On Jan 5, 2008 3:32 AM, Steve White <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Paul,
>
>
> On  4.01.08, Paul Johnson wrote:
> > On Jan 4, 2008 8:09 AM, Steve White <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I'm using Scientific Linux 5, and trying to connect to our IPP printers
> > > (or printer server, I'm not sure). The only mechanism provided by this
> > > distribution for Gnome printer configuration is system-config-printer.
> > >
> > > I finally figured out how to specify a default printer (by editing
> > >         /etc/cups/client.conf
> > > to contain one line
> > >         ServerName my_IPP_servername
> > >
> > > But how to do this from the Gnome GUI?
> > >
> >
> > The CUPS print system wants you to use its configuration through the
> > web browser at port 631.  Assuming you have the httpd package
> > installed, what happens ifyou browse
> >
> > http://localhost:631
> >
> > The IPP protocol can be specified there as one of the options on the
> > second page.
> >
> > The CUPS config through the web browser is the preferred method of
> > configuration, and the gnome or kde GUI thingies are not.
> >
> This only works if CUPS is running on the local system.
> Cups is not running on my machine; I don't know why it should be.

You do probably have CUPS installed, if you are running SL5, anyway.
CUPS manages the print queue, and I don't think printing would work at
all without it.

It is the package that provides lpr and all of the other utilities
that the KDE or Gnome GUI things hook onto.

Observe on my SL5 system:

$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/lpr
cups-1.2.4-11.14.el5.3.x86_64


You do not need CUPS running on the remote system.  You do need it
installed on the system that you are currently using, of course.

I'm running Fedora 8 on most of my systems, so maybe your experience
with SL5 (RHEL 5 , == Fedora 6) is not so good.  CUPS is installed by
default on these systems, and I in my SL5 system I have CUPS running.
I don't think I consciously chose it.  Years ago, perhap in RedHat 5
or something, you had to install CUPS on your own and struggle, but
not it "just is."  I can't imagine how you are even printing on SL5
without CUPS, the "common unix printing system."

If I start the CUPS configuration in the web browser in the way I can
described, I can select printers on many different kinds of remote
systems, including IPP.   The remote systems do not need to run cups.

Do you want me to show you a screen shot, or something?

> CUPS is not running on my colleague's identical system, who set it up with
> KDE "effortlessly" to use the print server to print to networked printers.

Better double check that claim.  On SL5:

$ rpm -qa | grep cups
cups-1.2.4-11.14.el5.3.x86_64
libgnomecups-0.2.2-8.x86_64
hal-cups-utils-0.6.2-5.x86_64
cups-libs-1.2.4-11.14.el5.3.i386
libgnomecups-0.2.2-8.i386
cups-libs-1.2.4-11.14.el5.3.x86_64

> As I said, I did try setting up CUPS on my system, but after a couple
> of days of fiddling and reading web pages, never saw it print anything.

What is managing your print queue?

>
> The question is, how to configure a system (using the Gnome GUI) to
> use a remote print server and networked printers.
>
I said the question should be rephrased.  The Gnome GUI, or the KDE
GUI, may work sometimes, but if you want to go direct to the basic
printing infrastructure, go to the CUPS setup.   If you want to print
to a networked printer, use the CUPS configuration tool to do it.
Upstream (Fedora 8), the Gnome print tool gets worse and worse.  So
you might as well learn how to manage CUPS, because that is where
Fedora is.

-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
University of Kansas