Printers and N900

[debian]

Is there any printing applications for the N900?

Thanks

[eean]

Nope. There's plenty of space in /opt, hopefully someone packages cups and a viewer program with printing...

[MrGrim]

Wouldn't that require usb host mode (or usb-otg) to connect to the printer, which the n900 supposedly doesn't have?

[sjgadsby]

Wouldn't that require usb host mode (or usb-otg) to connect to the printer, which the n900 supposedly doesn't have?

Not if you have a network printer.

[JonFowler]

Just needs to support lpr to talk to the home networked colour laser printer. Postscript or hppl I don't care which.

Jon

...caught in the act of being myself.

[JonFowler]

Beat me by seconds :-)

[eean]

Yea I meant a network printer.

Bluetooth is another possibility, though network just seems easier to me (and doesn't require buying an extra module for my printer...)

[debian]

Nope. There's plenty of space in /opt, hopefully someone packages cups and a viewer program with printing...

Thanks. I do really hope for cups!!

[Crashdamage]

I do really hope for cups!!
Same here. When I first heard about the N900/Maemo one of the first things I thought about was how cool it would be to be able to print directly from the phone to my bluetooth-enabled battery-powered portable printer.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I would hope it at least supports bluetooth. Some printers support bluetooth printing (the Kodak polaroid I believe is one of them) where I believe you just send a picture file over bluetooth and they have a certain amount of logic to translate and print it.

[pelago]

The problem is that not only does cups (etc.) need to be ported, but any app that you needed to print from would need to be modified to have printing functionality.

[eean]

The problem is that not only does cups (etc.) need to be ported, but any app that you needed to print from would need to be modified to have printing functionality.

Well thats why I said it would require both cups and some sort of viewer with printing. So it'd work fine for print off stuff like PDFs and images that you specifically open just to print, but it'd be a pain for websites.

[pelago]

I guess that would be a partial solution, but to be truly useful, I would want to be able to print from Modest, Contacts, Conversations, Notes, Calendar, Koffice, Documents-to-go, Conboy, etc.

[hschmitt]

The problem is that not only does cups (etc.) need to be ported, but any app that you needed to print from would need to be modified to have printing functionality.I think as soon as cups is there, many apps will start support printing

[pelago]

You're absolutely right, and I wasn't trying to suggest that it is not worth porting cups. I was just trying to point out, in case people weren't sure, that cups on its own won't magically mean that all apps can suddenly print.

[marclais]

Is anybody working on this? I'm a strong proponent!

[jalladin]

Thanks. I do really hope for cups!!

I wish my work computers allowed me to access this site fully:mad:

well for some reason i cant view the page explaining what cups is, and unfortunatly i'm working 12hr shifts here so can anyone be kind enough to tell me about cups and also ( since i guess i dnt really understand after reading this thread exactly ) if at all possible the n900 can in any way allow printing wirelessly ( I just bought a printer for school (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D78FRY/ref=oss_T15_product))

[Den in USA]

I wish my work computers allowed me to access this site fully:mad:[/URL])

Jalladin, Are you aware that you can subscribe to any thread and get immediate updated threads sent to an email account? Maybe this can help you stay "up-to-date" while at work.

[sjgadsby]

...can anyone be kind enough to tell me about cups...

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUPS):CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common Unix Printing System), a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems, allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs from client computers, process them, and send them to the appropriate printer.

CUPS consists of a print spooler and scheduler, a filter system that converts the print data to a format that the printer will understand, and a backend system that sends this data to the print device. CUPS uses the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) as the basis for managing print jobs and queues. It also provides the traditional command line interfaces for the System V and Berkeley print systems, along with limited support for the server message block (SMB) protocol. System administrators can configure the device drivers which CUPS supplies by editing text files in Adobe's PostScript Printer Description (PPD) format. There are a number of user interfaces for different platforms that can configure CUPS, and it has a built-in web-based interface. CUPS is free software, provided under the GNU General Public License and GNU Lesser General Public License, Version 2.

...and also...if at all possible the n900 can in any way allow printing wirelessly...

I've not a working Bluetooth printer with which to test, but the N900 should be able to send a photo to a Bluetooth printer. So far, that's it.

