Etch from scratch – installing a printer

Although, I can create a postscript file for printing later, I thought it would be better if I introduced the office printer to my new Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (Etch) box. The ‘touch it once’ way of getting the tedious paperwork out the way.

Before I got onto installing a printer though, I tweaked:

• the /etc/apt/sources.list to remove “deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r0 _Etch_ - Official i386 xfce-CD Binary-1 20070407-12:12]/ etch contrib main”, and
• configured both Xfce Panel 1 and Xfce Panel 2 to autohide using the Panel Manager. To figure out which panel is which, look for the panel location on the screen. Mmm.

Then, H respectfully requested that I install ssh so that he could have access to my computer So I ran apt-get install ssh.

My screen is still going grainy and I am unable to select some options when back at the log in screen. It may be that the driver that has been selected is not appropriate. For now, I just swap to another terminal, become root and powerdown.

I’m getting used to the fonts in some applications, but they are still yuck overall. I needed to get on with work and this included being able to print from the browser for online banking, so further tweaks have to wait.

1. Located the Foomatic printer configuration tool on the Xfce Apps > Tools menu, and followed my nose knowing that I have a networked HP Color Laserjet 4500 to install.

Unfortunately, the following message is displayed:

‘Unable to retrieve PPD file from PPD/HP/color_laser/HP_Color_Laserjet_4500.ppd’

Thought, ok, I believe you. So:

2. apt-get install linuxprinting.org-ppds, and
3. apt-get install hp-ppd

H also remembered that additional ppds were required on the Computer Angels system.

Appeared to work, in that I successfully added a printer. However, no test page appeared when requested.

4. I followed up H’s suggestion of installing CUPS with:apt-get install gnome-cups-manager
5. I was unable to print a test page from GNOME CUPS Manager, so I used my browser to display the CUPS web interface at https://localhost:631/ and successfully printed a test page from there.

I also printed a page displayed in my browser and started OpenOffice.org Writer and typed in a few words to check that I could print from there. And I can So ok for uni assignments next week.