Minor spacing changes

[linux_from_scratch_hints.git] / pfs.txt

AUTHOR:         Uli Fahrenberg <uli at math dot auc dot dk>\r
AUTHOR:         Original hint by Declan Moriarty <declan dot moriarty at ntlworld dot ie>\r
\r
DATE:           2003-09-30\r
\r
LICENSE:        GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.2\r
\r
SYNOPSIS:       Printing From Scratch\r
\r
\r
DESCRIPTION:\r
Do-it-yourself guide for setting up your computer for printing. Also useful\r
for troubleshooting. We start with kernel configuration, and at the end you\r
will (hopefully) get your printer to print a ps file.\r
\r
\r
PREREQUISITES:\r
ghostscript (AFPL, GNU, ESP, whatever; see BLFS book for details)\r
\r
Optional: a2ps and psutils (again: See BLFS book for how to install these)\r
\r
\r
HINT:\r
Setting up a Linux box for printing can be very easy (with a bit of luck). If\r
you your setup is simple: One computer and one printer which you want to\r
communicate, and that's about it, this hint is for you. If you want to share\r
your printer between several computers or anything fancy like this, I cannot\r
help you.\r
\r
\r
Step 1:\r
\r
Check that you have printer support in your kernel, either compiled-in or as a\r
module. My config is as follows; you might not need the last two PARPORT_*\r
options enabled:\r
\r
        CONFIG_PARPORT=y\r
        CONFIG_PARPORT_PC=y\r
        CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_CML1=y\r
        CONFIG_PARPORT_SERIAL=y\r
        CONFIG_PRINTER=y\r
\r
\r
Step 2:\r
\r
Check if your printer is working and connected:\r
\r
        echo -en "blah\f\r" > /dev/lp0\r
\r
(substitute lp0 with the port your printer is connected to)\r
\r
If your printer spits out a piece of paper with the word `blah' on it,\r
good. If it doesn't, worry.\r
\r
If your printer is an Epson, the above command most probably will not work. In\r
this case, the following info contributed by Jeroen Coumans might help:\r
\r
        Epson printers don't work without first being given a special\r
        character. The gimp-print util escputil is commonly used for that\r
        (it's probably possible to do this without first installing\r
        gimp-print, but I don't know how). This is the command which works for\r
        me (Stylus C80):\r
\r
                escputil -r /dev/usb/lp0 -i\r
\r
You might want to install gimp-print anyway (I won't tell you how, though (but\r
it appears to be a piece of cake)), as Epson printers are poorly supported by\r
Ghostscript. Otherwise, to build just escputil,\r
\r
        ./configure && make -C lib && make -C src/escputil\r
\r
worked for me.\r
\r
\r
Step 3:\r
\r
Install your favourite version of Ghostscript.\r
\r
\r
Step 4:\r
\r
Type gs -h at a prompt and select your printer from the pageful of drivers\r
that it gives up. If your driver is not shown, go back to step 3 and install\r
another version of Ghostscript. AFPL and ESP Ghostscript differ in what\r
printers are supported.\r
\r
If you don't know what driver to select to get your printer working, go to\r
\r
        http://www.linuxprinting.org/\r
\r
and search their database for your printer. You might be told that you need\r
some additional software; HPIJS, pnm2ppa, or others. If you do need some extra\r
software, you're on your own. Here we only deal with Ghostscript-supported\r
printers. (But read on, the hint might still be of use for you.)\r
\r
\r
Step 5:\r
\r
Test your setup. Get yourself a ps file (pdf will do, too), and run\r
\r
        gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER -sDEVICE=<your-printer-driver> \\r
        -sOutputFile=/tmp/testit <your-file>\r
\r
You'll find some ps files in the Ghostscript examples directory; with me this\r
is /usr/share/ghostscript/8.00/examples/. This command should give you a\r
(probably rather large) binary file /tmp/testit; if you're lucky (I was),\r
running\r
\r
        file /tmp/testit\r
\r
will identify it as printer data. It may also tell you that the paper size does\r
not fit what you have in your printer; if this is the case, adding\r
-sPAPERSIZE=<your-papersize> to the gs command above will help. The other\r
options above mean:\r
\r
        -q      tells gs not to display anything & saves it looking for X.\r
   -dBATCH      tells gs to quit after processing - always a good idea.\r
 -dNOPAUSE      gs will not wait for a key-press after each page.\r
   -dSAFER      stops gs from  deleting or zapping anything.\r
 -sDEVICE=      your printer driver. Be exact and case sensitive. gs is\r
                stupid. Use the spelling on the info at 'gs -h'.\r
-sOutputFile=   write to this output file (congratulations for guessing!)\r
\r
If everything looks OK, you can\r
\r
        cat /tmp/testit > /dev/lp0\r
\r
