Section 20.8, "Troubleshooting".

CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) is the standard impress system in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server .

Printers can exist distinguished past interface, such equally USB or network, and printer language. When buying a printer, make sure that the printer has an interface that is supported (USB, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi) and a suitable printer language. Printers tin be categorized on the ground of the post-obit three classes of printer languages:

PostScript Printers

PostScript is the printer language in which virtually print jobs in Linux and Unix are generated and processed by the internal print organisation. If PostScript documents can exist candy directly past the printer and exercise not demand to be converted in additional stages in the print system, the number of potential error sources is reduced.

Currently PostScript is being replaced past PDF as the standard impress job format. PostScript+PDF printers that can directly print PDF (in addition to PostScript) already be. For traditional PostScript printers PDF needs to be converted to PostScript in the press workflow.

Standard Printers (Languages Similar PCL and ESC/P)

In the instance of known printer languages, the print organisation can convert PostScript jobs to the corresponding printer language with Ghostscript. This processing stage is called interpreting. The best-known languages are PCL (which is mostly used past HP printers and their clones) and ESC/P (which is used by Epson printers). These printer languages are commonly supported by Linux and produce an acceptable print result. Linux may not exist able to accost some special printer functions. Except for HP and Epson, there are currently no printer manufacturers who develop Linux drivers and make them available to Linux distributors under an open source license.

Proprietary Printers (Also Called GDI Printers)

These printers exercise not support any of the common printer languages. They employ their own undocumented printer languages, which are bailiwick to change when a new edition of a model is released. Normally just Windows drivers are available for these printers. Encounter Section 20.8.1, "Printers without Standard Printer Language Support" for more information.

Before you purchase a new printer, refer to the following sources to check how well the printer you intend to purchase is supported:

http://www.openprinting.org/printers

The OpenPrinting home page with the printer database. The database shows the latest Linux back up status. However, a Linux distribution tin only integrate the drivers available at production fourth dimension. Accordingly, a printer currently rated as "perfectly supported" may not have had this condition when the latest SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version was released. Thus, the databases may not necessarily indicate the correct status, just just provide an approximation.

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

The Ghostscript Spider web folio.

/usr/share/doc/packages/ghostscript/catalog.devices

List of congenital-in Ghostscript drivers.

The user creates a impress task. The print job consists of the information to print plus information for the spooler. This includes the name of the printer or the proper noun of the impress queue, and optionally, information for the filter, such equally printer-specific options.

At to the lowest degree one dedicated impress queue exists for every printer. The spooler holds the print job in the queue until the desired printer is set up to receive data. When the printer is ready, the spooler sends the information through the filter and back-cease to the printer.

The filter converts the information generated past the application that is printing (usually PostScript or PDF, merely also ASCII, JPEG, etc.) into printer-specific information (PostScript, PCL, ESC/P, etc.). The features of the printer are described in the PPD files. A PPD file contains printer-specific options with the parameters needed to enable them on the printer. The filter system makes certain that options selected past the user are enabled.

If y'all utilise a PostScript printer, the filter organisation converts the data into printer-specific PostScript. This does not require a printer driver. If you lot utilize a non-PostScript printer, the filter arrangement converts the information into printer-specific data. This requires a printer driver suitable for your printer. The back-end receives the printer-specific data from the filter so passes information technology to the printer.

20.2 Methods and Protocols for Connecting Printers #Edit source

There are diverse possibilities for connecting a printer to the organisation. The configuration of CUPS does not distinguish betwixt a local printer and a printer connected to the system over the network. For more information about the printer connection, read the commodity CUPS in a Nutshell at https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:CUPS_in_a_Nutshell.

IBM Z Printers and similar devices provided by the z/VM that connect locally with the IBM Z mainframes are non supported by CUPS. On these platforms, press is simply possible over the network. The cabling for network printers must be installed co-ordinate to the instructions of the printer manufacturer.

Warning: Irresolute Cablevision Connections in a Running System

When connecting the printer to the machine, do not forget that only USB devices can be plugged in or unplugged during functioning. To avoid dissentious your organization or printer, close down the organization before changing whatsoever connections that are not USB.

PPD (PostScript printer description) is the estimator language that describes the properties, like resolution, and options, such equally the availability of a duplex unit. These descriptions are required for using various printer options in CUPS. Without a PPD file, the print data would exist forwarded to the printer in a "raw" state, which is unremarkably not desired.

