cups port problem.

[Timothy Murphy]

akonstam at trinity.edu wrote:

> I am really drained now bit I intend to post the horror story I have
> been living to get our printers configured.

Did you directly edit any of the /etc/cups/*.conf files?

I got CUPS working this way, 
after unsuccessfully trying system-config-printer
(or the equivalent Start=>System Settings=>Printing)
and also the web interface at <http://localhost:631/>.

Admittedly this was some months ago,
but I thought I had satisfied myself at the time
that one had to edit the conf files manually.

What I find annoying is that the CUPS system
now seems to me relatively simple,
but I find the Fedora printing wizard highly confusing,
while the documentation at <http://localhost:631/>,
in particular the SAM (System Administrators Manual),
is absurdly inflated, and directed as far as I can see
at people running systems with dozens of printers
attached to innumerable machines.

I attached a machine running Windows XP to my CUPS system last night,
after following the advice at
<http://www.divms.uiowa.edu/help/windows/printers/>,
which made the whole process very simple.
But I only found this site (by googling for "cups windows xp")
after following absurdly bad advice from other sites.

Incidentally, I didn't find the Windows printing wizard
particularly helpful, with the Troubleshooter
offering me 10 options, none of which seemed remotely applicable.
But at least it made an effort, unlike the Linux wizard.

(Am I alone in finding the system-config-* wizards
in general extraordinarily bad?
I've tried the display, mouse, sound, printing and network wizards,
and the only one I'd give any marks to is the last,
and I'd only give that 5/10 .)


 

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland