PDF pseudo-printing (Debian CUPS)

[Brian Densmore]

Setting up CUPS is quite painless. Open up a browser
ands go to localhost:631 when asked for a administrator
use root. You could also create a special user id/psw
just for cups (I've never done this and can't walk you 
through it). Then just fill in the blanks and choose
from choices/dropdowns. If you have printers set up
on more than one PC/location then things get more
complicated. I have one PC running CUPs in advertising
mode, as it has all the printers, and the other PCs
point there to find printers for use.
You have to tell the CUPs daemon to advertise and what
networks can access. For this you'll need to whip out an
editor and modify config files and tell CUPS to reread
them. CUPS does have a lot of documentation that can be installed
locally or read from the web.
You'll need to edit the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file
and play with the BrowsePoll, BrowseAllow, BrowseDeny, BrowseProtocols,
BrowseRelay, and Browsing directives.

http://www.cups.org/sam.html#BrowseAllow
For more information.


I would also add RTFM, but the TFM is not obvious on where to Fing
start, and the TFM documentation structure is Fing confusing enough to
disorient even someone as knowledgeable as Bruce Perens. I read a rant 
he wrote once on this. The CUPs people are clueless when it comes to
writing a clear document on use of CUPs. However once it is *properly*
configured, maintenance is a breeze. There is also a nice CLI commandset
(ie lpadmin), for those that prefer CLI over GUI.
Basically the only book you really need to get familiar with is the SAM.

After that, PDF printing should just work (YMMV).

HTH,

Brian D.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Monty J. Harder 
> 
> 
> Thanks for the workaround.  Now, do you have any idea how I can make
> this a real printer that shows up in CUPS?  I keep seeing articles
> that say that it can be done easily, and then the printer can be
> shared via Samba so that Windows machines can do PDFs.  But I don't
> see HOW it can be done.