foomatic-db-engine for Debian ----------------------------- The structure of the OpenPrinting (foomatic) printer configuration system in Debian (and upstream) consists of 3 core packages: * foomatic-db: Contains the foomatic printer database, split in openprinting-ppds and openprinting-ppds-extra. * foomatic-db-engine (this package): Contains the foomatic-configure script. * foomatic-filters: Contains the filter scripts for various backend printing systems. If you want a GUI to configure your printer, you may want to try * system-config-printer and system-config-printer-kde, which are printer configuration tools integrated in GNOME and KDE system configuration tools ** How to configure a queue manually ** The command "foomatic-configure" handles this. Set up the queue as follows: foomatic-configure -n -N -L -c -p -d -s where: queue-name: What you want the queue to be called. description: A human-readable description of the queue. location: The physical location of the printer. connection: How the printer is connected. e.g.: Parallel port: file:/dev/lp0 USB port: file:/dev/usb/lp0 IPP/CUPS: ipp://printserver.example.org/printers/lj4500 Samba/Windows: smb://WORKGROUP/PC/Canon JetDirect: socket://jetdirect.example.org:9100/ printer: The printer database name. Generally: Manufacturer_Model-Name driver: The driver backend to use. For most modern printers, one of: hpijs (if you have foomatic-db installed) gutenprint (if you have foomatic-db-gutenprint installed) Postscript Your best bet on these two items is looking them up in the database at OpenPrinting (http://www.openprinting.org/) or looking through the XML files in /usr/share/foomatic/db/source/printer/ spooler: one of: cups, lpd, lprng, ppd, direct, ppr, pdq, gnulpr (You can omit the -s option and it will try to guess.) ** Notes for CUPS users ** IMPORTANT: If your printer filter is not working (dumping raw PostScript to the printer) immediately after setting up a queue with foomatic-configure, you may need to reload the CUPS daemon. e.g. use: # invoke-rc.d cups reload -- Chris Lawrence , Tue Jul 1 19:15:43 2003 Updated by: -- Didier Raboud Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:36:27 +0200