To configure a PostScript printer, the best approach is to get a suitable PPD file. Many PPD files are available in the packages manufacturer-PPDs and OpenPrintingPPDs-postscript. See Section xx.vii.three, "PPD Files in Various Packages" and Section 20.eight.ii, "No Suitable PPD File Available for a PostScript Printer".

New PPD files can be stored in the directory /usr/share/cups/model/ or added to the impress arrangement with YaST as described in Section nineteen.3.1.1, "Adding Drivers with YaST". Afterward, the PPD file can be selected during the printer setup.

Be careful if a printer manufacturer wants you to install entire software packages. This kind of installation may result in the loss of the back up provided by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server . Also, print commands may work differently and the organisation may no longer be able to address devices of other manufacturers. For this reason, the installation of manufacturer software is not recommended.

A network printer can support various protocols, some even concurrently. Although almost of the supported protocols are standardized, some manufacturers modify the standard. Manufacturers then provide drivers for only a few operating systems. Unfortunately, Linux drivers are rarely provided. The current state of affairs is such that you cannot act on the assumption that every protocol works smoothly in Linux. Therefore, you may need to experiment with diverse options to achieve a functional configuration.

CUPS supports the socket, LPD, IPP and smb protocols.

socket

Socket refers to a connection in which the apparently impress information is sent straight to a TCP socket. Some socket port numbers that are commonly used are 9100 or 35. The device URI (uniform resources identifier) syntax is: socket://IP.OF.THE.PRINTER:PORT, for example: socket://192.168.2.202:9100/.

LPD (Line Printer Daemon)

The LPD protocol is described in RFC 1179. Under this protocol, some job-related information, such equally the ID of the impress queue, is sent before the bodily print data is sent. Therefore, a impress queue must be specified when configuring the LPD protocol. The implementations of diverse printer manufacturers are flexible enough to accept any name as the print queue. If necessary, the printer manual should indicate what name to use. LPT, LPT1, LP1 or like names are often used. The port number for an LPD service is 515. An example device URI is lpd://192.168.2.202/LPT1.

IPP (Cyberspace Printing Protocol)

IPP is based on the HTTP protocol. With IPP, more job-related data is transmitted than with the other protocols. CUPS uses IPP for internal data transmission. The name of the print queue is necessary to configure IPP correctly. The port number for IPP is 631. Example device URIs are ipp://192.168.ii.202/ps and ipp://192.168.2.202/printers/ps.

SMB (Windows Share)

CUPS also supports press on printers continued to Windows shares. The protocol used for this purpose is SMB. SMB uses the port numbers 137, 138 and 139. Example device URIs are smb://user:password@workgroup/smb.case.com/printer, smb://user:password@smb.example.com/printer, and smb://smb.case.com/printer.

The protocol supported past the printer must be adamant before configuration. If the manufacturer does not provide the needed information, the control nmap (which comes with the nmap parcel) tin can be used to ascertain the protocol. nmap checks a host for open ports. For example:

              tux >              nmap -p 35,137-139,515,631,9100-10000              IP.OF.THE.PRINTER            

CUPS tin exist configured with control line tools similar lpinfo, lpadmin and lpoptions. You lot need a device URI consisting of a back-end, such as USB, and parameters. To determine valid device URIs on your organization use the command lpinfo -v | grep ":/":

              tux >                            sudo              lpinfo -v | grep ":/" direct usb://Meridian/FunPrinter%20XL network socket://192.168.2.253

With lpadmin the CUPS server ambassador tin can add, remove or manage print queues. To add a print queue, use the following syntax:

              tux >                            sudo              lpadmin -p              QUEUE              -5              DEVICE-URI              -P              PPD-FILE              -E

Then the device (-five) is available as QUEUE (-p), using the specified PPD file (-P). This ways that you must know the PPD file and the device URI to configure the printer manually.

Practise not apply -E every bit the start option. For all CUPS commands, -Eastward as the starting time statement sets use of an encrypted connectedness. To enable the printer, -E must be used as shown in the following example:

              tux >                            sudo              lpadmin -p ps -v usb://Top/FunPrinter%20XL -P \ /usr/share/cups/model/Postscript.ppd.gz -E

The following case configures a network printer:

              tux >                            sudo              lpadmin -p ps -v socket://192.168.2.202:9100/ -P \ /usr/share/cups/model/Postscript-level1.ppd.gz -E

For more than options of lpadmin, run across the homo folio of lpadmin(8).

During printer setup, certain options are set as default. These options can be modified for every print job (depending on the print tool used). Changing these default options with YaST is too possible. Using command line tools, ready default options every bit follows:

1. First, listing all options:

                       tux >                                        sudo                    lpoptions -p                    QUEUE                    -l

   Example:

   Resolution/Output Resolution: 150dpi *300dpi 600dpi

   The activated default choice is identified past a preceding asterisk (*).