(again, replace lp0 with the port your printer is connected to). This should\r
get <your-file> out to <your-printer>.\r
\r
Both the commands above might give you some trouble with permissions if you do\r
them as an ordinary user. If the gs one does, execute\r
\r
        chmod 4777 /tmp \r
\r
and kick yourself for running a machine unusable for ordinary users. If the\r
cat command bails out with some 'Cannot write to /dev/lp0' blah, you can\r
either decide that only root should be allowed to access your printer, or you\r
can be a little lax on some (minor) security issues and do a\r
\r
        chmod a+rw /dev/lp0\r
\r
If you want to use the lpr script below for printing, you should do the\r
latter.\r
\r
\r
Step 6 (optional):\r
\r
If you got here, you have your printer working. You can leave it at this; what\r
you did in step 5 was printing after all. If you want to be slightly more\r
fancy, the script below will provide you with an lpr command, to be used\r
either by calling\r
\r
        lpr <some-file>\r
\r
or by having lpr as (the last) part of a pipe. This should let you use most of\r
your favorite application's `Print' buttons/commands directly.\r
\r
Another advantage of the script below is that it does not make use of\r
temporary files, thus avoiding a) cluttering /tmp with all kinda crap, and b)\r
some security hazards. On the other hand, if you want ordinary users to print,\r
you have to give them access to /dev/lp0 (or whatever port your printer is\r
connected to), see above.\r
\r
Here we have the script; as you can see, there's some adjusting to do for\r
you. I have yet to encounter applications that won't print with this script;\r
if you do, please notify me.\r
\r
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r
cat > /usr/bin/lpr << "EOF"\r
#!/bin/bash\r
\r
####################  Adjust to your needs/desires.\r
DEVICE=ljet4\r
LP=lp0\r
PAPER=a4\r
LOCKFILE=/tmp/.${LP}-lock\r
####################  End Adjust\r
\r
# Prints file to printer $DEVICE connected at /dev/$LP, \r
# using paper size $PAPER.\r
# Usage: lpr <ps or pdf file> ( or cat <ps or pdf file> | lpr )\r
\r
# Uli Fahrenberg, early 2003. This file is in the public domain.\r
\r
if [ -e $LOCKFILE ] ; then\r
        echo "Error: printer is locked  ($LOCKFILE exists)"\r
        exit 1\r
fi\r
\r
FILE=$1\r
if ! [ X$FILE = X ] ; then ### We have a filename as an argument.\r
        if ! [ -r $FILE ] ; then\r
                echo "Error: Cannot read file $FILE"\r
                exit 1\r
        fi\r
\r
        FTYPE=$(file -bL $FILE | awk '{print $1}')\r
        if ! [ $FTYPE = 'PDF' ] && ! [ $FTYPE = 'PostScript' ] ; then\r
                echo "Error: $FILE is not a PS or PDF file."\r
                exit 1\r
        fi\r
\r
        ### Comment this out if you want lpr to be quiet:\r
        echo -n "Printing $FILE... "\r
\r
        (touch $LOCKFILE ; \\r
        trap 'rm -f $LOCKFILE' EXIT ; \\r
        gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER -sDEVICE=$DEVICE \\r
            -sPAPERSIZE=$PAPER -sOutputFile=- $FILE \\r
        > /dev/$LP ) &\r
\r
        ### Without the sleep, some apps delete $FILE\r
        ###    faster than gs can read it:\r
        sleep 1\r
        ### Comment this out if you want lpr to be quiet:\r
        echo "Done."\r
\r
else ### We have no filename argument, so we try stdin\r
        DATA="$(</dev/stdin)"\r
        (touch $LOCKFILE ; \\r
        trap 'rm -f $LOCKFILE' EXIT ; \\r
        echo "$DATA" \\r
        | gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER -sDEVICE=$DEVICE \\r
            -sPAPERSIZE=$PAPER -sOutputFile=- - \\r
        > /dev/$LP ) &\r
fi\r
EOF\r
chmod 755 /usr/bin/lpr\r
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r
\r
\r
Step 7 (even more optional):\r
\r
So now you can print postscript and pdf files on your printer. If you want to\r
print other kinds of files (plain text files, say, e.g. LFS hints...), you\r
might find the a2ps (AnyToPS) package handy. Also, for manipulating postscript\r
files, the psutils package is a good thing to have installed. Both packages\r
are covered in the BLFS book.\r
\r
\r
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:\r
This hint is a reworked edition of the Printing Minority Report, a printing\r
hint originally written by Declan Moriarty. He was doing all the ground work\r
of sections 1 throuch 5; I was reading and using his hint and cooking up the\r
lpr script, and the next thing I knew was that Declan handed over the hint to\r
me.\r
\r
Bill Maltby and Jeroen Coumans were also contributing some tidbits.\r
\r
CHANGELOG:\r
[2003-05-24]\r
* Adopted hint from Declan.\r
[2003-06-29]\r
* Submitted pfs.txt version 1.\r
[2003-07-01]\r
* Inserted `sleep 1' into lpr script, to make gv happy.\r
[2003-09-30]\r
* Converted to new fancy format.\r