[jalladin]

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUPS):



I've not a working Bluetooth printer with which to test, but the N900 should be able to send a photo to a Bluetooth printer. So far, that's it.


thanks for helping me out, you'd be surprised what the military can and cant access on the net at work ... you can look stuff up via google and wiki it may be flagged as unsafe or what not:(


Jalladin, Are you aware that you can subscribe to any thread and get immediate updated threads sent to an email account? Maybe this can help you stay "up-to-date" while at work.

thanks for reminding me, I forget that i can do more than just comment/browse on here l:pl I'll be sure to activate that feature

[backwoods]

I hope that a printing program does come out that allows for bluetooth and usb connection printing! This would allow for photos, calander, notes and certain programs. This would be great.

[hypnotik]

Does it support PictBridge?

[BruceL]

N8x0 supported cups and printing when KDE was added (even if it wasn't runnng). Has anyone tried installing KDE yet?

[filologen]

Just wanted to inform you all that printing from easy-debian works flawlessly.

Using easy-debian I installed "config-system-printer" (along with its dependencies) and ran "config-system-printer", added a network printer, and could afterwards print my pdf files from evince :-)

[maxximuscool]

does N900 support wireless printing on the network? At the University there are a few couple of wifi printers that broadcasting through wifi routers within the network. Will it possible and how to do this?

[filologen]

What I described above works for wireless printing. From the debian chroot just install system-config-printer and you will be able to set up the network printers.

[maxximuscool]

What I described above works for wireless printing. From the debian chroot just install system-config-printer and you will be able to set up the network printers.

is the file in the repo list:confused:?

[filologen]

Ok, I think you misunderstood. You have to install easy debian from extras-devel first (please notice the risk when installing from this repository). For further instructions, se e.g.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34550&highlight=easy+debian

Then you probably have to make some more room in the downloaded image or remove some programs from it, see e.g.

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=419501&postcount=28

Then you can run "apt-get install system-config-printer" from the chroot terminal (that means in your debian environment).

You should however probably only do this if you are somewhat familiar with the linux command line.

[backwoods]

Hopefully they will make something for ppl whom do not know coding, programming and etc. For a dummie like me...

[rmerren]

I would be happy with a print-to-pdf option that lets me save to a pdf file in MyDocs, which I could then later print when USB connected to a PC. I wouldn't have to install all the other printer drivers.

My use case for this is: I was buying some movie tickets off Fandango. I had to get off the couch and move to the desktop PC and restart the purchase on a browser there so I could print the tickets. Of course, fandango sends you an email link to the confirmation page, so this wasn't really a problem...and the browser has a "save page as complete web page" option, which would have done this anyway...but we Linux users like multiple solutions to our needs, don't we?

[x61]

Ok, I think you misunderstood. You have to install easy debian from extras-devel first (please notice the risk when installing from this repository). For further instructions, se e.g.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34550&highlight=easy+debian

Then you probably have to make some more room in the downloaded image or remove some programs from it, see e.g.

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=419501&postcount=28

Then you can run "apt-get install system-config-printer" from the chroot terminal (that means in your debian environment).

You should however probably only do this if you are somewhat familiar with the linux command line.

I stopped messing around with extra-dev progs since I had memory error message while doing so several weeks ago. Hopefully this makes its way to the main repository.

[olighak]

Anything happening as far as printing on wifi/bluetooth printers is concerned?

I know of several N900 people with interest in this.

If someone is going on with this and things are going slowly is there something that could be done to help speed this up, other than putting in non-existant programming skills?

I've converted several people to N900 owners. My coworkers all use Blackberries for work, but if we can get this and MFE working, I'd have them all over to N900's in a jiffy :)

That's quite a few other consultants flying about with their wonderful N900's, showing them off to our clients while we do our work.

[olighak]

Ok, I think you misunderstood. You have to install easy debian from extras-devel first (please notice the risk when installing from this repository). For further instructions, se e.g.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34550&highlight=easy+debian

Then you probably have to make some more room in the downloaded image or remove some programs from it, see e.g.

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=419501&postcount=28

Then you can run "apt-get install system-config-printer" from the chroot terminal (that means in your debian environment).

You should however probably only do this if you are somewhat familiar with the linux command line.

apt-get for this package doesn't work. It returns a "404 Not found" error for the download sites after recognizing which packages to install, which to update and which are ok.

