Help printing please!!!

estranged1977 · Post by **estranged1977** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 2:17 am

Hi everyone, well I need some help using wine and printing, my problem is very specific.

In a little market Im workin now, the owners decided to run Linux in all the computers, everything went perfect, even the control and accountability software that was running over Visual Fox Pro, till I deal with printing...

Thing is that if I use one function of the application that prints a report for example it works fine, I can select the printer and send the order and it works without problems, BUT when I try to use the MOST IMPORTANT function that is to send a sell ticket to the ticket printer it doesn't do anything.

The differences betwen both situations is that in the last one the program just print without any dialog, son the printers must be included in the configuration panel of the application, in this case is a network printer that works fine under linux using a print-server. In the original installation the printer appears in the configuration like \\printer1\tickets and it works in windows computers.

I believe is a problem in the way I use to put the printer under wine, because if in the other way works perfect when a dialog appears I don't know why the same printer does not work when it use the internal configuration in the program.

What I should do?? How I must put a printer in the program so wine can recognize it and send the print order???

If the network is the problem with wine is there a way to make wine believes all the printers installed on the linux system with cups even if they are network share, can be readed by wine like locals???

Please help me...this is the only problem that stop us to use the entire software under linux, all the other features works perfect under wine, eveything...it just the print issue that I can't make it work...

Thanks-...

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:47 am

estranged1977 wrote:If the network is the problem with wine is there a way to make wine believes all the printers installed on the linux system with cups even if they are network share, can be readed by wine like locals

Wine works with all printers as local printers. And that's how they should be configured in your application.

In other words, you can not use "\\printer1\tickets" - it won't work.

Martin Gregorie · Post by **Martin Gregorie** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 8:18 am

On Mon, 2009-07-27 at 07:47 -0500, vitamin wrote:

estranged1977 wrote:If the network is the problem with wine is there a way to make wine believes all the printers installed on the linux system with cups even if they are network share, can be readed by wine like locals?/quote]
Wine works with all printers as local printers. And that's how they should be configured in your application.

In other words, you can not use "\\printer1\tickets" - it won't work.

The OP says he has CUPS up and running. CUPS can handle network
printers, so he should configure the printer on CUPS, if he hasn't
already done it, and then set Wine to use the printer via CUPS.

Martin

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:34 pm

Martin Gregorie wrote:The OP says he has CUPS up and running. CUPS can handle network printers, so he should configure the printer on CUPS, if he hasn't already done it, and then set Wine to use the printer via CUPS.

Right, but you still can't tell Wine to use "\\printer1\tickets" printer. You need to use valid CUPS printer names (which ever those might be - dunno, never needed to specify one this way).

estranged1977 · Post by **estranged1977** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:36 pm

Thanks for the answers but i ve tried all that suggestions...I' m running cups and it is supposed that wine prints everything to cups...so I don't understand...

I still believe is something in the way I put the printers in the system config...maybe if I try something like localprinter:printer or make wine believe is a LPT1 printer or something I don't now ...ideas are empty right now for me...

My question now is why I can print a report for example from wine even when the pinter is remote, just because it appears a print dialog in where i can select the printer I want to use...so that is all i think...it needs a dialog to be sure I choose the printer...otherwise it doesn't do anything...

Any idea..suggest...???? please I promise i will try everything..

thanks again

Martin Gregorie · Post by **Martin Gregorie** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:20 am

On Mon, 2009-07-27 at 23:34 -0500, vitamin wrote:

Martin Gregorie wrote:
The OP says he has CUPS up and running. CUPS can handle network printers, so he should configure the printer on CUPS, if he hasn't already done it, and then set Wine to use the printer via CUPS.
Right, but you still can't tell Wine to use "\\printer1\tickets"
printer. You need to use valid CUPS printer names (which ever those
might be - dunno, never needed to specify one this way).

I'd assumed the OP would know that since he has CUPS running but didn't
know that CUPS can handle networked printers, but in case he doesn't,
you just use the name you've assigned the printer in the CUPS
configuration. If it is properly set up you should never need to know
how CUPS connects to a printer.

As an example I have an LJ5 with the 3rd party JetNet internal server
card. I configured the printer as LJ5 using the parallel port and as
JetNet using the network connection. I set JetNet as the CUPS default
printer. This means that typing any of the following commands into a
terminal window will print the 'print.txt' file:

lpr print.txt # sends the file to JetNet by default
lpr -P JetNet print.txt # explicitly prints using the LJ5 as
# a network printer
lpr -P LJ5 print.txt # explicitly prints using the LJ5 via its
# parallel port

In most graphical programs, you simply select the CUPS name for the
printer from the list of available printers.

Martin

Martin Gregorie · Post by **Martin Gregorie** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:37 am

On Mon, 2009-07-27 at 23:36 -0500, estranged1977 wrote:

Thanks for the answers but i ve tried all that suggestions...I' m
running cups and it is supposed that wine prints everything to
cups...so I don't understand...

See my earlier reply to vitamin - configure all printers, network or
not, as CUPS printers and tell your programs to send their output via
CUPS. CUPS can handle directly attached printers, network printers and
shared CUPS printers on another host. CUPS printers can also be shared
transparently with Windows boxes via SAMBA.

When you run a Windows program under Wine, the printer selection
dialogue should show the list of CUPS printers with the default printer
preselected.

I still believe is something in the way I put the printers in the
system config...

Check your CUPS setup and use the 'Printer Test' to make sure its set up
correctly. CUPS is much easier to set up now than it used to be. The
Gnome printer management system works pretty well.

You can also check printer operation from a terminal window with a
command like:

ls | lpr

which should list the contents of your current directory on the default
printer or

ls | lpr -P LJ5

where 'LJ5' is the name of a CUPS printer.

Martin