2. Change the option with lpadmin:

                       tux >                                        sudo                    lpadmin -p                    QUEUE                    -o Resolution=600dpi

3. Cheque the new setting:

                       tux >                                        sudo                    lpoptions -p                    QUEUE                    -l  Resolution/Output Resolution: 150dpi 300dpi *600dpi

When a normal user runs lpoptions, the settings are written to ~/.cups/lpoptions. All the same, root settings are written to /etc/cups/lpoptions.

To print from the command line, enter lp -d QUEUENAME FILENAME, substituting the corresponding names for QUEUENAME and FILENAME.

Some applications rely on the lp control for printing. In this example, enter the correct command in the application's print dialog, normally without specifying FILENAME, for case, lp -d QUEUENAME.

20.7 Special Features in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server #Edit source

Several CUPS features have been adapted for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server . Some of the nigh important changes are covered here.

Later completing a default installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server , firewalld is agile and the network interfaces are configured to be in the public zone, which blocks incoming traffic.

When firewalld is agile, you may need to configure information technology to let clients to scan network printers by allowing mdns and ipp through the internal network zone. The public zone should never expose printer queues.

(More information about the firewalld configuration is available in Section 23.4, "firewalld" and at https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:CUPS_and_SANE_Firewall_settings.)

Commonly, a CUPS client runs on a regular workstation located in a trusted network environment backside a firewall. In this case it is recommended to configure the network interface to be in the Internal Zone, so the workstation is reachable from within the network.

If the CUPS server is part of a trusted network surroundings protected past a firewall, the network interface should exist configured to be in the Internal Zone of the firewall. Information technology is not recommended to set upwardly a CUPS server in an untrusted network environment unless you ensure that it is protected by special firewall rules and secure settings in the CUPS configuration.

CUPS servers regularly announce the availability and condition information of shared printers over the network. Clients tin can admission this information to display a list of available printers in press dialogs, for example. This is called "browsing".

CUPS servers announce their print queues over the network either via the traditional CUPS browsing protocol, or via Bonjour/DNS-SD. To enable browsing network print queues, the service cups-browsed needs to run on all clients that print via CUPS servers. cups-browsed is not started by default. To kickoff it for the active session, use sudo systemctl commencement cups-browsed. To ensure it is automatically started after booting, enable it with sudo systemctl enable cups-browsed on all clients.

In case browsing does non work after having started cups-browsed, the CUPS server(s) probably announce the network impress queues via Bonjour/DNS-SD. In this example y'all need to additionally install the package avahi and showtime the associated service with sudo systemctl get-go avahi-daemon on all clients.

Encounter Section twenty.7.i, "CUPS and Firewall" for data on allowing printer browsing through firewalld.

The YaST printer configuration sets upward the queues for CUPS using the PPD files installed in /usr/share/cups/model. To find the suitable PPD files for the printer model, YaST compares the vendor and model determined during hardware detection with the vendors and models in all PPD files. For this purpose, the YaST printer configuration generates a database from the vendor and model data extracted from the PPD files.

The configuration using just PPD files and no other information sources has the reward that the PPD files in /usr/share/cups/model can be modified freely. For example, if y'all have PostScript printers the PPD files can be copied direct to /usr/share/cups/model (if they do not already exist in the manufacturer-PPDs or OpenPrintingPPDs-postscript packages) to achieve an optimum configuration for your printers.

Additional PPD files are provided by the following packages:

• gutenprint: the Gutenprint driver and its matching PPDs

• splix: the SpliX driver and its matching PPDs

• OpenPrintingPPDs-ghostscript: PPDs for Ghostscript born drivers

• OpenPrintingPPDs-hpijs: PPDs for the HPIJS commuter for non-HP printers

The following sections encompass some of the most frequently encountered printer hardware and software problems and ways to solve or circumvent these problems. Amongst the topics covered are GDI printers, PPD files and port configuration. Common network printer problems, defective printouts, and queue handling are also addressed.

20.8.1 Printers without Standard Printer Linguistic communication Support #Edit source

These printers do not support whatsoever mutual printer language and can only be addressed with special proprietary control sequences. Therefore they can simply piece of work with the operating organisation versions for which the manufacturer delivers a driver. GDI is a programming interface adult past Microsoft* for graphics devices. Ordinarily the manufacturer delivers drivers only for Windows, and since the Windows driver uses the GDI interface these printers are also called GDI printers . The actual trouble is not the programming interface, but that these printers tin only be addressed with the proprietary printer language of the corresponding printer model.