UPDATED:
Nevermind, tonight I learned what the apt-get update command does :cool:

[soeiro]

While easy-debian is interesting, I think it would be more interesting if we had cups or something running natively on Maemo 5 so that standard Maemo ports could print directly to network printers.

[rebhana]

Encouraged by this account of easy-debian and its actual usefulness:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=41605

and the fact that easy-debian has moved up into Extras, I installed easy-debian (see also
http://wiki.maemo.org/Easy_Debian )

Easy-Debian has gimp and openoffice with printing support, but to my initial disappointment no CUPS, the Unix printing system for network printers. However, it was really easy to install on top of it (in the Debian environment, not the XTerminal, where you wouldn't find cups yet!):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cups
sudo apt-get clean
("sudo" is superfluous when done from Debian chroot instead of a terminal within Debian LXDE)

Although a disturbingly long list of packages got installed automatically in the process, it reduced the available space for the Debian system by only 10% or so. There were also some warnings and even "fatal" errors when installing and starting cups, but it came out completely functional.

And it brought the printing (cups) support I was hoping for to openoffice. However, what I was really longing for was the possibility to print things I download in Maemo. Now, with Debian chroot I can do so rather easily, and I don't have to wait any longer for cups appearing within Maemo proper some time in the future.

So to those still waiting for cups, as I did, I can recommend doing the same. Install easy-deb-chroot and then cups within that! Postscript and pdf files downloaded on the N900 can subsequently be printed out by opening the Debian chroot terminal, so no need to start the LXDE (which I found somewhat tedious to use, despite its coolness factor).

In Debian chroot, I just do "su - user" to switch to /home/user and non-root identity. Then "lpstat -a" shows me the list of available network printers, and with "lp -d printername filename" I can send files to the chosen printer. Easy! And Debian!

In XTerminal, one can run single easy-debian commands like the above (as user) by e.g.
debbie lp -d printername /home/user/.../filename
Or if it's a word or openoffice document, "debbie ooffice" or
"debbie oowriter /home/user/.../filename" and then print out from openoffice 3 (with due patience, but much quicker than through LXDE, and for me also with correct keyboard). :cool:

I guess after my experience with packages from extras-devel that made the update to PR1.1 slightly bumpy (in fact only one package: vpnc), I now feel actually more comfortable to be able to install stuff in the Debian image and use it from there, without having to tamper with Maemo when I don't fully understand the consequences (as was the case with vpnc).

UPDATE: There is one more thing that needs to be done so that cups gets started again after one has powered down and restarted the N900:
Open Debian chroot and add a startup script for cups as follows:
echo "/etc/init.d/cups restart" >> /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc
chmod a+x /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc
If you want to do this under XTerminal, you have to instead modify or create $CHROOT/var/run/onfirstchroot.rc where $CHROOT is the Debian mountpoint. (Thanks to qole for both easy-debian and telling me about the option of startup scripts!)

UPDATE2: The above startup script is not needed when your printers are handled by another cups server in your network. In that case it's sufficient to do
apt-get install cups-client
instead of the full cups package.

[les_garten]

Thanx Rebhana!

I said WOW when seeing http://localhost:631 on my N900!!

[andyph666]

is there a guide for newbies?

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cups
sudo apt-get clean

(chroot) vi /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc
echo "/etc/init.d/cups restart"
>> /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc
chmod a+x /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc

Anyone?

[rebhana]

is there a guide for newbies?

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cups
sudo apt-get clean

(chroot) vi /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc
echo "/etc/init.d/cups restart"
>> /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc
chmod a+x /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc

Anyone?

As I said in my post, those commands have to be typed into a terminal when you have switched to the Debian environment (not the XTerminal!), i.e. either a terminal opened under Debian LXDE or Debian chroot (both can be accessed through application icons). It will be useful only, however, if you have a CUPS server in your network.

[qole]

If you also install and configure Samba in Easy Debian, you can print to Windows printers... :)

[nashith]

As rmerren mentioned I would love to see a PDF printing option available system wide. But I am afraid the current system doesn't look like it had any plans what so ever for such a task. Easy Debian is cool for the geeks, but not a solution for the guys in the suits. At least I hope whatever native Maemo office suit with editing capability comes with a print option to PDF.

