Selecting the Printing Protocol

The print subsystem uses the BSD print protocol and raw TCP to communicate with the printer. The printer vendor documentation provides information about which protocol to use. In general, the TCP protocol is more generic across printers.

The Device URI protocol was introduced in the Solaris Express 2/05 releaseSolaris 10 5/08 release. This protocol enables remote printer access. You can specify a device-uri when adding a network printer by using the lpadmin command or by using Solaris Print Manager.

To select the BSD protocol, type:

lpadmin -p printer-name -o protocol=bsd

To select the TCP protocol, type:

lpadmin -p printer-name -o protocol=tcp

If the protocol that is selected is the BSD print protocol, you can further select the order of sending the control file to the printer. Some printers expect the control file, then the data file. Other printers expect the reverse. For this information, see the printer vendor documentation. The default is to send the control file first.

To select the order, type one of the following commands:

lpadmin -p printer-name -o bsdctrl=first

lpadmin -p printer-name -o bsdctrl=last

For information about using the IPP protocol, see Administering Printers by Using the Internet Printing Protocol (Task Map).