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System Administration Guide: Solaris Printing

ProcedureHow to Add a New Directly Attached Printer by Using LP Print Service Commands

This procedure describes how to add a new attached printer specifying a PPD file. The -n option to the lpadmin command enables you to specify a PPD file when adding a new attached printer or modifying an existing attached printer. Two examples follow this procedure. The first example shows you how to add a new attached printer with PPD files. The second example shows you how to add a new attached printer without PPD files.

  1. Connect the printer to the system, and turn on the power to the printer.

    Consult the printer vendor's installation documentation for information about the hardware switches and cabling requirements.

  2. Collect the information that is required to configure an attached printer with PPD files.

    • Printer name and port device

    • File content type

    • PPD file

    To determine the PPD file that the printer will use, first define the printer make, model, and driver.

    For overview information about using PPD files when adding a new printer or modifying an existing printer by using LP print service commands, see What's New in Printing?.

  3. Define the printer name, port device, file content type, and PPD file that the printer will use.

    When using PPD files, the file content type is typically PostScript.

    1. Specify the printer name and the port device that the printer will use.


      # lpadmin -p printer-name -v /dev/printers/0

      The device to use is /dev/printers/0.

      You can now use the -s option with the lpadmin command to specify the print service host name as localhost. For more information, see How to Use LP Print Commands to Add a Print Queue With localhost Specified as the Host Name.

    2. Specify the interface script that the printer will use.


      # lpadmin -p printer-name -m standard_foomatic

    3. Specify the file content type and the PPD file that the printer will use.


      # lpadmin -p printer-name -I content-type -n /path/ppdfile

      The PPD file that you supply is located in the /path directory.

      Note –

      If /path is not a PPD file repository on the system, then a copy of the PPD file is placed in the user label directory in the user PPD file repository. For more information, see Administering PPD Files by Using the PPD File Management Utility (Task Map).

    4. Specify the printer description.


      # lpadmin -p printer-name -D "printer-description"

    For more information, see the lpadmin(1M) man page.

  4. (Optional) Add filters to the print server.


    # cd /etc/lp/fd
# for filter in *.fd;do
    > name=`basename $filter .fd`
    > lpfilter -f $ name-F $ filter
    > done

  5. Enable the printer to accept print requests and to print those requests.


    # accept printer-name
# enable printer-name

  6. Verify that the printer is correctly configured.


    # lpstat -p printer-name -l

    The output of the lpstat command will list the PPD file that you used.

Example 4–1 Adding a New Directly Attached Printer With PPD Files by Using LP Print Service Commands

This example shows how to add a new attached printer with PPD files. The -n option to the lpadmin command enables you to add a new print queue by specifying PPD files. The following information is used as an example.

The information that you provide might vary from the following:


# lpadmin -p paper -v /dev/printers/0 (1)
# lpadmin -p paper -I postscript (2)
# lpadmin -p paper -m standard_footmatic (3)
# lpadmin -p paper -n /path/Lexmark-Optra_E312-Postscript.ppd.gz(4)
# lpadmin -p paper -D "Color printer on third floor, rm 3003" (5)
# cd /etc/lp/fd

# accept paper
	destination “paper” now accepting requests 
# enable paper	(6) 
printer “paper” now enabled 
# lpstat -p paper (7)
printer paper is idle. enabled since Feb 28 11:21 2004...

  1. Defines the printer name and the port device that the printer will use

  2. Sets the file content types to which the printer can print to directly

  3. Specifies the interface script for utilizing PPD files

    Note –

    This command also copies the PPD file to the user label in the user PPD file repository, if /path is not in an existing PPD file repository on the system.

  4. Specifies the path to the PPD file and the PPD file name

  5. Adds a description for the printer

  6. Accepts print requests for the printer and enables the printer

  7. Verifies that the printer is ready for printing

Example 4–2 Adding a New Directly Attached Printer Without PPD Files by Using LP Print Service Commands

This example shows how to add a new attached printer without PPD files. The commands in this example must be executed on the print server where the printer is connected. The following information is used as an example.

The information that you provide might vary from the following:

  1. Gives lp ownership and sole access to a port device

  2. Defines the printer name and the port device that the printer will use

  3. Sets the printer type of the printer

  4. Specifies the file content types to which the printer can print directly

  5. Adds a description for the printer

  6. Accepts print requests for the printer and enables the printer

  7. Verifies that the printer is ready for printing

See Also