Created at: 2009-07-15

CUPS notes

This document shows how to install and configure CUPS under NetBSD. It installs cups from pkgsrc.

*Note*: If you are looking about how to print to a Windows Print Server, please, see the "SMB on Unix" page.

lp* CLI utilities basics

To discover all available printers, installed by CUPS, type::

    $ lpstat -a

To see all available options of a printer, type::

    $ lpoptions -p printer_name -l

To print a file, type::

    $ lpr -P printer_name file

To configure the default printer, just do (reference here__)::

    $ loptions -d printer_name

The lpoptions command can also be used to set default behaviour of the printer. The following command makes the documents always be printed in both sides of the sheet::

    $ lpoptions -o sides=two-sided-long-edge

Set Default Printer in Cups Client

Cups in NetBSD

1. Install pkgsrc/print/cups

2. Install pkgsrc/print/ghostscript package. Be sure that you enable the cups option when compiling::

    make PKG_OPTIONS.ghostscript=cups

3. Now cd /usr/bin and rename all lp* by lp*_ This will prevent the system for using standard lp*. Notice that /usr/pkg/bin needs to be in your ${PATH} (CUPS's lp* are there). Another solution is to take off execution permission from them.

4. su and cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/cupsd /etc/rc.d

5. su and cat cupsd=YES >> /etc/rc.conf

6. su and /etc/rc.d/cupsd start

7. Open the browser and type at the address bar: localhost:631

CUPS troubleshooting

"Error - no default destination available"

Whenever the following error from lp* executables appear:

    "Error - no default destination available."

Set a default printer in CUPS. You can set a default printer using the lpoptions command line program, too.

Printing in both sides of the sheet

If the printer supports printing in both sides of the sheet, just pass the -o sides=two-sided-long-edge option two lpr::

    $ lpr -P printer_name -o sides=two-sided-long-edge file

The two-sided-short-edge is recommended for landscape pages.

(linux-br) Imprimir frente e verso

Error "pending since ..."

Your CUPS stopped to print and job status tell you obscure stuff like "pending since ..."?

I just changed the driver (choose a generic one) and it works now.

Later, I discovered that the printer can be "Paused" (with no reason!). Open CUPS administration tool in your web browser with http://localhost:631/ and go to the "Printers" tab. Select your printer. In the "Maintenance" combo box, see if there is a "Resume printer" option. Click it.

`Unsupported format 'application/vnd.cups-banner'!` when printing test page

If you just added a new printer and got this error when trying to print a test page, it is probably more complex than it seems. In my case, pstoraster program, that is usually installed with ghostscript, was lacking in my system.

What I had to do is to recompile ghostcript from pkgsrc_ with cups support.