Managing Your Printing Environment

The Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) is the default print service in Oracle Solaris 11 Express, replacing the LP print service. CUPS is a modular printing system that enables your system to function as both a print server and a print client. A system that is running CUPS becomes a host that can accept print requests from client systems, process those requests, then send them to the appropriate printer.

CUPS has both a web browser interface and a GUI. Each of these tools can be used to manage your printing environment. To access the web browser interface, type http://localhost:631 in the location bar of your browser. To start CUPS Print Manager from the desktop, choose System -> Administration -> Print Manager.

Configuring Your System as a Local CUPS Server

Your local system can be configured as a CUPS server. To configure your system as a local CUPS server, you must specify certain server settings.

To begin, start CUPS Print Manager GUI by choosing System -> Administration -> Print Manager. Then, choose Server -> Settings to display the Basic Server Settings dialog.

In the Basic Server Settings dialog select the following settings:

Show printers that are shared by other systems

Enables other CUPS print queues to be visible to your local system.

Publish shared printers connected to this system

Publishes a list of print queues that are configured on your system to other systems on a local area network (LAN).

Allow printing from the Internet

Enables published print queues to be accessible beyond the LAN.

Allow remote printer administration

Enables remote administration of the print queue.

Allow users to cancel any jobs (not just their own)

Enables users to cancel any print jobs.

Save debugging information

Enables the logging of debugging information for troubleshooting purposes.

How to Set Up a New Local Printer by Using CUPS

1. Connect the new printer to your system, then power it on.

   The newly attached printer is detected by the system, and the Printer configuration dialog opens, displaying information about the new printer.

   To finish configuring the new printer, skip to Step 2.

   • If you are adding a new printer that was not automatically detected, do the following:
     1. Start CUPS Print Manager from the desktop by choosing System -> Administration -> Print Manager.
        • To start the CUPS Print Manager GUI from a terminal window, type the following command:

          $ system-config-printer &

     2. In the Printer configuration dialog, choose Server -> New -> Printer from the main menu.

        Alternatively, you can click the New icon that is located on the menubar.

     3. When prompted, type the root password.

        The Printer configuration dialog opens, displaying all of the configured printers and the new printer.

2. In the Select Device window, select the appropriate device, then click Forward.

   By default, CUPS selects the USB device that is physically connected to your system or the device that was detected by the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). Note that these two entries might be for the same printer.

3. In the Choose Driver window, select a Make for your printer, then click Forward.
4. In the next screen, do one of the following:
   • Use the default, Select Printer From Database, option.

     If this option is used, the appropriate printer make is selected for you.

   • Provide your own PPD file by following these steps:
     1. Select the Provide PPD File option.

        The Select a File window opens.

     2. Locate the specified PPD file on your system, then click Open to associate the PPD file with the new printer.

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        Note - This procedure does not describe how to download and copy a PPD file to your system.

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5. From the left pane of the next Choose Driver window, select a printer Model.
6. From the right pane, select a printer driver, then click Forward.

   By default, CUPS selects a “recommended” printer model and driver for your printer. However, you can optionally make another selection from the list of available drivers.

7. In the Installable Options window, set or change any of the available options, then click Forward.
8. In the Describe Printer window, provide the following information about the printer:

   • Printer Name

   • Description

   • Location

9. (Optional) To go back and make changes to a previous screen, click the Back button.
10. To save your changes, click Apply, and if prompted, type the root password.

    After you have saved the changes, the newly configured printer is displayed in the CUPS Print Manager window.

11. To set the printer as the default, right-click the printer, then do the following:
    1. Select the Set as Default option.
    2. In the Set Default Printer window, choose one of the following options:

       • Set as the system-wide default printer (default)

       • Set as my personal default printer

12. Save the printer configuration.
13. Print a test page to verify that the printer is configured correctly and working.