[LINK] Linux printer installation not for newbies

[Robin Whittle]

Short version:

   Linux has so many dimensions and options to the printer driver
   process that no ordinary person could be expected to understand
   the entire system sufficiently to wade through what is relevant
   to their particular:

      Operating system
      Printer
      Physical method of connecting the printer
      Protocols using in connecting the printer via a LAN

   Attempts at automating and simplifying the process may be helpful
   for some folk, but can lead to more and more options, which the
   user can't know for sure will work, so the user tends to try one
   thing, for a few hours, fail, and then try another . . . and fail.


My experience is that many devices can be installed with minimal fuss on
Windows, but that some things won't work right, and there's no way
around it.

With Linux, I think probably almost anything can be installed, and work
well, if you have the time and expertise.  I don't have the time and
have become really bored and frustrated trying to develop extreme
expertise required to do something (ideally) simple such as connect a
printer.

I have been running Linux for about 10 years.  I installed Debian 3.1
some time ago.  Now I have a Brother HL-5250DL printer (1200DPI, fast,
relatively cheap toner, $500 for the printer so its life of 100,000
pages is OK) on the LAN, with a local IP address, and am driving it from
Windows machines using a "TCP/IP" port approach, as described in the
printer's manual.  (I had also been able to get it to run with
NetBios/SMB, as if it was a computer on the LAN with its own printer
device.)

Attempting to install the printer in Debian, I try Applications >
Desktop Preferences > System Tools > Printers and nothing happens.
Googling lead me to:

  http://excess.org/docs/linux_windows_printing.html

from which I got these incantations:

  apt-get update
  apt-get install cupsys cupsys-bsd cupsys-client foomatic-bin samba
                  smbclient gs-esp a2ps

which at least made the System Tools > Printers thing work.

I also discerned from some page I read that the following file:

  http://www.linuxprinting.org/download/PPD/Brother/BR5250_2_GPL.ppd

should be used, and I saved this to my machine and gave its location as
the "driver" - since the thing wanted a .ppd file.

I couldn't get any satisfaction out of it, for reasons including:

1 - I was unsure whether to use "CUPS Printer (IPP)", "Windows Printer
    (SMB)" or "Unix Printer (LPD)".

2 - For the first two, it was not clear how to specify the URI, and
    I tried various approaches, some of which were accepted, and none
    of which caused anything to be printed - jobs were spooled.

3 - The thing would not remember the previous state of the connection
    settings.

4 - The thing would not display basic settings for paper, except in
    the first instance of setting it up.

5 - I can't find a way of deleting the printer connections set up
    with this thing.  Deleting lines in /etc/cups/printers.conf
    doesn't help.

6 - The thing would get stuck and I would have to forcibly close it.

Now, I don't know whether this thing is the problem or not.  I have no
idea where to begin.

I am left wondering exactly what CUPS is, and whether I need Foomatic.
 (I have looked around http://www.linuxprinting.org and found it
impossible to understand, in terms of my needs, in the several hours I
have spent on this.)

I can't justify risking another day or more in potentially wasted time,
so for now the Linux machine won't be able to print.

 - Robin