GNU/Linux supports a large share of the available USB, parallel and network printers. Slackware Linux provides two printing systems, CUPS and LPRNG. This chapter covers the CUPS system.
Independent of which printing system you are going to use, it is a good idea to install some printer filter collections. These can be found in the "ap" diskset. If you want to have support for most printers, make sure the following packages are installed:
a2ps enscript espgs gimp-print gnu-gs-fonts hpijs ifhp
Both printing systems have their own advantages and disadvantages. If you do not have much experience with configuring printers under GNU/Linux, it is a good idea to use CUPS, because CUPS provides a comfortable web interface which can be accessed through a web browser.
To be able to use cups the "cups" package from the "a" diskset has to be installed. After the installation CUPS can be started automatically during each system boot by making /etc/rc.d/rc.cups executable. This can be done with the following command:
# chmod a+x /etc/rc.d/rc.cups
After restarting the system CUPS will also be restarted automatically. You can start CUPS on a running system by executing the following command:
# /etc/rc.d/rc.cups start
CUPS can be configured via a web interface. The configuration interface can be accessed with a web browser at the following URL: http://localhost:631/. Some parts of the web interface require that you authenticate yourself. If an authentication window pops up you can enter "root" as the user name, and fill in the root account password.
A printer can be added to the CUPS configuration by clicking on "Administrate", and clicking on the "Add Printer" button after that. The web interface will ask for three options:
Name - the name of the printer. Use a simple name, for example "epson".
Location - the physical location of the printer. This setting is not crucial, but handy for larger organizations.
Description - a description of the printer, for example "Epson Stylus Color C42UX".
You can proceed by clicking the "Continue" button. On the next page you can configure how the printer is connected. If you have an USB printer which is turned on, the web interface will show the name of the printer next to the USB port that is used. After configuring the printer port you can select the printer brand and model. After that the printer configuration is finished, and the printer will be added to the CUPS configuration.
An overview of the configured printers can be found on the "Printers" page. On this page you can also do some printer operations. For example, "Print Test Page" can be used to check the printer configuration by printing a test page.