Some GDI printers can be switched to operate either in GDI way or in one of the standard printer languages. See the manual of the printer whether this is possible. Some models require special Windows software to practise the switch (note that the Windows printer driver may e'er switch the printer back into GDI fashion when printing from Windows). For other GDI printers there are extension modules for a standard printer linguistic communication available.

Some manufacturers provide proprietary drivers for their printers. The disadvantage of proprietary printer drivers is that there is no guarantee that these work with the installed print system or that they are suitable for the various hardware platforms. In contrast, printers that support a standard printer linguistic communication practise not depend on a special impress arrangement version or a special hardware platform.

Instead of spending time trying to brand a proprietary Linux driver work, information technology may be more price-effective to purchase a printer which supports a standard printer language (preferably PostScript). This would solve the commuter problem in one case and for all, eliminating the need to install and configure special driver software and obtain commuter updates that may be required because of new developments in the impress system.

xx.viii.2 No Suitable PPD File Available for a PostScript Printer #Edit source

If the manufacturer-PPDs or OpenPrintingPPDs-postscript packages do not contain a suitable PPD file for a PostScript printer, it should be possible to use the PPD file from the driver CD of the printer manufacturer or download a suitable PPD file from the Web page of the printer manufacturer.

If the PPD file is provided as a zip archive (.zippo) or a self-extracting zip annal (.exe), unpack it with unzip. Showtime, review the license terms of the PPD file. And then use the cupstestppd utility to check if the PPD file complies with "Adobe PostScript Printer Clarification File Format Specification, version 4.3." If the utility returns "Neglect," the errors in the PPD files are serious and are probable to cause major problems. The problem spots reported by cupstestppd should be eliminated. If necessary, ask the printer manufacturer for a suitable PPD file.

Identifying Network Bug

Connect the printer directly to the computer. For test purposes, configure the printer every bit a local printer. If this works, the issues are related to the network.

Checking the TCP/IP Network

The TCP/IP network and name resolution must be functional.

Checking a Remote lpd

Use the following command to test if a TCP connexion can be established to lpd (port 515) on HOST:

                    tux >                    netcat -z                    HOST                    515 && echo ok || echo failed

If the connection to lpd cannot be established, lpd may non be active or there may exist basic network issues.

Provided that the respective lpd is agile and the host accepts queries, run the following command as root to query a condition report for QUEUE on remote HOST:

                    root #                    echo -due east "\004queue" \ | netcat -westward two -p 722                    HOST                    515

If lpd does not answer, it may not exist active or in that location may be basic network problems. If lpd responds, the response should testify why printing is non possible on the queue on host. If you receive a response like that shown in Case 20.1, "Error Message from lpd", the trouble is caused past the remote lpd.

Instance 20.1: Mistake Message from lpd #

lpd: your host does non have line printer access lpd: queue does not exist printer: spooling disabled printer: printing disabled

Checking a Remote cupsd

A CUPS network server can broadcast its queues by default every 30 seconds on UDP port 631. Accordingly, the following control can be used to test whether there is a broadcasting CUPS network server in the network. Brand sure to stop your local CUPS daemon before executing the command.

                    tux >                    netcat -u -l -p 631 & PID=$! ; sleep twoscore ; kill $PID

If a broadcasting CUPS network server exists, the output appears as shown in Example xx.two, "Broadcast from the CUPS Network Server".

Example 20.2: Circulate from the CUPS Network Server #

ipp://192.168.2.202:631/printers/queue

IBM Z Have into business relationship that IBM Z Ethernet devices do not receive broadcasts by default.

The following command can be used to test if a TCP connexion can be established to cupsd (port 631) on HOST:

                    tux >                    netcat -z                    HOST                    631 && repeat ok || echo failed

If the connection to cupsd cannot be established, cupsd may not be active or there may be bones network problems. lpstat -h HOST -l -t returns a (maybe very long) status study for all queues on HOST, provided the respective cupsd is agile and the host accepts queries.

The next command tin can exist used to test if the QUEUE on HOST accepts a print job consisting of a single railroad vehicle-render character. Nothing should be printed. Possibly, a blank page may be ejected.

                    tux >                    echo -en "\r" \ | lp -d queue -h                    HOST                  

Troubleshooting a Network Printer or Impress Server Machine

Spoolers running in a print server machine sometimes crusade bug when they need to deal with multiple print jobs. Since this is caused by the spooler in the impress server car, at that place no way to resolve this result. As a work-around, circumvent the spooler in the impress server machine by addressing the printer continued to the print server motorcar directly with the TCP socket. Come across Department xx.4, "Network Printers".

