Setting Up Directly Attached Printers by Using LP Print Service Commands

The following table describes each printer attribute to help you determine the information that is needed to set up a directly attached printer by using the lpadmin command.

Printer Definition	LP Print Command Option	Description	Example	Default Setting	Required/Optional?
Printer Name	-p	Name of printer	laser1	N/A	Required to install an attached or network printer and to add access to a printer
Print server		Name of print server	venus	Use localhost for Printer Server attribute check box selected by default	Required to install an attached or network printer and to add access to a printer — This field is filled in by the tool
Description	-d	User defined string	laser printer near breakroom	N/A	Optional
Printer Port	-v	Device that the printer is attached to	/dev/term/a	/dev/term/a	Required to install an attached printer
Printer Type	-T	Type of printer	unknown	PostScript	Required to install an attached printer or a network printer without PPD files
File Content Type	-I	Content to be printed	any	PostScript	Required to install an attached printer or a network printer without PPD files
PPD file name	-n	Full path to the PPD file and file name with .ppd extension.	path/necprinter.ppd	N/A	Optional
Fault Notification	-A	Specifies how to notify user of errors	-A mail	Write to superuser	Optional
Default Printer	-d	Identifies the default printer	N/A	N/A	Optional
Banner Page control Menu:	-o	Select whether to print banner page	-o banner=never	-o banner=optional	Optional

How to Add a New Directly Attached Printer by Using LP Print Service Commands

This procedure describes how to add a new attached printer specifying a PPD file. The -n option to the lpadmin command enables you to specify a PPD file when adding a new attached printer or modifying an existing attached printer. Two examples follow this procedure. The first example shows you how to add a new attached printer with PPD files. The second example shows you how to add a new attached printer without PPD files.

1. Connect the printer to the system, and turn on the power to the printer.

   Consult the printer vendor's installation documentation for information about the hardware switches and cabling requirements.

2. Collect the information that is required to configure an attached printer with PPD files.

   • Printer name and port device

   • File content type

   • PPD file

   To determine the PPD file that the printer will use, first define the printer make, model, and driver.

   For overview information about using PPD files when adding a new printer or modifying an existing printer by using LP print service commands, see What's New in Printing?.

3. Define the printer name, port device, file content type, and PPD file that the printer will use.

   When using PPD files, the file content type is typically PostScript.

   1. Specify the printer name and the port device that the printer will use.

      # lpadmin -p printer-name -v /dev/printers/0

      The device to use is /dev/printers/0.

      You can now use the -s option with the lpadmin command to specify the print service host name as localhost. For more information, see How to Use LP Print Commands to Add a Print Queue With localhost Specified as the Host Name.

   2. Specify the interface script that the printer will use.

      # lpadmin -p printer-name -m standard_foomatic

   3. Specify the file content type and the PPD file that the printer will use.

      # lpadmin -p printer-name -I content-type -n /path/ppdfile

      The PPD file that you supply is located in the /path directory.

      ---

      Note - If /path is not a PPD file repository on the system, then a copy of the PPD file is placed in the user label directory in the user PPD file repository. For more information, see Administering PPD Files by Using the PPD File Management Utility (Task Map).

      ---

   4. Specify the printer description.

      # lpadmin -p printer-name -D "printer-description"

   For more information, see the lpadmin(1M) man page.

4. (Optional) Add filters to the print server.

   # cd /etc/lp/fd
   # for filter in *.fd;do
       > name=`basename $filter .fd`
       > lpfilter -f $ name-F $ filter
       > done

5. Enable the printer to accept print requests and to print those requests.

   # accept printer-name
   # enable printer-name

6. Verify that the printer is correctly configured.

   # lpstat -p printer-name -l

   The output of the lpstat command will list the PPD file that you used.

Example 4-1 Adding a New Directly Attached Printer With PPD Files by Using LP Print Service Commands

This example shows how to add a new attached printer with PPD files. The -n option to the lpadmin command enables you to add a new print queue by specifying PPD files. The following information is used as an example.

