Can you ACTUALLY print from FreeBSD?

Keith Seyffarth weif at weif.net
Mon Apr 20 17:47:13 UTC 2009


> >> Follow the instructions here:
> >>
> >> http://desktopbsd.net/wiki/doku.php?id=doc:printing
> >>     
> >
> > I'm currently four days of troubleshooting after having done all
> > that's listed on that wiki entry (though I didn't find that page until
> > yesterday), and still trying to get close. That would be one of the
> > pages I obliquely referred to as assuming that printing was
> > possible...
> >
> >   
> 
> When I read that the first time, I didn't have much idea of CUPS and
> devfs rules. I could still make it work.

yeah, the instructions there work great up to:

      "I then selected the Printer tab, clicked the Print test page,
      and successfully printed a test page."

I can go to the Printer tab and click "Print test page," but what
happens next is not even evidence of communication with the printer,
just a failed message.

> >> cupsd_enable="YES" should do the trick in rc.conf - nothing else
> >> needed to start cups as a service.
> >>     
> >
> > I'd have to disagree with this statement, based on experience. That
> > line has been in rc.conf since Januray, and cupsd *never* starts on
> > boot. I'd guess that there has to be something else done somewhere to
> > get it to actually start.
> >   
> 
> There must be some problem in your system - there is nothing else in my
> rc.conf  about cups, and it does start at boot on my system.

Yeah, I'm guessing that there is something missing somewhere, or
something that CUPS doesn't install by default, or something that is
supposed to be set in some other file, or something, I just haven't
got a clue where to look or what to look for.

Having to start cups manually isn't really all that bad, but it would
ne nice not to have to. However, that's all pretty moot if there isn't
a way to get ink to paper from a FreeBSD machine...


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