In this mode, the impress server car is reduced to a converter between the various forms of information transfer (TCP/IP network and local printer connexion). To apply this method, you demand to know the TCP port on the print server machine. If the printer is continued to the print server automobile and turned on, this TCP port can commonly be adamant with the nmap utility from the nmap package some time subsequently the impress server machine is powered up. For example, nmap IP-address may deliver the post-obit output for a impress server machine:

Port       Country       Service 23/tcp     open        telnet 80/tcp     open        http 515/tcp    open        printer 631/tcp    open up        cups 9100/tcp   open        jetdirect

This output indicates that the printer continued to the print server car tin can be addressed via TCP socket on port 9100. By default, nmap only checks several commonly known ports listed in /usr/share/nmap/nmap-services. To check all possible ports, use the command nmap -p FROM_PORT-TO_PORTIP_ADDRESS. This may take some time. For further information, refer to the man page of nmap.

Enter a command like

                    tux >                    echo -en "\rHello\r\f" | netcat -west 1 IP-address port cat file | netcat -west 1 IP-address port

to send character strings or files directly to the respective port to exam if the printer can be addressed on this port.

20.8.4 Lacking Printouts without Error Message #Edit source

For the print organization, the impress task is completed when the CUPS back-stop completes the data transfer to the recipient (printer). If further processing on the recipient fails (for case, if the printer is not able to print the printer-specific data) the print system does not notice this. If the printer cannot print the printer-specific data, select a PPD file that is more suitable for the printer.

If the information transfer to the recipient fails entirely after several attempts, the CUPS back-end, such as USB or socket, reports an mistake to the print system (to cupsd). The dorsum-end determines how many unsuccessful attempts are appropriate until the data transfer is reported as impossible. Equally farther attempts would be in vain, cupsd disables printing for the corresponding queue. After eliminating the cause of the problem, the organization administrator must re-enable printing with the control cupsenable.

If a CUPS network server broadcasts its queues to the customer hosts via browsing and a suitable local cupsd is active on the customer hosts, the customer cupsd accepts print jobs from applications and forwards them to the cupsd on the server. When cupsd on the server accepts a print job, information technology is assigned a new job number. Therefore, the chore number on the client host is different from the job number on the server. As a print task is usually forwarded immediately, it cannot be deleted with the job number on the client host This is considering the customer cupsd regards the print chore as completed when it has been forwarded to the server cupsd.

To delete the print chore on the server, use a command such as lpstat -h cups.example.com -o to determine the task number on the server. This assumes that the server has non already completed the print job (that is, sent it completely to the printer). Use the obtained job number to delete the print job on the server as follows:

                tux >                cancel -h cups.example.com                QUEUE-JOBNUMBER              

20.8.7 Defective Impress Jobs and Information Transfer Errors #Edit source

If yous switch the printer off or close down the figurer during the printing process, impress jobs remain in the queue. Press resumes when the computer (or the printer) is switched dorsum on. Defective print jobs must be removed from the queue with cancel.

If a print job is corrupted or an error occurs in the advice between the host and the printer, the printer cannot process the information correctly and prints numerous sheets of paper with unintelligible characters. To fix the problem, follow these steps:

1. To stop printing, remove all paper from ink jet printers or open up the paper trays of laser printers. High-quality printers accept a button for canceling the current printout.

2. The print job may still be in the queue, considering jobs are only removed after they are sent completely to the printer. Utilise lpstat -o or lpstat -h cups.case.com -o to check which queue is currently press. Delete the print task with cancel QUEUE-JOBNUMBER or cancel -h cups.case.com QUEUE-JOBNUMBER.

3. Some data may nonetheless be transferred to the printer even though the print job has been deleted from the queue. Check if a CUPS dorsum-end procedure is still running for the respective queue and terminate it.

4. Reset the printer completely by switching information technology off for some time. Then insert the newspaper and turn on the printer.

Use the post-obit generic procedure to locate problems in CUPS:

1. Set up LogLevel debug in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.

2. Terminate cupsd.

3. Remove /var/log/cups/error_log* to avert having to search through very large log files.

4. Starting time cupsd.

5. Repeat the action that led to the problem.

6. Check the messages in /var/log/cups/error_log* to place the cause of the problem.

Source: https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP1/html/SLES-all/cha-print.html

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