Installed Generic PPD's

Question

Level 1

4 points

Installed Generic PPD's

Greetings,

so I am attempting to script add some printers in osx.

when selecting either the Generic.PPD or the GenericPrinter.PPD, it works well for any printer with a PostScript module installed.

*HOWEVER* we have one that is only PCL (5, 6 doesn't matter).

If I install a printer via the GUI, I have a drop down option for a Generic PCL printer.

I cannot find the proper PPD for that generic PCL.

I am wondering if it's an option flag on Generic.PPD, GenericPrinter.PPD, or another driver entirely.

Attempting to make this as easy for end users as possible. I could command line install a driver, but the packages are generally huge, and altogether accident prone, so if I can use the system default generic drivers that absolutely everyone would have, it makes my universe entirely more pleasant.

Let me know if anyone has tried this, or if they know where the magical PCL generic ppd may live.

Posted on Jul 20, 2015 5:01 PM

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Answer 1

Pele_01 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 20, 2015 5:28 PM in response to Pele_01

code sample is as follows:

#Adds Printer_1

lpadmin -E -p Printer_1 -v LPD://DNS_Address/Printer_1 -P /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ PrintCore.framework/Versions/A/Resources/GenericPrinter.ppd -o printer-is-shared=false

cupsenable Printer_1

cupsaccept Printer_1

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Answer 2

folksong

Level 1

120 points

Jul 20, 2015 5:58 PM in response to Pele_01

Pele_01 wrote:

code sample is as follows:

#Adds Printer_1

lpadmin -E -p Printer_1 -v LPD://DNS_Address/Printer_1 -P /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ PrintCore.framework/Versions/A/Resources/GenericPrinter.ppd -o printer-is-shared=false

cupsenable Printer_1

cupsaccept Printer_1

Yes, that looks correct. Unfortunately there isn't a static file like that for the Generic PCL printer. I added a generic PCL printer and looked at the CUPS error_log (debugging enabled) and found that the Generic PCL ppd is generated at the time of adding the printer.

/usr/libexec/cups/daemon/cups-driverd cat drv:///sample.drv/generpcl.ppd

There does appear to be a DEBUG2 line before the ppd is actually generated. I don't know if that is because I have debugging enabled or not. I think you get the idea and can get the rest of the details sorted out.

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Answer 3

folksong

Level 1

120 points

Jul 20, 2015 6:15 PM in response to Pele_01

Pele_01 wrote:

I'll see if I can search, find, and move the generpcl.ppd to a single uniform location (or generate one and script copy it to the right place).

Thank you Folksong.

Please re-read my post. Your search will be in vain. There is no file copy of the genericpcl.ppd. The system generates it each and every time a Generic PCL printer is added.

You can generate the ppd using the command I gave previously and store it somewhere for distribution if you want. You could also script it to write the file before you add the printer via command line. Example:

/usr/libexec/cups/daemon/cups-driverd cat drv:///sample.drv/generpcl.ppd >> /tmp/genericpcl.ppd

You would still have to deal with any extraneous lines at the beginning.

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