Local printers not supported

[David McGlone]

On Thursday 06 August 2009 06:24:18 pm Michael Hirsch wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 3:38 PM, David 
McGlone<david at dmcentral.net> wrote:
> > On Thursday 06 August 2009 01:30:37 pm Michael Hirsch 
wrote:
> >> On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 10:14 AM, Eberhard
> >
> > Roloff<tuxebi at gmx.de> wrote:
> >> > Michael Hirsch wrote:
> >> >> I'm trying to help my Dad with a problem.  He's using KDE
> >
> > 3.5.x and
> >
> >> >> his USB printer stopped working.  He can see the printer 
with
> >
> > "lsusb"
> >
> >> >> so it would appear that USB works, but when he tries to 
add
> >
> > the
> >
> >> >> printer with the KDE Add Printer Wizard, the choice "Local
> >
> > printer
> >
> >> >> (parallel, serial, USB)" is deactivated.  He can't press the
> >
> > radio
> >
> >> >> button to enable it.  The other radio buttons are all active
> >
> > except
> >
> >> >> for "Serial Fax/Modem printer".
> >> >
> >> > What does "stopped working" mean?
> >>
> >> It used to work, and now it doesn't.
> >>
> >> > Why does he need to add an apparently existing printer?
> >>
> >> The printer is defined, but not functional.  One approach I 
gave
> >
> > him
> >
> >> was to try to define it again.  Also, he took the printer to my
> >
> > Mom's
> >
> >> computer which is also running Kubuntu and tried to install it
> >
> > there
> >
> >> with the same symptom.
> >>
> >> Strangely, when he tries to edit the currently defined printer, 
it is
> >> defined to be a local printer, but the local printer field is 
greyed
> >> out and not functional.
> >>
> >> > You might try with http://localhost:631 and see, whether 
you
> >> > can reenable the printer and print a testpage from there.
> >>
> >> I'll see if I can talk him through that.  It's tricky because he 
lives
> >> far away, so this is all phone support.
> >
> > Why don 't you use KRDC (remote desktop) to help him?
>
> Good idea.  I've done that on occasion.  The tricky part is that he 
is
> behind a firewall owned by his DSL provider and doesn't know 
how to
> open port.

He has to use KRFB to create an invitation and e-mail it to you.

> I know how to open ports to me, so we can do some
> trickiness with ssh to get krdc talking, but it's non-trivial.  It
> would be nicer if KRDC were more efficient.  Wasn't there a plan 
to
> integrate NX into KRDC once upon a time?

I'm not sure. 

-- 
Blessings,
David M.
http://www.dmcentral.net