• Welcome to OS2World OLD-STATIC-BACKUP Forum.
 

News:

This is an old OS2World backup forum for reference only. IT IS READ ONLY!!!

If you need help with OS/2 - eComStation visit http://www.os2world.com/forum

Main Menu

Preview of CUPS 1.3.7

Started by Pete, 2008.06.11, 16:55:52

Previous topic - Next topic

Paul Smedley

Quote from: Pete on 2008.06.17, 21:10:05
Quote from: Paul Smedley on 2008.06.17, 05:57:48

I wonder if Alex Taylor could improve instpdr so that it could strip out the *StpStp lines and handle the 'un' gzip of Gutenprint ppd files - that would help get us one step closer.



Hi Paul

No need to "ungz" the PPD file - cups does that for you  :-)

I noticed this awhile back: When creating a printer eg PIXMA the selected *.ppd.tgz file ends up ungz'd as \cups\etc\cups\ppd\PIXMA.ppd

1 less step to undertake.  :-)

Pete

Yeah I know CUPS can handle the .gz file - but the tools to import PPD into pscript.drv can't :)

Pete

Quote from: Paul Smedley on 2008.06.17, 23:55:51
Quote from: Pete on 2008.06.17, 21:10:05
Quote from: Paul Smedley on 2008.06.17, 05:57:48

I wonder if Alex Taylor could improve instpdr so that it could strip out the *StpStp lines and handle the 'un' gzip of Gutenprint ppd files - that would help get us one step closer.



Hi Paul

No need to "ungz" the PPD file - cups does that for you  :-)

I noticed this awhile back: When creating a printer eg PIXMA the selected *.ppd.tgz file ends up ungz'd as \cups\etc\cups\ppd\PIXMA.ppd

1 less step to undertake.  :-)

Pete

Yeah I know CUPS can handle the .gz file - but the tools to import PPD into pscript.drv can't :)


Hi Paul

The file that cups puts into \cups\etc\cups\ppd is a ppd file. It is not compressed. Here is the 1st few lines of  the \cups\etc\cups\ppd\PIXMA.ppd file:-

*PPD-Adobe: "4.3"
*% PPD file for CUPS/Gutenprint.
*% Copyright 1993-2006 by Easy Software Products and Robert Krawitz.
*% This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
*% modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
*% version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
*%
*% This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
*% WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
*% or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
*% for more details.
*%
*% You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
*% along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
*% Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
*%
*FormatVersion:   "4.3"
*FileVersion:   "5.2.0-beta3"
*LanguageVersion: English
*LanguageEncoding: ISOLatin1
*PCFileName:   "STP01354.PPD"
*Manufacturer:   "Canon"
*Product:   "(AFPL Ghostscript)"
*Product:   "(GNU Ghostscript)"
*Product:   "(ESP Ghostscript)"
*Product:   "(GPL Ghostscript)"
*ModelName:     "Canon PIXMA iP4000"


My suggestion is to use that uncompressed ppd file as the source ppd for adding to the pscript.drv

Regards

Pete

The Blue Warper

Quote from: Paul Smedley on 2008.06.17, 05:57:48
I think there's more pressing issues like making the CUPS/Gutenprint/Ghostscript backend solid, a working port driver, a tool to import the gutenprint PPD files, and a usb backend rather than spending time on any 'repackaging'.

Hi, Paul!

I totally agree with you!  I hope to test your new eCUPS port and submit the results soon.  THANK YOU for all the work you keep doing for all of us!

jep

Hello,

tried CUPS and can tell you that it can print to my network printer HP Color LaserJet 2550 Ln.
The JPEG image (520k) showing the view from the port/beach in Aegina Greece came out as "Ant's war" that you've probably seen on TV.
The CUPS test page came out in B&W/Grayscale, so did the Serenity Systems info, don't know if I can expect color yet.


Things I noticed:
It's much easier to add and modify a printer with the web browser connected to the "webserver" cupsd.exe (http://localhost:631)
but
cupsd.exe start additional 3 copies of itself during configuration of printer (and they seem to stay up after that and printout)
as well as
other stuff that cause it to halt on the first try. Think it was 8 or as much as 10 related processes all in all running in TOP when I checked.
The web server took ages to respond, but after I restarted the system it became a lot more responsive and allowed me to add what I wanted.

Set it to print to use
Printer Driver: HP Color LaserJet 2500 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.1.98.2 (en)
Device URI: lpd://ip.num.to.printer/BINPS
it's also possible to use RAW,  TEXT or AUTO instead of BINPS.
Think it should be possible to use the device name (hp2550ln) I've set too, but haven't tested that so far.

//Jan-Erik

Pete

Hi Jan-Erik


Regarding the lack of colour using CUPS: I recently tested a HP Business Inkjet with CUPS and could not get colour output.

I did have a hunt around - using Google - for an alternative PPD file to use with CUPS and found 1 that worked fine. The CUPS supplied PPD file did not have the options Print Color as Gray/Color which the replacement PPD file had.

So, I am guessing that the CUPS PPD file in use there could well be naff in the same way.

See if you can find an alternative PPD file somewhere (Google).

If you can then put it into the  \cups\etc\cups\ppd directory; you will have to delete the existing PPD file in that directory and rename the replacement to exactly the same name as the file that you just deleted to avoid mucking up the CUPS configuration.

Hope the above is of help

Pete

jep

Hello Pete,

thank you for the suggestion.

Does the PPD-file found on the HP CD that ship with the printer work better than it did when I tested Alex Taylors software to import PPD-files to the IBM Postscript driver?

