Sunday, 22 August 2004
If you have a linux system and want to install a printer near your computer using a parallel port you should definitely read this howto.
Conventions used
This Howto is not strict related My Handy Restaurant, but more specifically
to CUPSYS for linux.
Although My Handy Restaurant perfectly works under Microsoft Windows, in this
page it is supposed you are using a linux or unix operating system.
If you're not using such a system, this howto is totally useless for you because
CUPSYS is only available for unix OSes.
The system used to test this howto is GNU/Linux Debian with one parallel port
(lp0). The installed CUPSYS ver. is 1.1.20.
Requirements
* Working CUPSYS (Cups)
* A browser
* Administrator privileges (root access)
* parport and parport_cs loaded modules
Install the printer
Point your browser to http://localhost:631/ page.
Click on manage printers link and then on the Add printer button.
When prompted for username and password, provide root and your password
Confirm by clicking on the Ok button when prompted.
Give a name to the printer and optionally location and description.
After clicking on continue you have to choose the protocol (device list). The
Parallel Port #1 must be choosen.
If it's not in the device list, that mean you didn't load required modules (#: modprobe parport parport_cs) and/or didn't restart cusys (#: /etc/init.d/cupsys
restart).
We choose Parallel Port #1
Now we are asked for the Model/Driver for parallel port.
We will use no driver here because we are going to use My Handy Restaurant internal
driver, so we can set the raw driver when asked.
The only available option next is raw queue. This means that CUPSYS only work
as a print queue system.
Testing the printer
The first check you can make is reading the printer state line at http://localhost:631/printers
. It should be "Printer State: idle, accepting jobs".
An other test can be the print test page link. It will pint a lot of text on
your printer so maybe you will need to switch it off while it's printing. :-P
You could also type this in console:
echo ciao | lp -d name_of_the_printer
after this you should obtain ciao pinted on your printer and this output in
the console.
request id is name_of_the_printer-1 (1 file(s))
note that name_of_the_printer-1 will be different because the first word is
your printer name and the number is the print job ID.
Installing the printer in My Handy Restaurant
Point your browser in http://localhost/myhandyrestaurant_dir/ and enter the
management section.
From the system menu choose printers.
Click on the insert a new record link.
In the following form you can leave the ID as suggested by the system. Set internal
name as you wish, it can be any name you want because it will only be used to
identify this printer in My Handy Restaurant.
Now fill the printing queue name with the name you provided wile installing
the printer in CUPSYS. It should be exactly the same name, otherwise
you will get no print.
IvanoeZ