rsutherland

I played with this some more this weekend and got some other CUPS backend virtual printers working, including jpg, png, gif. The image size is part of the CUPS URI, i.e. the jpg backend has a Device URI like jpg:/image_output_dir@1600x1200. As with the pdf virtual printer CUPS needs to get a clean postscript input, so use the Apple Color LW 12/660 PS driver if you can find it. I used ImageMagick's convert function to do this, which is very forgiving and in Mandrake. Anyway the backend drivers are at http://epccs.com/indexes/Documents/VirtualPrinting/ which is only 256k DSL so it's a bit slow, but a nice play area.

I have the setup on some file servers for windows computers, which print to it through the samba service. Windows think its a "Apple Color LW 12/660 PS" postscript (PS) printer so CUPS will only see PS input, I have never tried others, like *.jpg...

From Linux/GNU/KDE you can print to PDF without this, at least as long as I have been using it...

I can print Word, AutoCAD, Eagle (makes Circuit Boards), IE, and some other random stuff I have tried. CUPS gets a PS file from the Apple print driver and runs it through the distiller, out pops a PDF. I only use the Apple driver because I have seen others say it makes clean PS files unlike the windows divers or even HP's

And some Samba /etc/samba/smb.conf notes that may help...

[PDFprinter]
       comment = PDFprinter
       path = /var/spool/samba
       read only = No
       create mask = 0700
       guest ok = Yes
       printable = Yes
       print command = lpr-cups -P %p -o raw %s -r   # using client side printer drivers.
       printer name = PDFprinter
       use client driver = Yes
       oplocks = No
[pdf_out]
       comment = PDF print output
       path = /tmp/pdf_out
       read only = No
       guest only = Yes
       guest ok = Yes

Note the "use client driver = Yes" is not default and makes a differance on WinNT/Win2k/WinXP for admin users. if (you= :-?) see(samba->doc's);

this was taken from some place on line however I did not get the names. Anyway It worked on MDK 9.2 and 9.1 so...

1. You need Linux, CUPS, and ghostscript.

 

2. Go here: http://printing.kde.org/downloads/ and download this backend

script: http://printing.kde.org/downloads/pdfdistiller

 

Note: mdk9.2 and 9.1 already has this as /usr/lib/cups/backend/pdf

 

3. Log in as root, put it in /usr/lib/cups/backend or wherever

cups/backend lives (not needed on mdk).

 

4. 'chmod +x' the file should be 755 or rwxr-xr-x (not needed on mdk).

 

5. Restart CUPS (not needed on mdk).

 

6. To check if CUPS recognizes it as a usable backend, let root run:

      'lpinfo -v | grep pdf'

    should output "direct pdf"

 

7. Test the pdfdistiller backend:

    a. '/usr/lib/cups/backend/pdf'

        should output 'direct pdf "Unknown" "PDF Writing"'

    b. "/usr/lib/cups/backend/pdf 1 2 a b"

      should output: "Usage: pdf job-id user title copies options [file]"

 

8. Test existence of Ghostscript's ps2pdf with 'which ps2pdf'. Output

should be a path like "/usr/bin/ps2pdf" or similar

 

9. Download a PPD file for cups to print with. An Adobe Distiller PPD is

a great choice. Try this page:

 

http://www.pentondigitalads.com/PentonDigi...cript_files.htm

("Acrobat Distiller PPD for Windows")

    If this link is dead, search Google/web for "distiller ppd" and

find a suitable file.

    I used the Adist4.ppd found on the link...

 

10. Put the PPD file in /usr/share/cups/model or wherever your CUPS

model PPDs are stored.

 

11. Restart CUPS.

 

12. Add the printer to CUPS with the command:

    'lpadmin -p <Chosen Name> -E -v pdf:<out folder> -m <ppd-file>'

      i.e.:

    'lpadmin -p PDFprinter -E -v pdf:/tmp/pdf_out -m distiller.ppd'

 

13. As root add /tmp/pdf_out (rwxrwxrwx) and have samba export it with

    read only=no, guest ok=yes, guest only=yes.

 

14. Test the PDF output by manually printing to the new printer:

    'lpr -P PDFprinter test.txt'

    or use http://localhost:631 and use the admin tools to print a test page,

    I think I can set this up form hear alone, but have not tryed yet.