[les_garten]

If you also install and configure Samba in Easy Debian, you can print to Windows printers... :)

Are you referring to Cifs in your repository?

[bandora]

I created a brainstorm for this and also I tried opening a bug for it (which they considered it as a duplicate) I am nagging alot about this because I feel that when something is advertised as a "computer" it should behave as one.. My E65 can print why cant my N900 do it?

Check out my signature.. and I beg you vote for them or something... CUPS isn't enough even if it works... This should be integrated in Maemo IMO....

Like if one find something interesting while surfing the web on MicroB and you dont want to switch to a computer.. one should be able to print directly to a wifi/bluetooth enabled printer..

I can list so many scenarios where this would important.. but I gotta sleep now 3 am!!! lol

[jsbigs]

Not having luck with this. Getting command not found after typing in lpstat -a in debian chroot terminal.

Tried running /etc/init.d/cups start to no avail.

I then noticed cups was in /etc and not in init.d so I moved it into init.d and am getting a "cups is a directory" error, after putting in the script to start cups after restart.

Noob here. Followed all directions. Help please?

[debernardis]

Have you seen this simple solution? If you have your printer attached to a linux box, it's the easiest way to print wirelessly :)

http://forums.internettablettalk.com/showthread.php?t=16162

[Graham Cobb]

Not having luck with this. Getting command not found after typing in lpstat -a in debian chroot terminal.

You may need to install the cups-client package (apt-get install cups-client).


Tried running /etc/init.d/cups start to no avail.

I then noticed cups was in /etc and not in init.d so I moved it into init.d and am getting a "cups is a directory" error, after putting in the script to start cups after restart.

/etc/cups is a directory, with several important control files and has nothing to do with the initialisation script which should be at /etc/init.d/cups! I suggest you move it back again.

If /etc/init.d/cups is not present, either it got deleted or the cups installation didn't work. After moving the config directory back in to /etc I would suggest:

apt-get install --reinstall cups cups-client cups-common

Graham

[greygoo]

I just talked to a cups developer and I was told that for just printing directly to a printer there is no need at all to install cups. All that is needed is the printer .ppd driver, ghostscript and tools to create postscript files from different files like e.g. a2ps or convert. At least for network enabled printers that should work.

Printing then basically works like this:

- have some file to print, e.g. hello_world.txt
- create a postscript file from it (a2ps hello_world.txt > hello_world.ps)
- pipe the postcript file through ghostscript using the right options (gs -option1 -option2 ...)
- send the result directly to the printer using netcat

That way cups can be completely avoided. To create the correct options for ghostscript one can simply
- setup a queue for the required printer driver on a normal cups server
- set the cups logging to debug
- send a print job
- search in the cups log file for the ghostscript command and the used options.
- one can repeat this for several driver settings like photos or text files and then have some script that converts depending on the input format to different qualities.

I have not yet tested all that but plan to do asap.

Additionally i was told that many printers are able to also directly process some file types like e.g. jpeg or text. One can try to simply send the files to the printer using netcat, usually port 9100 should be working (but that was just from experience).

If one has a print server running (that has the drivers configured), then just installing cups-client might of course be the cleaner solution.

[qole]

Are you referring to Cifs in your repository?

No, that's to allow Windows file shares to be mounted on the tablet. If you combine CUPS and Samba in your chroot, you can print to Windows printers.

Funny, I have two laser printers. I use each of them maybe once a month or less. I'd install printing support on my N900, but I just don't need it. I checked onto a flight last September, just showing everyone the screen of my N900, which had the big boarding pass barcode for scanning... Didn't even need a paper boarding pass...

[rm42]

Encouraged by this account of easy-debian and its actual usefulness:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=41605

and the fact that easy-debian has moved up into Extras, I installed easy-debian (see also
http://wiki.maemo.org/Easy_Debian )

Easy-Debian has gimp and openoffice with printing support, but to my initial disappointment no CUPS, the Unix printing system for network printers. However, it was really easy to install on top of it (in the Debian environment, not the XTerminal, where you wouldn't find cups yet!):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cups
sudo apt-get clean
("sudo" is superfluous when done from Debian chroot instead of a terminal within Debian LXDE)

Although a disturbingly long list of packages got installed automatically in the process, it reduced the available space for the Debian system by only 10% or so. There were also some warnings and even "fatal" errors when installing and starting cups, but it came out completely functional.

