[ale] printing fun

[Jim Kinney via Ale]

I rarely print any more but when I need to... lately I pull out my
hair.

cups can print perfect test pages all day long. HP printing widget
stuff can print test pages all day long. Printer is a well supported HP
laserjet pro M501dn.

I can't print from any application correctly. When I print an email
message all I get are the vertical stripes where the quoted section
begins. Print to pdf, view pdf, looks fine, print pdf, get nothing but
bars, no text of any kind.

The applications I failed with so far are evolution email, LibreOffice
docs - the only two environments I ever actually print from. No cups
logs with anything.

Firefox can print (ctl-P, select printer, print).

Ideas, directions to look in , etc., would be appreciated.
--
James P. Kinney III

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain

http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/

[Kyle Brieden via Ale]

I've found, lately, that network printers aren't worth the trouble to
"set up" on my machine. Just navigate a web browser to port 80 on the
printer's IP and load up the web UI. With most modern printers,
there'll be a "submit document to print" button or form. Upload your
PDF there and the printer will make it into a real boy... er, document
pretty promptly.

---
Very respectfully,
Kyle Brieden

On 14-12-2017 17:42, Jim Kinney via Ale wrote:
> I rarely print any more but when I need to... lately I pull out my
> hair.
>
> cups can print perfect test pages all day long. HP printing widget
> stuff can print test pages all day long. Printer is a well supported
> HP laserjet pro M501dn.
>
> I can't print from any application correctly. When I print an email
> message all I get are the vertical stripes where the quoted section
> begins. Print to pdf, view pdf, looks fine, print pdf, get nothing but
> bars, no text of any kind.
>
> The applications I failed with so far are evolution email, LibreOffice
> docs - the only two environments I ever actually print from. No cups
> logs with anything.
>
> Firefox can print (ctl-P, select printer, print).
>
> Ideas, directions to look in , etc., would be appreciated.
>
> --
>
> James P. Kinney III Every time you stop a school, you will have to
> build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's
> like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog. - Speech
> 11/23/1900 Mark Twain http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> ***@ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

[DJ-Pfulio via Ale]

On 12/14/2017 05:52 PM, Kyle Brieden via Ale wrote:
> I've found, lately, that network printers aren't worth the trouble to "set up"
> on my machine.  Just navigate a web browser to port 80 on the printer's IP and
> load up the web UI.  With most modern printers, there'll be a "submit document
> to print" button or form.  Upload your PDF there and the printer will make it
> into a real boy... er, document pretty promptly.

Load up Ubuntu into a VM and test. Bet it will "just work."
I print about 50 pgs a year, most of those are tax forms.

The only real issue I have with the printer is that it needs to be turned on to
print. Have you checked that? ;)

Another option is to print to PDF from any client, then use lp or lpr directly
to print the PDF. That **always** works here. Mainly use that with airline
boarding passes when I'm in a hurry.
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[Solomon Peachy via Ale]

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 05:52:19PM -0500, Kyle Brieden via Ale wrote:
> I've found, lately, that network printers aren't worth the trouble to "set
> up" on my machine. Just navigate a web browser to port 80 on the printer's
> IP and load up the web UI. With most modern printers, there'll be a "submit
> document to print" button or form. Upload your PDF there and the printer
> will make it into a real boy... er, document pretty promptly.

If you're using a modern-ish printer, especially one that uses
postscript (like I'm sure the LaserJet does) then it's already fully
IPP-enabled with zeroconf.

So a modern Linux distro will auto-discover the printer and set up the
necessary "driver" (really just a matter of fetching the PPD from the
printer) without any user interaction whatsoever.

- Solomon
--
Solomon Peachy pizza at shaftnet dot org
Coconut Creek, FL ^^ (email/xmpp) ^^
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

[Jeff Hubbs via Ale]

I learned about "institutional" PC printing in a Banyan VINES
environment; back then, printers were only ever hooked up to machines
and a shared printer had to be connected to a PC that was up and running
and had logged into the VINES system once since booting. Next time I
revisited this it was in my Windows NT days and Microsoft's own (I
confess, excellent) books described queue arrangements in which PCs not
only didn't print directly to print devices, they suggested making it
where they *couldn't* by putting network printers on their own network
subnet.

