New instances of printer on Jaunty (SOLVED)

[Perry]

Le Sunday 15 November 2009 22:13:58 Eberhard Roloff, vous avez écrit :
> Perry wrote:
> > Thanks, I will try again when I have time, but even when there is a drop
> > down menu, it contains a frustrating large number of options which I will
> > have to understand or blindly try.
> >
> > Greetings             Perry
>
> no offense intended, but you better start to think smart.;-)
I deserve that, I was too frustrated at the time to notice that all non 
arbitrary input was available somewhere, provided... (see later)
>
> As you are having one printer already installed and working,
> you can either:
> Look up your existing printers config inside
> http://localhost:631 and note down each setting before
> starting to setup your second printer, almost identically.
>
> Or, you will do it manually. For this
> /etc/cups/printers.conf is your friend and a good place to
> start from.

It wasn't that difficult after all, here is how I did it in FireFox:
=====================================================
localhost:631
Administration
Add Printer
Name:		FastDraftBW 				(arbitrary)
Location:	Kitchen					(arbitrary)
Description:	fast printing 				 (arbitrary)
device:		HP Photosmart C4200 Series USB MY74BFQ0NH04VP HPLIP (HP Photosmart 
C4200 series)						(listed in drop down box, but only 
.							when the printer was *SWITCHED ON*)
Model:		HP Photosmart c4200 Series hpijs (en)  	(listed in drop down)
User Name:	perry					(whoami  ;O)	)
Password:	????					(must remember this one  ;O)	)

Then I could change the resolution and (try) make it the default printer
=======================================================

PROBLEM:
This worked and the FastDrawBW printer appeared in the printing dialog of kate 
(or OpenOffice)... but it didn't appear on top, it had to be selected from 
the drop down menu. Perhaps this default printer selection in localhost:631 
only really works with commands like "lp" ?

SOLUTION:
It turned out the right way to achieve what I wanted was with the 
command "lpoptions". I will never find out why it failed the first time I 
tried, perhaps a typo, and some information was tricky to get.

Here is how I did it:
=======================================================
type:	kdesudo kate /etc/cups/printers.conf (to find the name of the printer)
read: 	<Printer Photosmart-C4200-series>
type: 	lpoptions -p Photosmart-C4200-series/FastDraftBW
	      to create an instance named FastDraftBW (arbitrary name)
Close all instances of kate and reopen (not sure it is necessary there), tell 
it to print on Photosmart-C4200-series 
(because you may not yet have the FastDraftBW visible on the printer dialog), 
*but change the resolution* to that suited for fast draft in the advanced tab 
under properties.
TRICK: you have to double-click to the right on the line below printout mode 
to make a drop down menu appear.

After you have effectively done this printing, a file ~/.cups/lpoptions will 
be created or updated,
it will contain a line 
"Default Photosmart-C4200-series Quality=300FastDraftGrayscaleK"
The last part of this line can then be used to modify the FastDraftBW instance 
you created before;
issue the command: "lpoptions -p Photosmart-C4200-series/FastDraftBW -o 
Quality=300FastDraftGrayscaleK"		(in one line)
The new instance will now appear in the printer dialog of kate, but not on the 
first place.
Make it the default with:lpoptions -d Photosmart-C4200-series/FastDraftBW 
====================================================


Cheers		Perry

-- 
BOFH excuse #321: Scheduled global CPU outage