CHAPTER 11
Setting Up Printing Services

What's New in Printing

Print Administration Tools in the Solaris 2.6 Environment

System Requirements for a Print Server

Printer Configuration Information

Local PostScript Printer Setup

Print Server Setup

Print Client Setup

Using the SunSoft Print Client

Printing Problems

SUNSOFT RECOMMENDS THAT YOU USE ADMINTOOL: PRINTERS WINDOW OR SOLSTICE AdminSuite to set up printing on systems running Solaris 2.1 (or later) system software. Consult the Solaris System Administrator's Guide for information on how to use the Admintool: Printers window and for information on how to use printing commands. See the bibliography at the back of this book for a complete reference.

This chapter describes how to set up network printing services from a command line using SAF commands and the listen port monitor.

The network at your site may comprise many systems—some may be running Solaris 2.x system software, and others may be running SunOS 4.x. You need to decide which systems will have local printers directly cabled to them and which systems will connect to printers over the network. The system that has the printer connected to it and makes the printer available to other systems is called a print server. The system that has its printing needs met by a print server is called a print client.

You perform three basic tasks to set up printing services:

•  Setting up local printers

•  Setting up print servers

•  Setting up print clients

You can have the following client-server combinations:

•  SunOS 5.x print clients with a SunOS 5.x print server

•  SunOS 5.x and SunOS 4.x print clients with a SunOS 5.x print server

•  SunOS 5.x and SunOS 4.x print clients with a SunOS 4.x print server

This chapter describes how to set up printing services using the SunOS 5.x LP print service. Refer to your SunOS 4.x documentation for information on how to set up SunOS 4.x print servers and print clients.

What's New in Printing

The Solaris 2.6 print software provides better centralized print administration than does the LP print software in previous Solaris releases. With the Solaris 2.6 release, you can easily set up and manage print clients using the NIS or NIS+ name services.

Solaris 2.6 print software features include:

•  Redesign of print packages

•  Print protocol adaptor

•  SunSoft print client

•  Network printer support

The Solaris 2.6 print software limitations do not include:

•  Support for print servers defined as s5 (the System V print protocol) in previous Solaris 2.x releases.

•  Print filtering on print clients.

Redesign of Print Packages

The Solaris 2.6 print packages have been redesigned to provide greater flexibility and modularity of print software installation and to enable installation of a print client that takes up less disk space.

In the Solaris 2.6 redesign, the default is to install all of the packages. Print servers require installation of all packages, including both client and server. For print clients, you can choose to install only the print client packages. PostScript filter software is provided in its own print package, which provides client configuration files and utilities for the print service. Table 11-1 describes the new set of print packages.

The following print packages have been removed from the Solaris 2.6 release:

•  SUNWlpr - LP print service, (root)

•  SUNWlpu - LP print service-Client, (usr)

•  SUNWlps - LP print service-Server, (usr)

Print commands from SUNWscpu have been moved into the SUNWscplp (SunSoft Print- Source Compatibility) package.