Managing Printers by Using Print Manager for LP (Task Map)

Adding Newly Discovered Printers by Using Print Manager for LP

You can use Print Manager for LP to configure newly discovered directly attached USB printers. You can also use Print Manager for LP to add newly discovered network-attached printers, if the network device discovery service has been enabled. For information about how to enable device discovery for network-attached printers, see How to Enable the Network Device Discovery Service From the Desktop.

• Adding a Directly Attached USB Printer

  When you physically connect a USB printer to your computer, it is discovered by the system, and the Add Printer Queue dialog is displayed on the desktop. This dialog is populated with configuration data for the newly discovered printer. In this dialog, you can view and modify the existing configuration information for the printer. After you save the changes, a printer queue is created for the new printer. For more information, see How To Set Up Auto-Discovered Printers by Using Print Manager for LP.

• Adding a Network-Attached Printer

  Network-attached printers can also be auto-discovered by the system. Network-attached printer discovery is designed and implemented through the HAL add-on module, /usr/lib/hal/hald-addon-network-discovery. When a new network-attached printer is discovered by the system, a printer queue is automatically created for the new printer. At the same time, a notification message is displayed in the panel notification area of the desktop. Clicking the notification message starts the Print Manager for LP GUI. From here, you can view or change the configuration data for the newly discovered network-attached printer. For more information, see How To Set Up Auto-Discovered Printers by Using Print Manager for LP.

  To utilize the network-attached printer discovery feature, the following conditions must be met:

  • The network device discovery service, network/device-discovery/printers:snmp, must be enabled.

    You can enable this service from the desktop or by using SMF commands. For more information, see Managing Network Device Discovery Services (Task Map).

  • Network-attached printers must support SNMP queries, which means the device must be “known” to the system.

    For more information, see How to Determine Which Printers Are Known to the System.

  • Network-attached printers must be on the same subnet as the system that is querying the network.

    The service is not capable of discovering network-attached printers that are more than one hop away.

  • Print Manager for LP Preferences for desktop notifications of network printing events must be turned on.

    For more information, see the Print Manager for LP online help.

How To Set Up Auto-Discovered Printers by Using Print Manager for LP

Use this procedure to complete the setup of a new local or a new network printer queue that has been auto-discovered.

1. To configure the new printer queue, enter all the appropriate information for the printer in the dialog.
   
   1. In the Connection section of the dialog, select the connection type from the drop-down menu.

      If you are adding a local printer queue, the connection type is Local Device.

   2. Enter the name or IP address of the print server. (Applies to network—attached printer queues only)

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   Note - For a local printer queue, no print server or IP address is required.

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2. In the Printer Details section of the dialog, enter all the appropriate information.
3. To set the printer queue as the default, select the Set as default printer queue check box.
4. To add the new printer queue, click Add.

   The new printer queue is displayed in the Queue pane of the Print Manager window.

5. (Optional) To print a test page, click the Print Test Page button.

How to Manually Add a Printer by Using Print Manager for LP

Use this procedure to manually add a new printer queue for a local or a network printer, if for some reason, the printer is not auto-discovered.

1. Start Print Manager for LP.
2. From the Printer Menu, choose Add Printer Queue.

   The Add Printer Queue dialog opens.

   
   
3. In the dialog, provide all of the information about the printer:
   1. In the Connection section of the dialog, select the connection type from the drop-down menu.

      If you are adding a local printer queue, the connection type is Local Device.

   2. Enter the name or IP address of the print server. (Applies to network printer queues only)

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   Note - For local printer queues, no print server or IP address is required.

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4. In the Printer Details section of the dialog, enter all the appropriate information.
5. To set the printer as the default, select the Set Printer as Default check box.
6. To add the printer queue, click Add.

   The new printer queue is displayed in the Queue pane of the Print Manager window.

7. (Optional) To print a test page, click the Print Test Page button.

Managing Printer Queues by Using Print Manager for LP

The Print Manager Queue pane lists all the printers in the currently selected group. You can manage printer queues in the Queue pane of the Print Manager window or from the application's Printer menu.

The Queue pane shows the type, name, and current status of each printer queue. The default printer queue is marked, if the queue is in the currently-selected group. Double-clicking a printer queue icon opens its job list in a new Job List window, where you can view the status of any pending print jobs.

From the View menu, you can choose to view the printer queues in the Queue pane as icons or as a list.

From the Sort by menu item, you can choose from several sort options.

How to View or Change a Print Queue's Properties

The properties dialog for a printer queue allows you to edit the properties of an existing printer queue. Open this dialog from the Properties menu item in the Printer menu. This dialog looks and behaves almost the same as the Add Printer Queue dialog.

1. In the Queue pane, select the printer queue in which to view or change properties.
2. From the Printer menu, choose Properties.

   The properties dialog for the printer queue is displayed.

   
   
   • You can also right-click the printer, then choose Properties from the popup menu that is shown.
3. To change settings for the printer queue, type or select the new information, then click OK.

   Type

   Connection type: Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), Remote IPP, Line Printer Daemon (LPD), Remote LPD, Socket or Local Device

   Printer Name or IP

   Hostname or IP address of the remote printer. (IPP, LPD, Socket only)

   Print Server

   Hostname or IP address of the print server. (Remote IPP, Remote LPD only)

   Queue Name

   Name of the remote printer queue. (IPP, Remote IPP, LPD, Remote LPD only)

   Port

   Port number through which to communicate with the printer queue, default = 9100. (Socket only)

   Device

   Path to the local printer device, default = /dev/printers/0. (Local Device only)

   Local queue name

   Local name for the printer queue.

   Description

   Optional text description of the printer queue.

   Manufacturer

   List of printer manufacturers for which PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files are installed.

   Model

   List of printer models that are available for the selected manufacturer.

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   Note - The printer manufacturer and model is discovered. If the exact model is not available, a similar model is provided.

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   Driver

   List of drivers that are available for the selected printer model.

   Note that this field is blank until you have entered the minimum amount of information about the printer queue.

   To print a test page, click the Print Test Page button.

   To add the printer queue, click the OK button.

   To set the printer queue as the default in the application print dialogs, select the Set as default printer queue check box.

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   Note - Some printer queue settings cannot be changed after a printer queue has been created.

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How to Delete a Print Queue

To permanently delete a printer queue, you must first select the All Printers group in the Group pane. If you delete a printer queue when another printer group is selected, the queue is deleted only from that printer group.

1. In the Group pane of the Print Manager window, select the All Printers group.
   • To delete a printer queue from a specific printer group only, select the group from which to delete the queue.
2. In the Queue pane, select the printer queue that you want to delete.
3. From the Edit menu, choose Delete.
   • You can also right-click the printer, then choose Delete from the submenu that is shown.
4. To delete the printer, click Yes in the confirmation alert that is displayed. To cancel the operation, click No.

How to Pause or Resume a Print Queue

Pausing a printer queue suspends the processing of any documents for the queue.

1. In the Queue pane, select the printer queue you want to pause.
2. From the Printer menu, choose Pause.

   The queue icon and status text are updated to indicate the queue is online, but that processing of the queue has been paused.

3. To resume processing of the printer queue, from the Printer menu, choose Resume.

   The Resume menu item is only available when a printer queue is paused.