samsung unified driver configurator and network printer?

[Robert P. J. Day]

as a followup to my earlier post (which turned out not to be that
hard after all), now i'm trying to figure out how to add a *network*
printer to my SLES 11 system -- again, the same samsung scx-4826fn
multifunction printer (MFP).

from the CD that comes with the printer, i simply ran the linux
install script, and i got the samsung unified driver configurator
installed on the desktop via USB. it works just fine, installed the
MFP, printed the test page, and so on. sweet.

now i want to add the printer to the network as well since it has a
network port. i plugged the printer into the net, then checked the
DHCP leases on the router and, sure enough, a new lease. pinged that
IP address, it responded and i verified it's the printer
(192.168.1.177).

but when i run the samsung utility, and search for network printers,
none are found. if i try to add that net printer thru yast2, yast
doesn't see it on the net. should it?

i also see from the specs that it doesn't support IPP so i'm stuck
with LPD, i guess i can try to configure it manually and see what
happens.

thoughts? advice? and i'm assuming i can have the same printer
connected both via usb and on the net, yes?

rday

p.s. ok, that seemed to work being done manually by using the URI
lpd://192.168.1.177/scx. but shouldn't i have expected yast2 printer
configuration to have detected that printer? or am i expecting too
much of printer configuration?

--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.

Web page: http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday
========================================================================

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

now i want to add the printer to the network as well since it has a
network port. i plugged the printer into the net, then checked the
DHCP leases on the router and, sure enough, a new lease. pinged that
IP address, it responded and i verified it's the printer
(192.168.1.177).

Make sure your DHCP server assigns always the same IP to the printer
because its IP becomes a hardcoded part of the CUPS Device URI
so that printing would no longer work when its IP changed.

but when i run the samsung utility, and search for network printers,
none are found.

When even the tool of the printer manufacturer doesn't find it,
a generic tool like CUPS' snmp backend may most likely
also fail to find it.

if i try to add that net printer thru yast2, yast
doesn't see it on the net. should it?

Compare
http://en.opensuse.org/YaST/Development/Printer_Enhancement
----------------------------------------------------------------
Under construction for openSUSE 11.1
...
In particular the "Connection Wizard" should work basically
but some features (e.g. testing this or that connection type
or printer autodetection via network) may not work.
All connections of autodetected printers are directly available
without using the "Connection Wizard".
Initially only connections for locally connected autodetected
printers are shown. To show also connections for autodetected
network printers, click [More Connections]. To verify printer
autodetection via network you may run as root the CUPS backend
/usr/lib[64]/cups/backend/snmp manually but have in mind
that this works only for those network printers which can be
detected in the local network environment via some generic
SNMP queries (which works usually for HP and Kyocera printers
with a built-in network interface).
----------------------------------------------------------------

See also
http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/doc-1.3/network.html
"Troubleshooting SNMP Discovery Problems"
and
http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/doc-1.3/ref-snmp-conf.html

p.s. ok, that seemed to work being done manually by using the URI
lpd://192.168.1.177/scx. but shouldn't i have expected yast2 printer
configuration to have detected that printer? or am i expecting too
much of printer configuration?

Autodetection of the IP may work (see above) but autodetection
of the remote LPD queue name "scx" inside the printer
(there is a LPD running in the printer) is impossible
because the LPD protocol does not provide a functionality
to list all queues on a LPD server - i.e. the client must
somehow know the queue name in advance which means
in your case that you would have to read the printer manual
which LPD queue name it uses internally.

Often an arbitrary queue name or 'LPT1' works somehow.
But using a correct LPD queue which does not somehow change
the data or add additional formfeeds or banner pages
could be essential for reliable printing.

Compare the help text for the "Connection Wizard" of the
YaST printer setup.


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner

[Jens Hansen]

I have a Samsung ML-3051 MD and I use a fix address. But I do not use the
samsung utility. I had a lot of problems with it. I use the cups-configurator
localhost:631 and create a new printer taking the ppd from the Samsung CD.