Configuring CUPS to print to papercut queues
Out of the box most Linux systems (and Macs I believe) come configured to use their own local cups daemon. The simplest way to print to papercut is to configure a queue on this service.
1. Check that client.conf isn’t pointing to a central service. My /etc/cups/client.conf only has commented lines in it. A blank or missing file would do.
2. Make sure the cupsd service is enabled. You may need to add yourself to a group listed in the SystemGroup directive (in /etc/cups/cups-files.conf) and restart cups so you can configure the cups queue via the GUI. Typically an lpadmin group exists to which you can add yourself, then ensure this group is listed in the directive
e.g. SystemGroup sys root lpadmin
3. CUPS GUI. This lives on http://localhost:631 Navigate via Administration; (authenticate) Add Printer (wait for the looking thing to time out); LPD/LPR Host or Printer; connection is lpd://papercut/printers; give it a name (description and location are optional); supply one of the two PPDs; Set default options – choose A4 plus whatever other defaults you like. (duplex, collation etc)
3.1 Xerox-WorkCentre_7345-pxlcolor.ppd (save link as papercut.ppd file) – This allows you to specify colour or greyscale, but doesn’t let you specify stapling or holepunch options.
UPDATE – 31/7 – While this works perfectly on Centos 6.6, my testing on Centos 7.1 suggests that only the ‘print quality’ toggle lets you choose between colour and greyscale effectively. It’s not at all clear why. I recommend setting the default on the CUPS queue to be ‘normal greyscale’ and then choosing ‘normal’ for when you really do want a colour print.
3.2 xrx7855.ppd (save link as papercut.ppd) – This allows you to specify stapling and holepunch options, but seems to only let you print colour.
4. User configuration.
Jobs need to be submitted using your crsid so that papercut knows who you are and you can release jobs with your card. If the linux system you are setting up doesn’t use crsid accounts, you may need to set some lpoptions appropriately. Patrick reports that adding a line such as:
Default papercut user=jpmg1
to your ~/.cups/lpoptions file has the desired effect.
An alternative if it is a single user machine is to specify the user in the lpd string you give to cups. e.g.
lpd://js138@papercut/printers
5. Print a test page
Notes.
It may be possible to generate a PPD which combines the functionality of the two above, but I haven’t managed it yet, and nor have Xerox.
I followed the steps up to 3.1 (set PPD, name, and location), hit “next”, and got “client-error-not-possible”. Has this been done via eduroam before? (I’ve used lpd://papercut.eng.cam.ac.uk/printers ) and the device which I want to set up does not have a wired internet port.
It is possible to print from eduroam and it requires the fully qualified name, as you have specified. I’ll engage with your specific problems in a helpdesk ticket.