Setup printer without printtool

[danbiggs]

I apologise for the simplicity of this question but we're new to Linux.

We need to set up a printer (HPLJ5000N) which is on our network with a static IP address. We just want to print text - nothing fancy. We don't have a GUI on our Linux box (Redhat 6.2) so I don't think I can use printtool? The only methods I've been able to find for setting up printers involve the GUI at some stage.

I'm presuming, as with everything else in Linux, I can set up the printer by just modifying the relevant configuration files. So if anyone can point us in the right direction I'd be grateful.

 

[ifincham]

Hi,



I'm not aware of any console tools for redhat on this. What you have to do is edit /etc/printcap (printer capability database) and manually create the spool file directories, e.g. /var/spool/lpd/lp2 . For example (as root) :



/sbin/mkdir /var/spool/lpd/lp2

chown lp.lp /var/spool/lpd/lp2

chmod 770 /var/spool/lpd/lp2



See -->

http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/tips/Printer-Tips/s1-config-files.html

and also 'man printcap' and 'man checkpc'. The latter checks /etc/printcap.



Hope this helps