On Fri, 23 Nov 2001 11:51:01 +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
Yep. Use gimp-print drivers for CUPS, ghostscript or the GIMP if your printer is supported. I hear the latest debians have the ghostscript drivers as standard.
Have you actually ever installed CUPS? I first of all tried using the version that came with the cover CD on Linux-Format mag. That installed and ran, but it only had a selection of about a dozen drivers, which (I gather from reading the documentation) were only intended as 'sample' drivers. When I went through the ghastly experience of installing Mandrake 8, I noticed that this had CUPS installed also, but had stacks and stacks of drivers, including something called 'DJ930C foomatic+stp-4.1.5(GIMP-Print)', which seemed to give better results than anything else with my 930C printer. Since I managed to find the relevant .ppd file buried in Mandrake, I thought that it would be a simple matter to copy the ppd file over to Slack and the Linux-Format version of CUPS. No such luck. The file was there in the index (once I'd restarted CUPS) but it wouldn't print at all.
Then I removed that version of CUPS from Slack and tried installing the Mandrake .rpms (having converted them to .tgz) but that was a complete disaster. Sure, lots and lots of drivers now listed, but NONE of them would produce a test print.
I'm quite happy to accept that my intelligence is below normal for this sort of thing, but I've found the whole CUPS experience frustrating in the extreme so far. Today I found Turboprint after a search on Google.com. I didn't hold out a lot of hope, given my success to date, but I've managed to get it to work with the standard lpr that comes with Slackware and the colour photos that I've been getting today from it are as good as any I've had thus far. Best of all, I'm now free of Mandrake! The only down-side to Turboprint is that it's crippled shareware, i.e., it prints a big 'this is turboprint' sort of banner across the colour pictures. I didn't think that that sort of thing was acceptable under Linux?
I'd be very interested to hear how other people have got on with this kind of thing.
Gerald.
On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 18:45:04 Edenyard wrote:
Have you actually ever installed CUPS? I first of all tried using the version that came with the cover CD on Linux-Format mag. That installed and ran, but it only had a selection of about a dozen drivers, which (I gather from reading the documentation) were only intended as 'sample' drivers.
From what you say later on, it sounds like the version on that cover CD may be an early one from before the project took off.
Since I managed to find the relevant .ppd file buried in Mandrake, I thought that it would be a simple matter to copy the ppd file over to Slack and the Linux-Format version of CUPS. No such luck. The file was there in the index (once I'd restarted CUPS) but it wouldn't print at all.
It was worth a try but sound like it may not have worked because of the format of PPD files changing in a more recent version of CUPS, or maybe because there was some other step you needed to take to register the PPD file with the rest of CUPS.
Then I removed that version of CUPS from Slack and tried installing the Mandrake .rpms (having converted them to .tgz) but that was a complete disaster. Sure, lots and lots of drivers now listed, but NONE of them would produce a test print.
I hope this isn't teaching grandmother to suck eggs but when you install an rpm there are scripts that are run in the process that configure what you have just installed which may include linking it in to the system in some way. When you convert the rpm to a tgz that isn't going to happen - you'll get the files installed on the filesystem but no setup done.
In this case you would need to read the documentation and see how the package needs setting up. Does it need a config file creating or editing to tell it where to find other parts of your system? Does it need any other part of your system configured to use it. Does it depend on other software you haven't got installed or on more recent versions of those?
In many cases, if you can't get a package build for the distro you're running it may pay to get the source and build it youself as that way it will be build against the libraries you actually have installed and not against whatever is standard for a different distro.
The only down-side to Turboprint is that it's crippled shareware, i.e., it prints a big 'this is turboprint' sort of banner across the colour pictures. I didn't think that that sort of thing was acceptable under Linux?
Accepable to whom?
A typical Linux distribution is build from the Linux kernel (which is free software, GNU GPL), many of the GNU utilities (which are all free software, GNU GPL) some bits of BSD (which are free, but use a different license) code from the XFree86 Project and Gnome and/or KDE (which are also free though the Qt library that KDE depends on has an interesting license) plus whatever else the distibutor feels like including.
Just because the core of the operating system is free doesn't prevent the distributor from including commercial software (SuSE does this) and there is nothing to stop commercial software vendors from writing software for Linux (e.g. Oracle)
It's up to the writer(s) of Turboprint if they give you the source code or if they demand money to use the software. It's up to you if you accept their conditions or choose something else.
Steve.
-
Edenyard -
Steve Fosdick