Adding a lpd queue

lp|lp0|0|ps615:\
        :lf=/usr/adm/lperr:\
        :lp=:\
        :rm=ps615:\
        :rp=lp:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd0:
lp1|1|ps632a:\
        :lf=/usr/adm/lp1err:\
        :lp=:\
        :mx#0:\
        :rm=ps632a:\
        :rp=ps632a:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd1:
lp2|2|ps6m36:\
        :lf=/usr/adm/lp2err:\
        :lp=:\
        :mx#0:\
        :rm=ps6m36:\
        :rp=ps6m36:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd2:

Adding the ICTprintservice queue

To add a new entry for the ICTprintservice mono printer, you first need to create the physical spool directory for the queue.

Creating the spool directory

On most Linux systems, this will be found under /var/spool/lpd - some systems will use this directory as the spool for the first printer and spool directories for additional print queues might be named /var/spool/lpd0, /var/spool/lpd1, and so on. Other systems may put the individual printer spools under /var/spool/lpd as /var/spool/lpd/lpd0, /var/spool/lpd/lpd1, etc. UNIX systems tend to put the print spools under /usr/spool but somewhat confusingly, they may even put them physically under /var/spool/lpd with a symbolic link to /usr/spool! Check your own system to see exactly how it has been done for existing print queue(s) - it doesn't really matter too much where the spool directory actually is as long as it's on a read/write filesystem and won't be accidentally deleted.

Assuming your own system has print spool directories in /var/spool which looks a bit like this:

> ls -l /var/spool
total 13
drwxrwsrwt   2 daemon   daemon       512 Oct 16  1998 calendar
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     system       512 Jan  6  1998 cron
drwxrwxr-x   2 uucp     uucp         512 Dec 30  1997 locks
-rw-r--r--   1 root     system         4 Jan 26 17:52 lpd.lock
drwxr-xr-x   2 daemon   daemon       512 Nov  9  2000 lpd0
drwxr-xr-x   2 daemon   daemon       512 Oct  7  2002 lpd1
drwxr-xr-x   2 daemon   daemon       512 Aug 22  2003 lpd2
drwxrwxrwt   2 root     mail         512 Dec 30  1997 mail
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     system       512 Apr  7  2005 mqueue
drwxrwxr-x  10 uucp     uucp         512 Jan  6  1998 uucp
drwxrwxrwx   2 uucp     uucp         512 Dec 30  1997 uucppublic

Here there are 3 existing print queues whose spool directories are lpd0, lpd1 and lpd2 respectively. Now think of a suitable name for the new spool directory you will be creating for the ICTprintservice queue - in this example, lpd3 would be the logical choice but ictprintservice-mono would be just as suitable. Now create the spool directory with:

mkdir /var/spool/lpd3

Now you need to change the permissions of the new spool directory to match whatever user, group and access permissions convention is used on your system. On this example, the printer spool directories are owned by user daemon in group daemon and the permissions are octal 755. The new spool directory you have just created will almost certainly be owned by root in group root with permissions probably correct at octal 755. This new spool will probably work but it's best to stick to the settings used by your particular system - a spool owned by root may give rise to security issues, etc on some systems.

To change the ownership and permissions settings of your new spool directory so that they match the existing ones, type:

chown daemon:daemon /var/spool/lpd3
chmod 755 /var/spool/lpd3

remembering to substitute the owner, group and permissions as used on your own system.

Adding the ICTprintservice entry to the /etc/printcap file

Now you need to add an entry for the new print queue to your /etc/printcap file. First, make a copy of the original in case something goes wrong:

cd /etc
cp printcap printcap_orig

Now, assuming your existing printcap file looks something like the example above, where you have an error log for each queue in /usr/adm and your spool directories are under /var/spool and you have chosen to call your new print queue by the following synonymous names:

lp3, 3, ICTprintservice_mono

now edit your /etc/printcap file and add the following lines:

lp3|3|ICTprintservice_mono:\
        :lf=/usr/adm/lp3err:\
        :lp=:\
        :mx#0:\
        :pl#66:\
        :pw#80:\
        :rm=ictprintservice.cc.ic.ac.uk:\
        :rp=ICTprintservice_mono:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd3:

remembering to susbtitute your own queue, spool directory and error log names if you have chosen different names. Incidentally, the error log is optional but useful in troublehooting - if you don't want an error log, then omit the whole line beginning with :lf from the printcap file.

Now save the file and restart the lpd daemon.

Restarting lpd

Linux systems will often have a script to do this, typically in /etc/init.d/lpd and you can type:

/etc/init.d/lpd restart

to restart the lpd server. Tru64 UNIX systems will have the script /sbin/rc3.d/S65lpd to stop and then start the lpd daemon (there's no restart option):

/sbin/rc3.d/S65lpd stop; /sbin/rc3.d/S65lpd start

should do the trick and for some Linux and UNIX systems there are of course the various command line and GUI utilities like Red Hat's chkconfig and printool that can also be used to do this. If you can't figure out how lpd is controlled on your system, one sure way of forcing it to re-read /etc/printcap and add in the new queue is to simply kill it and then restart it; first, find out where the lpd daemon lives and its (PID) process ID:

ps ax | grep lpd | grep -v grep
 11320 ??       S        0:00.00 /usr/sbin/lpd

tells us it's in /usr/sbin with the PID 11320 and

kill 11320; /usr/sbin/lpd

will then terminate the lpd daemon at PID 11320 and then start /usr/sbin/lpd again. In theory, on most UNIX/Linux systems you can also use the lpc command:

lpc restart all

but in practice some lpc implementations don't restart the master pld daemon, only the daemons serving individual print queues so it's not always a very reliable way of doing this.

Now you can go to the ICTprintservice printer of your choice and if all is well, print the test page.

It didn't work - no documents were waiting for me at the printer

If you are unable to retrieve your print copy, make sure that the username you are logged in as on your computer is a valid college username for which you have the correct, matching ID swipe card. You may have more than one computer account on your system for which only one is linked to your college ID, or you are using a private machine or research cluster whose usernames do not match the college-wide usernames. In that case you will not be able to print to the ICTprintservice printers unless your login account is altered or another one set up with a username that matches your primary college username.