Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

By William Ball

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Lead Authors
  • About the Contributing Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • I. Red Hat Linux Installation and User Services
  • Chapter 1. Introduction to Red Hat Linux
  • Chapter 2. Installation of Your Red Hat System
  • Chapter 3. LILO and Other Boot Managers
  • Chapter 4. Configuring the X Window System, Version 11
  • Chapter 5. Window Managers
  • Chapter 6. Connecting to the Internet
  • Chapter 7. IRC, ICQ, and Chat Clients
  • Chapter 8. Using Multimedia and Graphics Clients
  • II. Configuring Services
  • Chapter 9. System Startup and Shutdown
  • Chapter 10. SMTP and Protocols
  • Chapter 11. FTP
  • Chapter 12. Apache Server
  • Chapter 13. Internet News
  • Chapter 14. Domain Name Service and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
  • Chapter 15. NIS: Network Information Service
  • Chapter 16. NFS: Network Filesystem
  • Chapter 17. Samba
  • III. System Administration and Management
  • Chapter 18. Linux Filesystems, Disks, and Other Devices
  • Chapter 19. Printing with Linux
    • Printer Devices
    • What Printer Should I Use with Linux?
    • How Do I Print?
    • printtool The Red Hat Linux Print System Manager
    • Linux Printing Commands
    • Other Helpful Printer Programs and Filters
    • Infrared Printer Support
    • Other Helpful Programs
    • Troubleshooting and More Information
    • Summary
  • Chapter 20. TCP/IP Network Management
  • Chapter 21. Linux System Administration
  • Chapter 22. Backup and Restore
  • Chapter 23. System Security
  • IV. Red Hat Development and Productivity
  • Chapter 24. Linux C/C++ Programming Tools
  • Chapter 25. Shell Scripting
  • Chapter 26. Automating Tasks
  • Chapter 27. Configuring and Building Kernels
  • Chapter 28. Emulators, Tools, and Window Clients
  • V. Appendixes
  • A. The Linux Documentation Project
  • B. Top Linux Commands and Utilities
  • C. The GNU General Public License
  • D. Red Hat Linux RPM Package Listings

Troubleshooting and More Information

I'll offer some general tips on troubleshooting printing and then give some pointers to more information. You should not have trouble with printing under Linux, but if you can't seem to get started, try some of these hints:

• Make sure your printer cable is properly connected to your computer and printer.
• Make sure your printer is on.
• Ensure that you have specified lpd service. Ensure that the lpd daemon is running; you can try using the ntsysv command as root to ensure the service is started the next time you boot Linux, or you can use the command:

  # /etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd start
  
        

• Make sure the kernel daemon is active. (This loads the printer driver module when needed.)
• Ensure you have the parport.o, parport_pc.o, and lp.o modules available and installed on your system. Also ensure you have a correct entry for the parport modules in your /etc/modules.conf file.
• Avoid PPA or Windows-only printers if you do not get satisfactory results.
• Make sure you select the correct printer filter for your printer with the printtool command, and use different names for local and remote printers.

Still having problems? See the man pages for tunelp, printcap, lpd, lpr, lpq, lprm, and lpc. Curiously, there is no man page for the printtool program, but its Help menu shows some general information and troubleshooting tips.

For information about the BSD printing system, read Ralph Campbell's abstract "4.3BSD Line Printer Spooler Manual," which is part of the 4.4BSD System Manager's Manual, tabbed section 7.

For an excellent introduction to LPRng, see Patrick Powell's abstract "LPRng—An Enhanced Printer Spooler." This 13-page document, in PostScript or text format, includes the history, architecture, configuration, operation, and algorithm of the spooler software. You can find it or the LPRng FAQ at http://www.astart.com/lprng/LPRng.html or look at the files Intro.txt or Intro.ps in the doc directory of the LPRng sources.

To join the LPRng mailing list, send a subscribe message to plp- request@iona.ie.

For detailed information about printing under Linux, read The Linux Printing HOWTO by Grant Taylor. The Linux Printing HOWTO contains a host of great tips, tricks, traps, and hacks concerning printing under Linux, including setups for serial printers and network printing.

Also read The Linux Printing Usage HOWTO by Mark Komarinski (see http://www.linuxdoc.org).

Don't forget to peruse the following newsgroups for information about printers, PostScript, or Linux printing:

     comp.lang.postscript

     comp.laser-printers

     comp.os.linux.hardware

     comp.os.linux.setup

     comp.periphs.printers

     comp.sources.postscript

     comp.sys.hp.hardware

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