Printing at Fermilab using Fermi Linux 9.0.x, or RedHat 9


FLPR

If you are going to be printing, and you can do everything by command line, then the prefered way is to use flpr

flpr (pronounced flipper) has been at Fermilab for many years, and most networked printers around the lab have some type of label that says what print server they use (usually fnprt) and what the queue name is.  So you would use it by doing

  flpr -h <print server name> -q <queue name> filename

When Fermi Linux 9.0.1 was released, flpr was showing a warning when it printed, but it still printed fined.  Things looked like this

$ flpr -qfcc2w_hp8150_d  mail.default.reply.about.worm
Incorrectly built binary which accesses errno, h_errno or _res directly. Needs to be fixed.
mail.default.reply.about.worm [4570B 2002/12/11] sent to fnprt.fnal.gov's fcc2w_hp8150_d
print request for above sent to fnprt.fnal.gov [131.225.9.2]
$


Redhat Config Printer

In RedHat 9, RedHat has a nice new printer configuration tool.  It works with both lpr and cups, so whichever you pick is supported.  It also works for your KDE and your Gnome gui's.  So you only have to worry about setting up printers in one place.

Many machines do not have the printer setup programs when they are freshly installed. This is because the group of packages that goes along with it is rather large, about 150 Meg. Because the group of rpm's is so large, it is not installed by default. The good news is that you can install it via yum with only one command.
  yum groupinstall "Local Printer"
This will install all the programs talked about here, as well as their supporing programs.

So to get things started, at a command prompt type
  redhat-config-printer
If you are not root, you should be prompted for root's password, and then you get the nice graphic.

As you see here, we already have one printer setup, but we want to add another one.



So we click on New and the printer setup wizard starts.



This first screen just let's you know that it isn't going to do anything until you finish the wizard, so if you want to cancel, you can, and nothing will be written.  So now click Forward and we see where we put in the name for our printer.

 

The Queue name can be very misleading, because those that use flpr might think that this is meaning the flpr queue name.  This is just the name that you will see locally, so that you know what to select.  It Can be the fermilab queue name, or it can be whatever you want to call it.
After we fill in the name and description click Forward and we move to the Queue type.

   

At the Queue Type screen you want to select
  Networked UNIX (LPD)
That will change the screen so that you can put in the network server and Queue
  Server: fnprt
  Queue: <name of printer>
Find the queue name by looking on the printer, or asking someone nearby.  Some divisions have different print servers, so you will need to put that in instead of fnprt.  That should also be on the printer as well.
Once this is filled out select Forward and we can pick out the printer model.

   

At this screen it is very tempting to go ahead and select the type of printer that you have.  And you actually can if you want, but just be warned that your experiences might vary.  You might be able to print great using one or another of the drivers.  But there is one setting that works for most all of Fermilab's printers, and that is PostScript.  So, unless you are willing to tweek and try please select

  Generic
  PostScript Printer

And then click Forward to finish the creation process.



This is the final screen before you can't back out of what you are doing.  Of course you can always delete or edit the printer queue later, so this isn't really all that permanent.  But at least you are warned that nothing has really been set up until now.  
So we click Apply and we are brought back to the original screen, but with the following window.



It is usually a good idea to do a test print, so select Yes and then we see



Select OK, because there isn't much else you can do.  This screen is just to let you know that the test page was sent to the printer.  If there are problems with the test page you can edit your printer later from the main screen, which is where you go to when you click on OK.



And we see that we have our new printer setup.

Questions/Comments
dawson@fnal.gov
June 17, 2003