Print from 10.4.3 to FreeBSD print server

Question

Print from 10.4.3 to FreeBSD print server

I have been pulling my hair out for 3 days now trying to get Tiger to print to a FreeBSD box on my home lan.

On FreeBSD, I have set up and configured the printers with apsfilter.
They work fine from FreeBSD.

When I tell the Printer Setup Utility in Tiger to add a printer, no matter whether I tell it IPP or LPD, nothing prints.

I get either "Job Stopped" or "Printer is busy".

I do have connectivity, I can ping, ssh, and connect to the nfs share on the FreeBSD machine.

How can I troubleshoot this?

Thanks,
Charles

PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Dec 3, 2005 11:59 PM

Reply

Answer 1

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Dec 4, 2005 7:29 AM in response to Charles Howse

I only have experience with CUPS (on linux), but I know the exact queue name is a requirement for the LPD protocol. Did you enter the queue name in Printer Setup?

The behavior of the queue on BSD is important to understand - does it expect postscript input and translate that, or is it a raw queue?

What printer?

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 4, 2005 9:32 AM in response to greg sahli

Hi Greg,
Yes, I enter the queue name 'HP1100'. That's it's name in /etc/printcap on FreeBSD.

Here's my printcap from FreeBSD. Maybe that will answer your question about the queue.
Actually, I think it will take either plain text or postscript, and translate that to PCL.

# APS1_BEGIN:printer1
# - don't delete start label for apsfilter printer1
# - no other printer defines between BEGIN and END LABEL
HP1100|ljet4;r=300x300;q=medium;c=full;p=letter;m=auto:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:\
:if=/usr/local/etc/apsfilter/basedir/bin/apsfilter:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/HP1100:\
:lf=/var/spool/lpd/HP1100/log:\
:af=/var/spool/lpd/HP1100/acct:\
:mx#0:\
:sh:
# APS1_END - don't delete this

The printer is an HP1100 LaserJet. Non-postscript.

The only line in /var/spool/lpd/HP1100/log is:
apsfilter warning: unknown option 'moe.local'

moe.local is my FreeBSD machine's full name.

Reply

Answer 3

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Dec 4, 2005 11:14 AM in response to Charles Howse

OK - are you using a CUPS driver for the LJ 1100 on OS X?
You have to have a CUPS driver for network printing - the HP driver is only for USB.
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/hpijs/
(need both hpijs and ESP ghostscript)

Reply

Answer 4

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Dec 4, 2005 11:33 AM in response to greg sahli

And I'm pretty sure the queue name in your printcap is lpt0. Enter that for queue name in OS X Printer Setup.

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 4, 2005 11:35 AM in response to greg sahli

No, not using a CUPS driver.
While I'm downloading those files, can you confirm that the lack of a proper driver is causing the 'busy signals' I'm getting when trying to print to FreeBSD?

Reply

Answer 6

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Dec 4, 2005 11:58 AM in response to Charles Howse

Busy signal is from wrong queue name.

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 4, 2005 12:43 PM in response to greg sahli

OK, installed both those img files successfully.
Now I have more printers to choose from in Printer Setup.

I reset the printing system, rebooted, added IPP printer with:
Protocol: IPP
Host: Moe (returned: valid hostname)
Queue Name: (tried: lpt0, HP1100, [blank])
Printer Brand: HP
Driver: LaserJet 1100 foomatic/hpijs
Name: HP1100
Location: Moe

Tried printing a plain-text file, still getting a busy signal.

There are no errors in /private/var/log/cups/error_log except when I stop the job because of the busy signal.

$ lpc status all
returns nothing

I know the 'printer' daemon is listening on port 515 on FreeBSD:

[charles@larry:~]$ telnet moe 515
Trying 192.168.254.4...
Connected to moe.
Escape character is '^]'.
^]
telnet> quit
Connection closed

Print services are available, or I would have gotten a "Print-services are not available for your host [larry]"

What now?

Reply

Answer 8

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Dec 4, 2005 2:27 PM in response to Charles Howse

You have enabled the LPR/LPD printing protocol on BSD (what printcap is for) but not IPP.

Reply

Answer 9

Dec 4, 2005 3:46 PM in response to greg sahli

Ouch! OK, and since you didn't tell me how to do that, I assume you don't know?

Reply

Answer 10

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Dec 4, 2005 4:18 PM in response to Charles Howse

On OS X, you should ADD the printer using IP printer > LPD, since that's what you have enabled on BSD.

IP > IPP is what a CUPS installation provides (on port 631).

Reply

Answer 11

Dec 5, 2005 12:23 AM in response to greg sahli

Problem solved!
I had to install CUPS on the FreeBSD box.
After that, it was a snap to print from the Mac and from Windows.
Credit to:
http://www.freebsdforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15325&highlight=Printing

Reply