freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 110, Issue 54

Gerard Seibert gerard-seibert at suscom.net
Wed Sep 14 16:31:06 PDT 2005


On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 20:49:28 +0200, FreeBsdBeni <freebsdbeni at spymac.com>
Replied to: Re: Deep in printer hell.
With these words of wisdom:

> 
> On Wednesday 14 September 2005 09:58, WOB wrote:
> > When JFK said, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the
> > other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..", I
> > always wondered what exactly "the other things" were.  Apparently, one
> > of them is printer configuration under FreeBSD.
> >
> > If I am using a HP Deskjet 940 connected via parallel cable,  is there
> > not some simple way of configuring this printer?
> >
> > Is it really necessary to follow all the steps in the handbook - just to
> > print?  The "Basic Setup" instructions are 15 pages printed.  Assuming
> > you can print them.
> >
> > I got this printer working 6 months ago under FreeBSD, and apparently my
> > many notes on it are too many.  Now I'm starting from scratch, to
> > redocument it, and it just seems like there should be a simpler way.
> >
> > I'm using 5.4, Fluxbox, Abiword, and Firefox - that's it.
> >
> > Eventually I will figure it out again, I just wanted to know if there
> > was some simple script I could run, or "preferred short-cut" for setting
> > up desktop printer.  I realize the handbook is written to be precise and
> > server-centric, but I just want to print Yahoo driving directions, and
> > other such things.
> >
> > thanks
> 
> For my HP (PhotoSmart) I had to install /print/cups, /print/foomatic-filters 
> and /print/hpijs and then configured the printer using the .ppd file from 
> www.linuxprinting.org. Now I can print from within every program.
> Mine is a usb printer, but I suppose your parallel printer should work in a 
> similar way.
> Hope this helps.
> -- 
> Beni.

*************** REPLY SEPARATOR ***************
On 9/14/2005 7:20:47 PM Gerard Seibert Replied:

I have a Canon S630 connect to a WinXP box via USB. I was able to use
'apsfilter' after several tries to actually print to the printer. I was
never able to get it to work from within KDE, or any other application.

It is my personal opinion, and I know that others will disagree with me,
but Microsoft has a far superior method of adding and configuring
printers when compared to any of the other OS's. For the life of me, I
cannot figure out why other OS's cannot simplify the installation of a
printer as Microsoft has done. It just does not have to be that hard.

I really believe that some serious work should be put into simplifying
printer installation. Within a matter of a few seconds, I was able to
get the other computers on my network to print to my main printer,
except for the FreeBSD box.


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