And it brought the printing (cups) support I was hoping for to openoffice. However, what I was really longing for was the possibility to print things I download in Maemo. Now, with Debian chroot I can do so rather easily, and I don't have to wait any longer for cups appearing within Maemo proper some time in the future.

So to those still waiting for cups, as I did, I can recommend doing the same. Install easy-deb-chroot and then cups within that! Postscript and pdf files downloaded on the N900 can subsequently be printed out by opening the Debian chroot terminal, so no need to start the LXDE (which I found somewhat tedious to use, despite its coolness factor).

In Debian chroot, I just do "su - user" to switch to /home/user and non-root identity. Then "lpstat -a" shows me the list of available network printers, and with "lp -d printername filename" I can send files to the chosen printer. Easy! And Debian!

In XTerminal, one can run single easy-debian commands like the above (as user) by e.g.
debbie lp -d printername /home/user/.../filename
Or if it's a word or openoffice document, "debbie ooffice" or
"debbie oowriter /home/user/.../filename" and then print out from openoffice 3 (with due patience, but much quicker than through LXDE, and for me also with correct keyboard). :cool:

I guess after my experience with packages from extras-devel that made the update to PR1.1 slightly bumpy (in fact only one package: vpnc), I now feel actually more comfortable to be able to install stuff in the Debian image and use it from there, without having to tamper with Maemo when I don't fully understand the consequences (as was the case with vpnc).

UPDATE: There is one more thing that needs to be done so that cups gets started again after one has powered down and restarted the N900:
Open Debian chroot and add a startup script for cups as follows:
echo "/etc/init.d/cups restart" >> /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc
chmod a+x /var/run/onfirstchroot.rc
If you want to do this under XTerminal, you have to instead modify or create $CHROOT/var/run/onfirstchroot.rc where $CHROOT is the Debian mountpoint. (Thanks to qole for both easy-debian and telling me about the option of startup scripts!)

Did you do an apt-get update before installing cups? I am getting an error regarding ssl-cert. Is that something that needs to be configured manually?

[jsbigs]

You may need to install the cups-client package (apt-get install cups-client).



/etc/cups is a directory, with several important control files and has nothing to do with the initialisation script which should be at /etc/init.d/cups! I suggest you move it back again.

If /etc/init.d/cups is not present, either it got deleted or the cups installation didn't work. After moving the config directory back in to /etc I would suggest:

apt-get install --reinstall cups cups-client cups-common

Graham

On your advice Graham, I moved /cups back to /etc, and ran apt-get install --reinstall cups cups-client cups-common. Unfortunately, this did not work so after enabling Extras-Devel (don't think that was necessary though) I ran:

apt-get update
apt-get update --fix-missing
apt-get install -f
apt-get install --reinstall cups cups-client cups-common

I can't remember if that was the exact order of things or not (other than the last step), nor know if any or all were necessary steps but it did finally work.

So now running lpstat -a works and lists the attached network printers. Two issues I now have though are:

1.) cups stops running after a while prompting me to run /etc/init.d/cups restart (lpstat -a returns the message "connection refused" before I restart cups). I guess I can live with this unless there is a workaround.

2.) The Excel file that I was printing (finally, after deleting and re-adding my printer on the network) was not formatted at all correctly. Can this be fixed? Otherwise this potentially exciting function is useless.

Thank you (anyone) for your help.

[TA-t3]

I just talked to a cups developer and I was told that for just printing directly to a printer there is no need at all to install cups. All that is needed is the printer .ppd driver, ghostscript and tools to create postscript files from different files like e.g. a2ps or convert. At least for network enabled printers that should work.
You are entirely correct. Full cups itself is way overkill if you use a networked printer (which is pretty much the only option for a device like the N900). Cups contains all the bits and pieces necessary to manage a directly connected printer, that's why it's so big.


[description of how to generate and send files to remote printer]

That's basically what the good old bsd-lpr or lprng applications can do, so they're pretty small. I still have lprng running on my N800. It can be done by a self-made script too though, as you describe. What lprng gives you in addition is a local printing queue.

