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RPi Print Server

1. sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
2. If the printer is USB, you can use lsusb to confirm the printer is connected
3. Install CUPS
   • sudo apt install cups
   • It might be an exception if there are driver for the RPi Linux (I believe it is a binary file that would need to be compiled for the RPi)
   • If you will be using with Windows clients, add samba to the package list to install
4. Add your user to the printer admin group
   • sudo usermod –a –G lpadmin your_username

5. Before you can setup the printer, you need to edit the conf file:

   • nano -B /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

   • It should look similar to this after editing:

     • Don't include the comments as I don't know if these are actually comments for the config file

       Listen localhost:631
       Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock
       Listen 192.168.1.2:631 ## whatever your Pi IP is
       
       Browsing On
       BrowseLocalProtocols dnssd
       DefaultAuthType Basic
       WebInterface Yes
       <Location />
         Order allow,deny
         Allow localhost
         Allow 192.168.1.* ## whatever your IP scheme is
       </Location>
       <Location /admin>
         Order allow,deny
         Allow localhost
         Allow 192.168.1.* ## whatever your IP scheme is
       </Location>

6. After editing, restart CUPS
   • sudo service cups restart
7. Open a browser and navigate to the IP of the Pi on port 631
8. Under the Administration tab you should be able to add a printer after logging on with your Pi user credentials
   • If drivers exist that work for the printer, great! If not, set the drivers to Raw and let the clients install their own drivers
9. If you're not using Windows clients, you're done apart from setting up the printers on the client computers! If you are, samba needs a bit of tweaking yet...
10. Open the samba settings:
    • nano -B /etc/samba/smb.conf

11. In the print section, match these settings:

    # CUPS printing.  See also the cupsaddsmb(8) manpage in the
    # cupsys-client package.
    printing = cups
    printcap name = cups
    [printers]
    comment = All Printers
    browseable = no
    path = /var/spool/samba
    printable = yes
    guest ok = yes
    read only = yes
    create mask = 0700
    
    # Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable
    # printer drivers
    [print$]
    comment = Printer Drivers
    path = /usr/share/cups/drivers
    browseable = yes
    read only = yes
    guest ok = no

12. Restart samba and setup client computers!
    • sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

reference

this document last modified: October 29 2017 23:55

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