Call for testing: Driverless printing on Zesty

[Till Kamppeter]

Hi,

Here is something nice to try out during the holidays or to save some 
Christmas present which you got from a not so Linux-savvy relative.

Are you using Zesty and do you have a (network) printer which you never 
got working with Linux?

It is possible that Zesty is now able to make it work. Zesty supports 
printing on IPP Everywhere printers and on printers supporting Apple 
AirPrint (these are the printers where you can print from your iPhone or 
iPad).

Please try the following:

Have the printer connected to your network. It works with wired Ethernet 
or WiFi. For WiFi have it correctly set up for WiFi access, either 
connecting to your router's WiFi or using its built-in print-only WiFi 
server. At least one of these methods should be possible to set up 
without a Windows or Mac computer, so that users only having a mobile 
device can print.

Have a Zesty box accessing your local network. Do a complete update of 
it, to make sure to have the newest CUPS and cups-filters packages.

Now there are two methods to get you printer available:


1. Fully automatic setup
------------------------

Edit /ect/cups/cups-browsed.conf to have a line

CreateIPPPrinterQueues All

and restart cups-browsed:

sudo systemctl stop cups-browsed
sudo systemctl start cups-browsed

Now look for new print queues on your system and try to print.

Note that these queues will get automatically removed when the printer 
is turned off or cups-browsed not running. But don't worry about your 
option setting, cups-browsed saves them for you.


2. Setup via http://localhost:631/ (or other printer setup tools)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Open http://localhost:631/ and choose "Administration" at the top. Then 
click "Add Printer" at the left. Log in in the log-in pop-up with your 
usual user name and password.

Look for your printer under the "Discovered Network Printers:". Prefer 
an entry which contains the word "driverless". Select the entry and 
click "Continue".

On the next screen your can decide whether to share your printer to your 
other machines in your local network (these do not need to be Zesty) and 
you should check the "Connection". It should start with "ipp://" or 
"ipps://", if not, go back a step and check whether you have selected 
the correct entry. Click "Continue".

On the next page choose the correct model, preferring the entry 
containing "driverless". Usually this already happens automatically. 
Then click "Add Printer".

Now set the option defaults, especially the correct page size/media size 
and click "Set Default Options".

Select "Print Test Page" under "Maintenance". Also try printing from 
your preferred applications.


What we want to know
--------------------

Independent whether you have used the first or the second method, tell us:

1. Which printer models did you try?

2. Does the manufacturer claim, via the packaing, the manual, or the 
printer itself that the printer supports:

     - IPP Everywhere
     - Apple AirPrint
     - Prints from iPhone and iPad
     - Prints from mobile devices

3. Is the printer listed here?

     - http://www.pwg.org/dynamo/eveprinters.php
     - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201311

4. Did you get the printer to be discovered as described and to set up 
and print?

5. If yes, tell us whether it prints correctly, whether you can control 
things like double-sided printing, print quality, input tray, ...?

6. If something goes wrong, please report a bug.

7. Independent whether you are successful or not, please reply here and 
tell us your results, so that we know how well the support for 
driverless printing works.

Have a great Christmas and a working printer!

Happy printing!

    Till