34 Setting up a printer #
YaST can be used to configure a local printer connected to your machine via USB and to set up printing with network printers. It is also possible to share printers over the network. Further information about printing (general information, technical details, and troubleshooting) is available in Chapter 24, Printer operation.
In YaST, click
› to start the printer module. By default it opens in the view, displaying a list of all printers that are available and configured. This is especially useful when having access to a lot of printers via the network. From here you can also and configure printers.To print from your system, CUPS must be running. In case it is not running, you are asked to start it. Answer with
, or you cannot configure printing. In case CUPS is not started at boot time, you will also be asked to enable this feature. It is recommended to say , otherwise CUPS would need to be started manually after each reboot.34.1 Configuring printers #
Usually a USB printer is automatically detected. There are two possible reasons it is not automatically detected:
The USB printer is switched off.
Communication between printer and computer is not possible. Check the cable and the plugs to make sure that the printer is properly connected. If this is the case, the problem may not be printer-related, but rather a USB-related problem.
Configuring a printer is a three-step process: specify the connection type, choose a driver, and name the print queue for this setup.
For many printer models, several drivers are available. When configuring the
printer, YaST defaults to those marked recommended
as a
general rule. Normally it is not necessary to change the driver. However, if
you want a color printer to print only in black and white, you can use a driver that does not support color printing. If you experience performance problems with a PostScript printer
when printing graphics, try to switch from a PostScript driver to a
PCL driver (provided your printer understands PCL).
If no driver for your printer is listed, try to select a generic driver with an appropriate standard language from the list. Refer to your printer's documentation to find out which language (the set of commands controlling the printer) your printer understands. If this does not work, refer to Section 34.1.1, “Adding drivers with YaST” for another possible solution.
A printer is never used directly, but always through a print queue. This ensures that simultaneous jobs can be queued and processed one after the other. Each print queue is assigned to a specific driver, and a printer can have multiple queues. This makes it possible to set up a second queue on a color printer that prints black and white only, for example. Refer to Section 24.1, “The CUPS workflow” for more information about print queues.
Start the YaST printer module with
› .In the
screen click .If your printer is already listed under
Specify the Connection
, proceed with the next step. Otherwise, try to or start the .In the text box under
Find and Assign a Driver
enter the vendor name and the model name and click .Choose a driver that matches your printer. It is recommended to choose the driver listed first. If no suitable driver is displayed:
Check your search term.
Broaden your search by clicking
.Add a driver as described in Section 34.1.1, “Adding drivers with YaST”.
Specify the
Default paper size
.In the
field, enter a unique name for the print queue.The printer is now configured with the default settings and ready to use. Click
to return to the view. The newly configured printer is now visible in the list of printers.
34.1.1 Adding drivers with YaST #
Not all printer drivers available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are installed by default. If no suitable driver is available in the dialog when adding a new printer install a driver package containing drivers for your printers:
Start the YaST printer module with
› .In the
screen, click .In the
Find and Assign a Driver
section, click .Choose one or more suitable driver packages from the list. Do not specify the path to a printer description file.
Choose
and confirm the package installation.To directly use these drivers, proceed as described in Procedure 34.1, “Adding a new printer”.
PostScript printers do not need printer driver software. PostScript printers need only a PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file which matches the particular model. PPD files are provided by the printer manufacturer.
If no suitable PPD file is available in the
dialog when adding a PostScript printer, install a PPD file for your printer:Several sources for PPD files are available. It is recommended to first try additional driver packages that are shipped with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server but not installed by default (see below for installation instructions). If these packages do not contain suitable drivers for your printer, get PPD files directly from your printer vendor or from the driver CD of a PostScript printer. For details, see Section 24.8.2, “No suitable PPD file available for a PostScript printer”. Alternatively, find PPD files at http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/database/databaseintro, the “OpenPrinting.org printer database”. When downloading PPD files from OpenPrinting, keep in mind that it always shows the latest Linux support status, which is not necessarily met by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Start the YaST printer module with
› .In the
screen, click .In the
Find and Assign a Driver
section, click .Enter the full path to the PPD file into the text box under
Make a Printer Description File Available
.Click
to return to theAdd New Printer Configuration
screen.To directly use this PPD file, proceed as described in Procedure 34.1, “Adding a new printer”.
34.1.2 Editing a local printer configuration #
By editing an existing configuration for a printer you can change basic settings such as connection type and driver. It is also possible to adjust the default settings for paper size, resolution, media source, etc. You can change identifiers of the printer by altering the printer description or location.
Start the YaST printer module with
› .In the
screen, choose a local printer configuration from the list and click .Change the connection type or the driver as described in Procedure 34.1, “Adding a new printer”. This should only be necessary in case you have problems with the current configuration.
Optionally, make this printer the default by checking
.Adjust the default settings by clicking
. To change a setting, expand the list of options by clicking the relative+
sign. Change the default by clicking an option. Apply your changes with .
34.2 Configuring printing via the network with YaST #
Network printers are not detected automatically. They must be configured manually using the YaST printer module. Depending on your network setup, you can print to a print server (CUPS, LPD, SMB, or IPX) or directly to a network printer (preferably via TCP). Access the configuration view for network printing by choosing
from the left pane in the YaST printer module.34.2.1 Using CUPS #
In a Linux environment CUPS is usually used to print via the network. The simplest setup is to only print via a single CUPS server which can directly be accessed by all clients. Printing via more than one CUPS server requires a running local CUPS daemon that communicates with the remote CUPS servers.
CUPS servers announce their print queues over the network either via the
traditional CUPS browsing protocol or via Bonjour/DNS-SD. Clients need
to browse these lists so users can select specific printers to
send their print jobs to. To browse network print queues, the
service cups-browsed
provided by
the package
cups-filters-cups-browsed
must run on all clients that print via CUPS
servers. cups-browsed
is started
automatically when configuring network printing with YaST.
In case browsing does not work after having started
cups-browsed
, the CUPS server(s)
probably announce the network print queues via Bonjour/DNS-SD. In this
case you need to additionally install the package
avahi
and start the associated
service with sudo systemctl start avahi-daemon
on all
clients.
Start the YaST printer module with
› .From the left pane, launch the
screen.Check
and specify the name or IP address of the server.Click
to make sure you have chosen the correct name or IP address.Click
to return to the screen. All printers available via the CUPS server are now listed.
Start the YaST printer module with
› .From the left pane, launch the
screen.Check
.Under
General Settings
specify which servers to use. You may accept connections from all networks available or from specific hosts. If you choose the latter option, you need to specify the host names or IP addresses.Confirm by clicking
and then when asked to start a local CUPS server. After the server has started YaST will return to the screen. Click to see the printers detected so far. Click this button again, in case more printers are available.
34.2.2 Using print servers other than CUPS #
If your network offers print services via print servers other than CUPS, start the YaST printer module with
› and launch the screen from the left pane. Start the and choose the appropriate . Ask your network administrator for details on configuring a network printer in your environment.