Prerequisite
You must be admin (root) in order to do the installation (all linux distributions are not as strict)
How to install the driver
You first have to install the correct driver for the chosen printer. The generic drivers may suffice, but may not let you specify more options at the printer’s interface, so it is recommended to install a specific driver.
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How to install the queue (for example the queue named “myPrint-Color”)
The installation is done in one command, you can always add or change options later. The command is lpadmin. It has many options which you can see with the command ‘man lpadmin’. Here are the most important ones:
-p [pool or file name] : specify the printer’s name. Choose a name without special characters like dash (-), this could be a source of issues.
-E : activate directly the selected printer
-v [url to the printing queue] : specify the url for the pool or the printing queue
-P [path to the PPD] : specify a path to a PPD for the printer
-o : allows to specify other settings for the printer.
MAC OS X USER : Warning ! Depending on your OS, you may have to use the argument below :
-o auth-info-required=username,password (without replacing ‘username’ nor ‘password’)
By using it, you will avoid authentication problems on some systems.
Installation command template :
Note : depending on your OS, you may need to add ‘sudo ‘ in front of this command.
lpadmin -p <name> -E -v <protocol>://<username>@<server>/<printer> -P <PPD_path>
where :
- <name> is the name that you give to the printer : choose it without special chars, e.g. “SecurePrintColor”.
- <protocol> will be lpd for linux, and smb for Mac OS.
- <username> is your EPFL (Gaspard) username.
- <server> is the printer server :
- printEPFL1.epfl.ch : access to the students deserved printing pool.
- printEPFL2.epfl.ch : access to the co-workers deserved printing pool.
- printEPFL3.epfl.ch : access to the off-pool printers and tracers.
- <printer> : is name of the printing queue or pool. The pools are named SecurePrint-Color (color pool) and SecurePrint-BW (black/white pool), they’re located in printEPFL 1 or 2.
- <PPD_path> is the directory to your PPD file. Normally it is /usr/share/cups/model/PPD-6555i… for the color pool and /usr/share/cups/model/PPD-6555i… for the BW pool.
Example : Roger Federer (a student) wants to install the Color Pool on its Linux computer :
sudo lpadmin -p ColorPoolRoger -E -v lpd://[email protected]/SecurePrint-Color -P /usr/share/cups/model/PPD-C5560i-color.ppd
With the options of the lpadmin command, it is possible to configure the printer after having installed it. It is normally not necessary, since the PPD file already contains the printer properties.
However, a few options might be useful.
For example, if Roger want to make the pool accessible to all users of his computer :
lpadmin -p ColorPoolRoger -u allow:all