There are often PPD-files on the CD's that one get with the printer, but mine probably contained a lot more features (UTF-8 among other things) than the IBM driver can handle thus causing trouble?!

Anyway, if it's possible to use it then with CUPS it should be fairly easy to try it out as one just have click on the browse button during configuration and import the ppd-file... that is when one use the cupsd.exe togheter with the web browser.

Thanks Paul, keep up the good work!

//Jan-Erik

======
Sorry I don't report that it work (and how I did it), but that because you haven't got a corner devoted to that at your site (as many others). Guess it could spur more people to first try and then report problems as well. I know I only began after this discussion started. Sad, but that is how people work, including me. :-(
Would be nice if it could be centralized as well, but that may be to far fetched I guess...

Paul Smedley

Hi Jep,

Quote from: jep on 2008.06.19, 22:50:57
tried CUPS and can tell you that it can print to my network printer HP Color LaserJet 2550 Ln.
The JPEG image (520k) showing the view from the port/beach in Aegina Greece came out as "Ant's war" that you've probably seen on TV.
The CUPS test page came out in B&W/Grayscale, so did the Serenity Systems info, don't know if I can expect color yet.

From the Gutenprint homepage at:http://gutenprint.sourceforge.net/p_Supported_Printers.php3

HP Color LaserJet 2500   hp-clj_2500   HP-Color_LaserJet_2500   Black and white only

Blonde Guy

Tried cups from 20080608 and gutenprint from 20080616 and cupspdr from 20080622 and I can print from firefox and ae to my Oki5300 printer.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

BigWarpGuy

Quote from: Paul Smedley on 2008.06.20, 12:15:02
Hi Jep,

Quote from: jep on 2008.06.19, 22:50:57
tried CUPS and can tell you that it can print to my network printer HP Color LaserJet 2550 Ln.
The JPEG image (520k) showing the view from the port/beach in Aegina Greece came out as "Ant's war" that you've probably seen on TV.
The CUPS test page came out in B&W/Grayscale, so did the Serenity Systems info, don't know if I can expect color yet.

From the Gutenprint homepage at:http://gutenprint.sourceforge.net/p_Supported_Printers.php3

HP Color LaserJet 2500   hp-clj_2500   HP-Color_LaserJet_2500   Black and white only

The fact that it printed at all would be a big step for me. I really want to use my HP Color LaserJet 2500 with my eCS pc.
http://gutenprint.sourceforge.net/p_Supported_Printers.php3

Blonde Guy

Quote from: BigWarpGuy on 2008.06.24, 17:04:12

The fact that it printed at all would be a big step for me. I really want to use my HP Color LaserJet 2500 with my eCS pc.


Really? I thought the HP Color LaserJet 2500 printer was just plug and play with eCS.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

BigWarpGuy

Quote from: Blonde Guy on 2008.06.24, 18:07:40
Quote from: BigWarpGuy on 2008.06.24, 17:04:12

The fact that it printed at all would be a big step for me. I really want to use my HP Color LaserJet 2500 with my eCS pc.


Really? I thought the HP Color LaserJet 2500 printer was just plug and play with eCS.

I plug in the HP CLJ 2500 into the USB port and it sees it but I have yet to get anything to print to it. Am I missing something? What printer driver would you use with it?   ???

Paul Smedley

Quote from: BigWarpGuy on 2008.06.25, 03:06:31
Quote from: Blonde Guy on 2008.06.24, 18:07:40
Quote from: BigWarpGuy on 2008.06.24, 17:04:12

The fact that it printed at all would be a big step for me. I really want to use my HP Color LaserJet 2500 with my eCS pc.


Really? I thought the HP Color LaserJet 2500 printer was just plug and play with eCS.

I plug in the HP CLJ 2500 into the USB port and it sees it but I have yet to get anything to print to it. Am I missing something? What printer driver would you use with it?   ???
If you're prepared to spend a little time on it, it should be pretty easy to get this working with CUPS - but only for black & white printing as that's all that Gutenprint supports on that model.

jep

Hello BigWarpGuy,

HP CLJ 25x0 work great for me with the eCS standard drivers, tried both PLL, USB and Network (Ln-model).

PostScript driver give really nice color images and is quite fast.

The PCL6 driver may only barf out a black & white printouts, sometimes partial, to much data? Avoid the LaserJet 30.827 driver shipped with eCS as you can't set the paper orientation and make it stick etc., revert to 30.822 if you have to try it.

If you want more info/help, just tell me...

//Jan-Erik

Andi

Quote from: jep on 2008.06.25, 12:21:06
Hello BigWarpGuy,

HP CLJ 25x0 work great for me with the eCS standard drivers, tried both PLL, USB and Network (Ln-model).
.....
//Jan-Erik
If I remember correct, the HP 2550 and 2500 are completly different in that way, that the 2550 supports PCL and PS, but the 2500 is windows GDI crap only. If my memory serves me well, the 2500 came out at the time I bought a color laser printer and it was the first time I didn't by a laser from HP. Older models and newer one do have PCL and PS, but not the 2500.

Paul Smedley

FWIW - my Epson RX650, which has never printed under OS/2, is now capable of printing from Firefox, Thunderbird, Openoffice 2.4 & PMView.

Lucide isn't printing correctly at this stage, and I haven't tried any other apps - but things are looking encouraging.

I hope to start looking at the native USB backend over the weekend which will make configuration somewhat easier, as it won't be necessary to setup the lpd daemon, and it should be possible to select the USB printer by name from the CUPS web interface.