Since then, I don't think I've ever worked anyplace where networked
printers were set up that way; rather, folks' PCs are expected to
connect to any printer directly and they just let print jobs collide at
the printer whenever and wherever. Now, at A Former Employer (tm) there
was a captive web app arrangement where a dozen or so Linux Tomcat
servers submitted print jobs to CUPS servers that held a couple thousand
queues and in my last weeks there I did a lot of work to simplify and
improve the reliability and manageability of that whole arrangement; I
never got to put it into production but because the printing plant was
mission-critical I had designed a STONITH cluster arrangement to handle
the CUPS load. I also did away with all the different print drivers and
the fussiness associated with keeping track of which driver was selected
for each printer by going PostScript for all of the laser printers, but
I determined that there was one model of HP printer we used /whose
PostScript implementation was defective/! I wound up scripting an
automatic net-walk and firmware detect/replace operation that acted on
hundreds of these printers. Ultimately the new printing plant wasn't put
in production because an initiative to replace the last of the remaining
defective leased printers that couldn't be updated remotely never
happened even though I'd been told it had. But even there, general
desktop/laptop printing was ad hoc just like I'd seen most everywhere else.

Another takeaway from that work and other situations I've encountered is
that any application that generates some kind of structured paper form
out of printers should render its original document in
hand-written-but-software-filled PostScript. I have seen a lot of
heartburn come from trying to generate forms in some proprietary package
or using Word/Excel macros and it never seemed to me that in the longer
run it was worth the up-front effort supposedly saved. Once you've
worked out how to render a doc in PostScript once, it's usually pretty
simple to modify even for people who've never seen bare PostScript
before and doing that cuts out at least one layer of stuff out of your
dependency stack.

Have any of you ever worked anyplace where network printing was all
properly queue-backed and shut away from regular net traffic?

On 12/15/17 9:38 AM, Solomon Peachy via Ale wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 05:52:19PM -0500, Kyle Brieden via Ale wrote:
>> I've found, lately, that network printers aren't worth the trouble to "set
>> up" on my machine. Just navigate a web browser to port 80 on the printer's
>> IP and load up the web UI. With most modern printers, there'll be a "submit
>> document to print" button or form. Upload your PDF there and the printer
>> will make it into a real boy... er, document pretty promptly.
> If you're using a modern-ish printer, especially one that uses
> postscript (like I'm sure the LaserJet does) then it's already fully
> IPP-enabled with zeroconf.
>
> So a modern Linux distro will auto-discover the printer and set up the
> necessary "driver" (really just a matter of fetching the PPD from the
> printer) without any user interaction whatsoever.
>
> - Solomon
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> ***@ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

[Solomon Peachy via Ale]

On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 10:50:40AM -0500, Jeff Hubbs via Ale wrote:
> Have any of you ever worked anyplace where network printing was all properly
> queue-backed and shut away from regular net traffic?

Several, actually. Including the current place.

(Though at the current place sufficiently clued users can directly talk
to the printers, which I do because I don't like sending my jobs
halfway around the world. And the queues are on Windows Servers which
means as a Linux user I have to jump through extra hoops to use them
that way -- especially when zeroconf JustWorks(tm) and yields a
superior experience...)

- Solomon
--
Solomon Peachy pizza at shaftnet dot org
Coconut Creek, FL ^^ (email/xmpp) ^^
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

[Lightner, Jeffrey via Ale]

" just a matter of fetching the PPD from the printer"

PPDs can be obtained from the printers themselves? How would one do that manually?

-----Original Message-----
From: Ale [mailto:ale-***@ale.org] On Behalf Of Solomon Peachy via Ale
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 9:39 AM
To: Kyle Brieden; Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Cc: Jim Kinney
Subject: Re: [ale] printing fun

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 05:52:19PM -0500, Kyle Brieden via Ale wrote:
> I've found, lately, that network printers aren't worth the trouble to
> "set up" on my machine. Just navigate a web browser to port 80 on the
> printer's IP and load up the web UI. With most modern printers,
> there'll be a "submit document to print" button or form. Upload your
> PDF there and the printer will make it into a real boy... er, document pretty promptly.

If you're using a modern-ish printer, especially one that uses postscript (like I'm sure the LaserJet does) then it's already fully IPP-enabled with zeroconf.

So a modern Linux distro will auto-discover the printer and set up the necessary "driver" (really just a matter of fetching the PPD from the
printer) without any user interaction whatsoever.

