# Network printing without cupsd running?

## Havin_it

Hello,

My office recently agreed to be dominated by an Epson Workforce Pro WP-4535 DWF network all-in-one printer. Its main clients are all Windows, but I'd like to be able to use it from my netbook if need be, and I wonder to what lengths I need to go.

At home, I've got an HP AIO attached to a home server (also Gentoo) that I can print to without need for cupsd or drivers: all that is on the server so I just need "ServerName MyCupsServerHost" in /etc/cups/client.conf and I'm good to go.

Now I've seen that there are drivers available for this device, but I wonder do I need them? The printer has LPR (515), IPP/CUPS (631) and even wacky old JetDirect (9100) ports open, can I maybe just send raw PostScript directly to one of these? If so, will I need a local cupsd running or is a static config possible?

I did try just adding the printer's IP as a ServerName to my client.conf, but that didn't work; the printer didn't appear in print dialogs. That would have been too easy  :Wink: 

This sort of thing is where I get a bit out of my depth, so any advice or just plain know-how would be welcome.

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## turtles

 *Havin_it wrote:*   

> .... print to without need for cupsd or drivers:

 

Thats interesting I have never tried that.

You dont have cups installed and just mimic a cups configuration file?

Is cupsd too much overhead for the netbook?

Even lightweight distro's like puppy use cupsd.

My guess is the easist thing to do is to just install cups.

The only other ipp print client I know of for linux is non free:

http://www.novell.com/products/openenterpriseserver/iprint.html

Perhaps others will chime in with one.

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## Havin_it

 *turtles wrote:*   

>  *Havin_it wrote:*   .... print to without need for cupsd or drivers: 
> 
> Thats interesting I have never tried that.
> 
> You dont have cups installed and just mimic a cups configuration file?
> ...

 

Hi turtles, thanks for the reply.

I do have cups installed, I just don't actually need to have cupsd running: the IP entry in client.conf is, I assume, read by any printing applications that use libcups. When the remote machine is an actual Linux box running its own cupsd, which has the requisite driver installed there, this works a charm. I'm guessing what is sent by the client is pure PostScript.

I reckon the IPP server on the Epson must expect to receive a compiled job, not just PostScript, so I need the driver (and cupsd running) on the client.

I acknowledge that having my own cupsd running is hardly bloat, but less is always better  :Wink: 

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## turtles

 *Havin_it wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I acknowledge that having my own cupsd running is hardly bloat, but less is always better 

 

Agreed it is interesting to me for embedded devices.

It would be interesting to see a lightweight ipp client / server alternative to cups.

Or even work with the cups code to make more compile time options.

Funny thing too about cups is even though Apple purchased it, Apple products don't seem to use ipp by default.

It is quite a hassle to get an Apple product to print to a Linux cups printserver, as I recall you have to open the cupsd.conf in a terminal and edit it by hand.

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