OSNews

"With 6.1, I have a full desktop (KDE) going except for one thing: a working printer. CUPS = SUX. Maybe printing is one area that will improve with 6.2. I am prepared for the possibility of disappointment, though."

May I ask what printer you own? Maybe, using APSFILTER instead of CUPS will solve your problem.

As they say, YMMV, but we've standardised on CUPS as it's the best thing out there for printing. Especially if you can get PPD files for the printer. Nothing else (that I've found) works directly with PPD files. And the beauty of a PPD is that you can use a PPD "designed for" Windows or MacOS X on any CUPS system (and with MacOS X using CUPS for printing, there are more and more PPD available out there).

Have a look at http://www.linuxprinting.org to find out if your printer is even supported under any Unix. If it is, the best driver to use will be listed. This site has been invaluable in our Unix roll-outs, even back when we were using LPRng.

Oh, and why would a new release of FreeBSD affect your printing? Odds are, if you can't get it to work with CUPS, you aren't going to get it working with lpd either.

Edited 2006-12-27 22:32

"And the beauty of a PPD is that you can use a PPD "designed for" Windows or MacOS X on any CUPS system (and with MacOS X using CUPS for printing, there are more and more PPD available out there)."

Wow! Maybe I get the stupid Develop D-16F all-in-one device (in German: eierlegende Wollmilchsau, "egg laying wool milk sow") working!

"Oh, and why would a new release of FreeBSD affect your printing?"

You can update your printing driver system at any point in time you want, you don't need to wait for a new OS release because the printing drivers are not a part of the OS.

# cd /usr/ports
# make update
# cd print/cups
# make deinstall && make && make install
# pkgdb -aF

Or use

# portupgrade cups

"Odds are, if you can't get it to work with CUPS, you aren't going to get it working with lpd either."

For correctness: lpd belongs to the OS and is the line printer spooler deamon. It comes with tools like lpr (send job to printer), lpq (query) and lprm (remove job). These programs have nothing to do with printer drivers, they just control the printing queue in which the data provided by the printer driver is hold.

While some printer driver systems offer their own queue tools with other names (I think CUPS does it this way), others use the system tools or own tools with similar names.

For example, if I do

% lpr dingenskirchens.jpg

the file is passed to the apropriate APSFILTER driver / filter that translates the JPG file into data which the printer can understand, for example PCL or PS. Then, the PCL file is stored in the printer queue and passed to the printer as soon he is online and ready to print.

I have CUPS working fine under 6.1.

Cups is a beast, sometimes you can tame it, sometimes it will attack you

http://catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html

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But on topic, remember OSnews and Slashdot ... BSD is dying :o) ;-)

"Cups is a beast, sometimes you can tame it, sometimes it will attack you "

Haha! :-) It might not help the author of this essay (I read the german translation), but with the setup tool of APSFILTER, which is done in text dialog mode, he wouldn't have had any problem achieving his initial goal.

(1) Printer Driver Selection - 3) printer driver natively supported by ghostscript - 2) 179 HP LaserJet 6 -- (2) Interface Setup - 3) Unix/network printer (lpd), Machine name for remote printer: minx - Remote Printer Name: however the printer is called -- (4)...(7) as it is needed, (i) Install printer with values shown above -- (q) Finish installation. DONE.

"But on topic, remember OSnews and Slashdot ... BSD is dying :o) ;-)"

How long does this dying take? :-)

Edited 2006-12-28 02:53

This is not CUPS problem but KDE 3.5.4 bug (supports only CUPS 1.1.x). With KDE 3.5.5 CUPS works just fine (CUPS 1.2.7). We tested every possible configuration for upcoming PC-BSD 1.3 release and stuck with KDE 3.5.5- printing works but now we have half backed HAL support (buggy as hell on FreeBSD- impossible to use KDE without HAL now- it is so deeply hardcoded...). I hope this mounting problem will be gone with FreeBSD 6.2 release. Great work guys- FreeBSD is evolving with every release and can replace Linux on desktop really soon now.

now we have half backed HAL support (buggy as hell on FreeBSD- impossible to use KDE without HAL now- it is so deeply hardcoded...).

What are you talking about? HAL support is optional for kdebase, it is even off by default (you have to change it with make config). In other words, kde builds without HAL by default - I know, because I actually had to recompile kdebase just to get HAL working (I read that 3.5.5 will support HAL on freshports, but didn't know that it will be off by default).

BSD is a really good piece of EDU but hardly usable as a desktop OS and its lack of support and any real use in the commercial world really holds it back. The fact that its kernel is based on 30 year old code doesn't help either. For best results use Linux.

Sure, it's not used in the commercial world:

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.html

What OS do you think that Yahoo is using for supporting 250,000+ sites?

Edited 2006-12-28 12:14

The problem isn't FreeBSD, it's CUPS. With the release of CUPS 1.2, breakage was widespread. Even many Linux distros were affected. There's still some issues with USB that no one at CUPS is willing to acknowledge.

My printer is an Epson Stylus C80 USB. I am sure that a serial-port printer would be much easier.