- Solomon
--
Solomon Peachy pizza at shaftnet dot org
Coconut Creek, FL ^^ (email/xmpp) ^^
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
***@ale.org
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

[Stephen R. Blevins via Ale]

I can't help you. I always connect via USB and "install."

Stephen R. Blevins
***@gmail.com

On 12/14/2017 05:42 PM, Jim Kinney via Ale wrote:
> I rarely print any more but when I need to... lately I pull out my hair.
>
> cups can print perfect test pages all day long. HP printing widget stuff
> can print test pages all day long. Printer is a well supported HP
> laserjet pro M501dn.
>
> I can't print from any application correctly. When I print an email
> message all I get are the vertical stripes where the quoted section
> begins. Print to pdf, view pdf, looks fine, print pdf, get nothing but
> bars, no text of any kind.
>
> The applications I failed with so far are evolution email, LibreOffice
> docs - the only two environments I ever actually print from. No cups
> logs with anything.
>
> Firefox can print (ctl-P, select printer, print).
>
> Ideas, directions to look in , etc., would be appreciated.
>
> --
>
> James P. Kinney III
>
> Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
> gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
> own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
> - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
>
> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> ***@ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
***@ale.org
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

[Putnam, James M. via Ale]

PCL5?

--
James M. Putnam
Visiting Professor of Computer Science

The air was soft, the stars so fine,
the promise of every cobbled alley so great,
that I thought I was in a dream.
________________________________________
From: Ale [ale-***@ale.org] on behalf of Stephen R. Blevins via Ale [***@ale.org]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 7:28 PM
To: Jim Kinney via Ale
Subject: Re: [ale] printing fun

I can't help you. I always connect via USB and "install."

Stephen R. Blevins
***@gmail.com

On 12/14/2017 05:42 PM, Jim Kinney via Ale wrote:
> I rarely print any more but when I need to... lately I pull out my hair.
>
> cups can print perfect test pages all day long. HP printing widget stuff
> can print test pages all day long. Printer is a well supported HP
> laserjet pro M501dn.
>
> I can't print from any application correctly. When I print an email
> message all I get are the vertical stripes where the quoted section
> begins. Print to pdf, view pdf, looks fine, print pdf, get nothing but
> bars, no text of any kind.
>
> The applications I failed with so far are evolution email, LibreOffice
> docs - the only two environments I ever actually print from. No cups
> logs with anything.
>
> Firefox can print (ctl-P, select printer, print).
>
> Ideas, directions to look in , etc., would be appreciated.
>
> --
>
> James P. Kinney III
>
> Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
> gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
> own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
> - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
>
> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> ***@ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
***@ale.org
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
***@ale.org
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

[Chuck Payne via Ale]

Jim,

Did you try to use the foomatic, that we used with all HP printers and it
worked.



On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 7:39 PM, Putnam, James M. via Ale <***@ale.org>
wrote:

>
> PCL5?
>
> --
> James M. Putnam
> Visiting Professor of Computer Science
>
> The air was soft, the stars so fine,
> the promise of every cobbled alley so great,
> that I thought I was in a dream.
> ________________________________________
> From: Ale [ale-***@ale.org] on behalf of Stephen R. Blevins via Ale [
> ***@ale.org]
> Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 7:28 PM
> To: Jim Kinney via Ale
> Subject: Re: [ale] printing fun
>
> I can't help you. I always connect via USB and "install."
>
> Stephen R. Blevins
> ***@gmail.com
>
> On 12/14/2017 05:42 PM, Jim Kinney via Ale wrote:
> > I rarely print any more but when I need to... lately I pull out my hair.
> >
> > cups can print perfect test pages all day long. HP printing widget stuff
> > can print test pages all day long. Printer is a well supported HP
> > laserjet pro M501dn.
> >
> > I can't print from any application correctly. When I print an email
> > message all I get are the vertical stripes where the quoted section
> > begins. Print to pdf, view pdf, looks fine, print pdf, get nothing but
> > bars, no text of any kind.
> >
> > The applications I failed with so far are evolution email, LibreOffice
> > docs - the only two environments I ever actually print from. No cups
> > logs with anything.
> >
> > Firefox can print (ctl-P, select printer, print).
> >
> > Ideas, directions to look in , etc., would be appreciated.
> >
> > --
> >
> > James P. Kinney III
> >
> > Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
> > gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
> > own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
> > - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
> >
> > http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > ***@ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> ***@ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> ***@ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>



--
Terror PUP a.k.a
Chuck "PUP" Payne
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