 

Troubleshooting each step:

 

1. If you're stuck on #1, find a more appropriate howto.

 

2. If that file is missing, beg someone for a copy.

 

7. I got stuck on this one. without renaming it "pdf", it didn't work at

all. No clue why. Try copying the file "pdfdistiller" the file to "pdf"

in the same folder. ('cp pdfdistiller pdf'). If these aren't working, go

no further. Make sure CUPS is installed properly and work on this first.

 

8. If this doesn't work, you'll need to install the latest "ESP

Ghostscript". It's available at:

        http://www.cups.org/software.php

 

9. Adobe doesn't distribute this file, so it could be tricky to find.

 

10. Same as #3. PPD files made for Macintosh and Windows computers will

need to be re-saved in un*x format.

 

11. There should be a number of PPD files in that folder already. Search

for "laserjet.ppd" if you have no idea where to find them.

 

12. If this fails, make sure you're specifying a valid PPD file from the

model folder in the "-m" part. Alternatively, you may use '-P <ppd>'

instead of '-m', but you must specify the entire path.

 

14. No go? Time to start logging everything. After the first line of

your backend file (pdf or pdfdistiller), add the line "set -x". Edit

your cupsd.conf and set "LogLevel debug". Restart CUPS and peruse the

information in /var/log/cups/error_log for good debugging info.

Now move to the windows box and connect the printer using "Apple Color LW 12/660 PS" printer driver. Print and then go get the pdf file from the samba the export.

UPDATE: I was using this to print PDF's from Windows, but it has limitations that I could not work around so I found PDFcreator on TheOpenCD which is working lots better for me.

http://www.theopencd.org/index.php?option=...pdfcreator.html

I can normally print PDF's on Linux, so its only a issue for programs like AutoCAD that I still need Windows for.

I have been doing this for some time and have always had a slight piss fit with devfs, which seems to be getting better now days (9.1) so I would like to keep it enabled.

Does anyone know a way to have devfs/devfsd not setup a mount in fstab for devices it finds? I.e. /dev/hdb1 and /dev/hdd1 are used by the mirror system and get mounted as /md0, but devfs keeps adding

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hd auto user,iochar…

/dev/hdd1 /mnt/hd2 auto user,iochar…

Whenever rebooted or devfsd restarted.

I use userdrake with 9, which has the mentioned problem also. Some test show that if I close Userdrake with its File->Exit option it will remove ptmp & gtmp files, otherwise I have to remove them as root.

BTW LinuxConf is another GUI user setup tool that works, and allows me to set (G|U)ID which I like to for

my network users (NIS server)...

This is a little out of whack in some installs of LM9, don't know why but it is repeatable on same hardware. The service does not get turned on, as it should. i.e.

[root@<server> /]# chkconfig --list mysql

mysql 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:off 4:on 5:off 6:off

if you see this then the mandrake tools are also not able to fix the problme so use

chkconfig --level 3 mysql on

chkconfig --level 5 mysql on

This may be an example of when GUI tools suck because errors are so difficult to even notice.

had a USB CompactFlash reader working on LM8.2 for my camera but in LM9

I see this with dmesg

...

usbdevfs: remount parameter error

hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/1, assigned device number 2

usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x781/0x2) is not claimed by any active driver.

SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00

Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...

usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage

usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 259

scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

 Vendor: SanDisk   Model: ImageMate II      Rev: 1.30

 Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02

WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured

USB Mass Storage device found at 2

USB Mass Storage support registered.

...

And no /dev/sda shows up...

When I run Control Center->hardware list

And look at the device list I see an entry in Unknow/Others for the deviece...

Vendor: SanDisk Corp.

Bus: USB

Location on the bus: 0:2

Description: SDDR-31 ImageMate CompactFlash Reader / ImageMate SDDR-31

Module: Removable:memory_card

Media class: Mass Storage|SCSI|Bulk (Zip)

Which looks OK, but the option to Configure module is not working...

Anyway I think this is FUBAR for now. I hope they can fix...

OK after it set over night I think supermount or something gave up trying to add the new drives to /etc/fstab. Possibly Maxtor had formatted them with (FAT?) which supermount seems to have the sweets for. After I formatted them as something else supermount may have got the idea and left them alone. Whatever the case making raid went much more normally. One other question if anyone knows, I looked around but did not find the size of EIDE disk LM9.0 kernel is able to support?

Has anyone tried raid 1, mirror, in LM9.0? I have used this with little fuss on 8.0, 8.1, and 8.2. But now I am having lots of problems. I was trying to set this up at work but now, with beer in hand, I am wondering if supermount is involved. I find enters in /etc/fstab and icons on the desktop that don't make much sense. Is anyone else having problems or better luck?