CUPS - alternatives

A.S. Pushkin · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 3:08 pm Post subject: CUPS - alternatives

I'm fed up with CUPS. Several years ago it worked fine, but now it is taking more time to fix than if I hand wrote
my docs. I have to fix it to run every time I come back to print documents.
Is there any alternative to CUPS?

If Apple now runs CUPS is this intentional?

TIA
_________________
ASPushkin

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

eccerr0r · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:19 pm Post subject:

How often do you print documents?

Yeah CUPS is a conglomerate mess but fortunately for me, it's worked fine. Just that network printing sometimes breaks when they change security defaults in the config file format, I had to rewrite for that.

I suppose the old straight lpd should still be available in net-print/lprng. But curious as to your setup that keeps breaking?

My system is cups server for all computers, with postscript translation -> jetdirect -> parallel HP laser printer. Ancient...
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

A.S. Pushkin · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:12 am Post subject: CUPS - alternatives

Thanks for posting your remarks eccerr0r.

Currently, my printer is just a Brother DCP-7020 all-in-one. I use to use a Kyocera-Mita laser printer that worked fine, except the manufacturer had serious problems
with the power supplies. (I was told they had no problems, but replacing a bad power supply with a rebuilt one says other things!)

My wife has her own PC, an HP, while I build my own, the current being Gentoo on an i7. Right now we are not on a network, just a simple plug in though I hope to eventually setup our Netgear router as a print server.

We don't print a lot as right now. I'm not certain when this problem began, but in the last year or so I think.

I wish we had a HP, I worked with a lot of HP when I was a CAD designer(Oh, those were the days, but I lost that job!)

I use to think the problem might stem from the rolling nature of Gentoo, but I'm not certain.

I'll continue to search for a solution and will post if I have one that makes sense.

Thanks
_________________
ASPushkin

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

eccerr0r · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:37 am Post subject:

I'd say just etc-update and start over from scratch and reconfigure your cupsd.conf. Save your old ones of course.

If you didn't etc-update, perhaps that's something to start with.

I'd say HP isn't something that's guaranteed to work. I just have an older HP printer that has been supported by Linux for a long time. I can't say the same luck for hplip printers - I was thinking about setting up the same for someone else but that machine is on dynamic IP and does not notify the DHCP server its name so it won't ever work (perhaps if I setup bonjour or whatever that crap is...)
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

Roman_Gruber · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:58 pm Post subject:

the only issue with cups is that sometimes the print jobs can not be deleted. so resetting the printer is kinda "borked". was since day one. This effect is also on windows with hp printers for example. so its printer related, i blame the printer architecture!

i use the pld file from kyocera and cups works since i have that printer since 27-03-2008. Over several notebooks, kernel, and cups versions. Same pld.

I have several "virtual printers" for only one physical printer.
these days there is no need for a pdf printer anymore. cups can now print ot a file, as it seems...
--

you may set up cups from scratch!

A.S. Pushkin · Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 3:42 pm Post subject:

Roman_Gruber thanks for the remark on Kyocera. I actually liked mine, but the power supply died twice so I've not repaired it. Perhaps I'll
have to do this repair myself.

Do you know of any Kyocera printers that also do graphics? In my old days as a CAD operator we had a very nice HP that could scale CAD drawings for check prints.
In the States we could use Legal size prints. It was quick and cheaper than plotting.

Thanks for all the comments.

I'll look further.
_________________
ASPushkin

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

A.S. Pushkin · Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 7:07 pm Post subject: Printer stopped working [SOLVED]

Well, I still have problems with logging into CUPS, but I seem to have solved my printing issues and
thanks to the Gentoo forums.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-579156-start-0-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-.html

The simple change that Ishiki posted corrected the issue.
_________________
ASPushkin

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell