# Centralized Unix-stype print server with CUPS

## jamapii

Hi,

I'm trying to add a remote printer to CUPS. 

What I want is: lpr ----> CUPS@localhost ----> CUPS@printserver ----> printer

without the need for all printer drivers on all computers (as it's not windows)

This used to work with lpr / lprng, but when I try it on CUPS using the web interface, the wizard does not finish, it continues to ask for printer drivers.

What am I doing wrong?

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## MotivatedTea

If it's hanging at the screen where you have the option to select a manufacturer or to upload a .ppd file, then you might be seeing a bug I ran into. I don't have a reference to the bug report any more, but it affected several consecutive versions of CUPS, and it had to do with a bug in the way CUPS decoded HTTPS streams. This caused the cups webserver to hang sometimes when receiving HTTPS data from a Mozilla-based browser (i.e. Firefox and related). (Firefox was sending valid HTTPS data, but the particular form it sent in triggered a bug in CUPS.) I have used all of three different workarounds:

1) Use a non-Mozilla based browser, like Konqueror, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.

2) Don't select a model. Instead, upload a .ppd file. (For this, you'll need to locate the appropriate .ppd file by hand or copy it from somewhere else.)

3) Use something other than the web interface to install the printer. KDE and Gnome both allow you to add printers through their own menu systems.

I thought the bug had been fixed, so you could also try upgrading to a newer version of CUPS. But I haven't had to install a new printer in a while, so I'm not sure.

Edit: I think I found the upstream CUPS bug report: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L2892. It says it was fixed in August 2008 in the CUPS 1.4 subversion repository, but I don't know whether that patch is part of cups-1.4.2 in Gentoo's portage.

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## rainer

I have used both cups 1.3.10 and 1.4.1 with Firefox without running into this problem, for exactly the same scenario as jamapii described. Maybe updgrading is, in fact the answer...

Rgds,

Rainer

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