The information that you provide might vary from the following:

• Printer name: paper

• Port device: /dev/printers/0

• File content type: postscript

• PPD file: /path/Lexmark-Optra_E312-Postscript.ppd.gz

# lpadmin -p paper -v /dev/printers/0 (1)
# lpadmin -p paper -I postscript (2)
# lpadmin -p paper -m standard_footmatic (3)
# lpadmin -p paper -n /path/Lexmark-Optra_E312-Postscript.ppd.gz(4)
# lpadmin -p paper -D "Color printer on third floor, rm 3003" (5)
# cd /etc/lp/fd

# accept paper
    destination “paper” now accepting requests 
# enable paper    (6) 
printer “paper” now enabled 
# lpstat -p paper (7)
printer paper is idle. enabled since Feb 28 11:21 2004...

1. Defines the printer name and the port device that the printer will use

2. Sets the file content types to which the printer can print to directly

3. Specifies the interface script for utilizing PPD files

   ---

   Note - This command also copies the PPD file to the user label in the user PPD file repository, if /path is not in an existing PPD file repository on the system.

   ---

4. Specifies the path to the PPD file and the PPD file name

5. Adds a description for the printer

6. Accepts print requests for the printer and enables the printer

7. Verifies that the printer is ready for printing

Example 4-2 Adding a New Directly Attached Printer Without PPD Files by Using LP Print Service Commands

This example shows how to add a new attached printer without PPD files. The commands in this example must be executed on the print server where the printer is connected. The following information is used as an example.

The information that you provide might vary from the following:

• Printer name: luna

• Port device: /dev/term/b

• Printer type: PS

• File content type: postscript

  # chown lp /dev/term/b
  # chmod 600 /dev/term/b (1)
  # lpadmin -p luna -v /dev/term/b (2)
  # lpadmin -p luna -T PS (3)
  # lpadmin -p luna -I postscript (4)
  # lpadmin -p luna -D "Room 1954 ps" (5)
  # cd /etc/lp/fd
  
  # accept luna
  destination “luna” now accepting requests 
  # enable luna (6) 
  printer “luna” now enabled 
  # lpstat -p luna (7)
  printer luna is idle.enabled since Feb 28 11:21 2003.available

1. Gives lp ownership and sole access to a port device

2. Defines the printer name and the port device that the printer will use

3. Sets the printer type of the printer

4. Specifies the file content types to which the printer can print directly

5. Adds a description for the printer

6. Accepts print requests for the printer and enables the printer

7. Verifies that the printer is ready for printing

See Also

• How to Add Printer Access by Using Solaris Print Manager to add printer access on a print client.

• How to Set Up a .printers File to allow users to customize printer aliases.

How to Use LP Print Commands to Add a Print Queue With localhost Specified as the Host Name

This procedure shows how to use LP print commands to add a local print queue with localhost specified as the host name in the print system databases. This modification was added to enable print servers to maintain the same print host name, independent of the machine host name. Note that you can also modify a print queue by using these commands.

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Set the print host name to localhost.

   # lpadmin -p new-print-queue -s localhost -v device

3. Check the entry in the /etc/printers.conf file.

   % lpget new-print-queue
   new-print-queue:
           bsdaddr=abc,new-print-queue,Solaris

   If the print queue was created or modified successfully, the output of the lpget command returns the name of the new or modified print queue.

Example 4-3 Adding a Print Queue by Specifying localhost as the Host Name

This example shows how to add a new print queue, paper, by using the lpadmin command with the -s option to specify localhost as the host name.

% su - root
# lpadmin -p paper -s localhost -v /dev/ecpp0

% lpget paper
paper:
        bsdaddr=localhost,paper,Solaris

Example 4-4 Adding a Print Queue by Using the Default Behavior of lpadmin to Specify the Host Name

This example shows the default behavior of the lpadmin command for using system host name, abc, when adding a new print queue.

% su - root
# lpadmin -p newspaper -v /dev/printers/0

% lpget newspaper
fargo:
        bsdaddr=abc,newspaper,Solaris

Example 4-5 Modifying a Print Queue to Use the Local Host as the Print Server Name

This example shows how to modify an existing print queue, newspaper, and specify localhost as the new print server name.

% su - root
# lpadmin -p newspaper -s localhost

# lpget newspaper
newspaper:
        bsdaddr=localhost,newspaper,Solaris

See Also

For information about specifying localhost as the print server's host name when adding or modifying a print queue with Solaris Print Manager, see How to Use Solaris Print Manager to Add a Print Queue With the Local Host Specified as the Host Name.