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4.  Setting Up Printers (Tasks) Setting Up a Print Client  Previous   Contents   Next 
   
 

How to Add Printer Access With Solaris Print Manager

  1. Start Solaris Print Manager on the system where you want to add access to a remote printer.

    For instructions, see "How to Start Solaris Print Manager".

  2. Select Add Access to Printer from the Printer menu.

    The Add Access to Printer window is displayed.

  3. Fill in the window.

    If you need information to complete a field, click the Help button.

  4. Click OK.

  5. Verify that access to the printer is added by checking for the new printer entry in the Solaris Print Manager main window.

  6. Verify that the printer can print requests.

    $ lp -d printer-name filename

  7. Exit Solaris Print Manager.

    Choose Exit from the Print Manager Menu.

Example--Adding Printer Access With LP Commands

If you want to print to a remote printer, you must add access to the remote printer. This example shows how to configure access to a printer named luna, whose print server is saturn. The system saturn becomes a print client of the printer luna.

# lpadmin -p luna -s saturn 1
# lpadmin -p luna -D "Room 1954 ps" 2
# lpadmin -d luna 3
# lpstat -p luna 4

  1. Identifies the printer and the print server.

  2. Adds a description for the printer.

  3. Sets the printer as the system's default printer destination.

  4. Verifies that the printer is ready.

Setting Up a .printers File

There is no need to set up a .printers file in your users' home directories if they don't need customized printer information. However, the .printers file enables users to establish their own printer aliases. You can use the _default alias to make a printer the default. You can also set up a special _all alias to define a list of printers affected when you cancel a print request or check the status of printers.

Keep in mind that the use of the .printers file by the LP print service is controlled by the name service switch (/etc/nsswitch.conf). The default configuration is that the print service checks a user's home directory to locate printer configuration information before its checks the other name services. This means you can tailor a user's printer configuration file to use custom printer information rather than the shared information in the name service.

For more information about the .printers file, see printers(4). For more information about the name service switch, see nsswitch.conf(4).

How to Set Up a .printers File

  1. Log in to the user's system as superuser.

  2. Start the file editor you want to use to create a .printers file in the user's home directory.

  3. (Optional) Set up the _default alias to make a specific printer your default printer, using an entry similar to the one shown in the following example. 

    _default printer_name

  4. (Optional) Set up the _all alias to define the printers affected when you cancel a print request or check the status of printers, using an entry similar to the one shown in the next example. 

    _all printer1,printer2,printer3

  5. Save the file as .printers.

Adding a Network Printer

A network printer is a hardware device this is directly connect to the network. This means it can be accessed from a print server without actually connecting it the print server with a cable. It has its own system name and IP address. Even though a network printer is not connected to a print server, it is necessary to set up a print server for it. The print server provides queuing capabilities, filtering, and printing administration for the network printer.

Network printers might use one or more special protocols that require a vendor-supplied printing program. The procedures to set up the vendor-supplied printing program can vary. If the printer does not come with vendor supplied support, the Solaris network printer support can be used with most devices. Use the print vendor supplied software when possible.

The vendor might supply an SVR4 printer interface script to replace the standard printer interface script. If so, their SVR4 interface script will call the vendor-supplied printing program to send the job to the printer. If not, you will need to modify the standard interface script to call the vendor-supplied printing program. You can do this by editing the per-printer copy of the standard interface script to call the vendor-supplied printing program.

The terms used in network printer configuration are:

  • Print server - The machine that spools and schedules the jobs for a printer. This is the machine on which the printer is configured.

  • Printer-host device - The printer-host device is the software and hardware supplied by a vendor that provides network printer support for a non-network capable printer. The combination of the printer-host device with one or more printers attached to it creates a network printer.

  • Printer node - This is either the physical printer or the printer-host device. It is the physical printer when the network support resides in the physical printer. It is the printer-host device when an external box is used to provide the network interface. The printer node name is the machine name given with the IP address. This name is selected by the system administrator and has no default or vendor requirement. The printer node name, as with all nodes, must be unique.

  • Printer name - The name entered on the command line when using any of the printer commands. It is selected by the system administrator at the time of printer configuration. Any one physical printer can have several printer or queue names; each provides access to the printer.

  • Destination or network printer access name - The internal name of the printer node port that is used by the printer subsystem to access the printer. It is the name of the printer node, or the name of the printer node with a printer vendor port designation. Any printer vendor port designation is explicitly defined in the printer vendor documentation. It is printer specific. In the case where the printer is a printer-host device and a printer, the port designation is documented in the printer-host device documentation. The format is:

    printer_node_name

    or

    printer_node_name:port_designation

  • Protocol - The over-the-wire protocol used to communicate with the printer. The printer vendor documentation supplies the information regarding the protocol to select. The network printer support supplies both BSD Printer Protocol and raw TCP. Due to implementation variations, you might want to try both.

  • Timeout, or retry interval Timeout - Is a seed number representing the number of seconds to wait between attempting connections to the printer. This seed number is the smallest amount of time to wait between attempted connections, and increases with an increase in failed connections. After repeated failures to connect to the printer, a message is returned to the user requesting possible human intervention. Attempts to reconnect continue until successful or the job is cancelled by the job owner.

Printer Vendor Supplied Software for Network Printers

Network printers often have software support provided by the printer vendor. If your printer has printer vendor supplied software, use the printer vendor software when possible. The software is designed to support the attributes of the printer and can take full advantage of the printer capabilities. Read the printer vendor documentation to install and configure the printer under an LP print system.

 		 
 
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