[greygoo]

It looks like ghostscript already exists, at least it's in the SDK. I tried to build a2ps which triggered a real huge bunch of build dependencies, however a2ps-perl-ja is pretty small. For further testing on the weekend I'll stick with that one for now.
I'll check for lprng as well if I'll find time.
I'd test sending files to the printer right now but my daughter is sleeping and I don't want to wake her up - printer is not very silent...

[Crom]

It's time to get some printer support on the N900.
I don't think it's about cups or drivers at all...
I can print out photos without this, so all we need is basicly byttons with options to send documents or part of documents too a bluetooth or network device. This is atleast the way to get photos printed, so it can't be so darn difficult too print..?
Does this make sence to anyone?

[DojwqIO]

As I said in my post, those commands have to be typed into a terminal when you have switched to the Debian environment (not the XTerminal!), i.e. either a terminal opened under Debian LXDE or Debian chroot (both can be accessed through application icons). It will be useful only, however, if you have a CUPS server in your network.

rebhana:

I installed cups under Easy-Debian and tried localhost:631 on the browser and it displays the CUPS page correctly, but when I tried the administration tab to add my networked printer, it asked for a username and password. I tried "user" and the newly assigned password, but it didn't work.
So, how can I add printers?

By the way, what is the root password in the Easy-Debian image?
Thanks.

[qole]

DojwqIO: Set your own password in Easy Debian by running the "Debian Chroot" terminal and entering "passwd" ... Set the user password the same way, "passwd user" ...

[Hangas]

... so all we need is basicly byttons with options to send documents or part of documents too a bluetooth or network device.
[...]
Does this make sence to anyone?

The part "send .. to a bluetooth or network device" is why you need cups or similar technology. You can't just send a picture or a document to a printer and expect it to print.

You have to convert the "document" to some printing format and send it using a printing protocol.

[Crom]

The part "send .. to a bluetooth or network device" is why you need cups or similar technology. You can't just send a picture or a document to a printer and expect it to print.

You have to convert the "document" to some printing format and send it using a printing protocol.

What you are saying then, is that there are cups on the phone already...?
If there where no cups, i would not be able to print out my photos from the phone by sending them to a bluetooth device..
Why is there so hard to get printing options in other progs other than the photo program?
I feel that the lack of printing options is the only thing for me that don't make this the perfeckt device. (I know others will disagree with this)

BTW: Sorry for my crappy english..

[xomm]

What you are saying then, is that there are cups on the phone already...?
If there where no cups, i would not be able to print out my photos from the phone by sending them to a bluetooth device..
Why is there so hard to get printing options in other progs other than the photo program?


No, there is no CUPS on the N900 by default. This was answered before:

Some printers support bluetooth printing (the Kodak polaroid I believe is one of them) where I believe you just send a picture file over bluetooth and they have a certain amount of logic to translate and print it.

I'm pretty sure this is the case (Some printers even support document files, such as .odt or .pdf). The reason why it's so hard, is that you have to get the developers of said apps to include a print function (i think...).

The only problem is, if most families are like mine... which i doubt... is that printers are an arbitrary convenience. Most of the printers in my household are up to 10 years old (one is from the MS-DOS era... o.o). Bluetooth printing is relatively new, so until it's become commonplace, We. Need. Another. Way.

Not necessarily, but just saying.

Still waiting on greygoo with his tests. Your daughter's had a month to sleep...

[TA-t3]

If you have a printer connected to a computer with CUPS, networked, then you can get away with a simple print application on the N900. I used lprng on the N800 and I'm pretty sure it'll install fine in Maemo 5 too, just haven't got around to do so yet.

[medri]

I would love to see a pdf-printer on my N900. Sometimes you just need to print/convert a website/file to a a pdf.

That shouldn't be so difficult, or not?

[BruceL]

Many people had CUPS working on the N800. We need to either find the old files and try them or re-build them for the N900 (probably better because they would be newer.) It worked great. With command line options you could print PDFs, photos, text files, etc.

Probably here is what needs to be done (if someone has time; I, sadly, don't).

1) Get C++ working on the N900 or set up scratchbox on a PC.
2) Download the cups source code.
3) Build it. (Find instructions on the CUPs web-site or in the source code)
3a) Find, download and build any dependencies.

4) Create a debian package.

If someone tries this I can offer help with build problems. Hopefully someone else will help build a deb.

==================
OK, I am trying this. It didn't build, but I didn't expect it too. I'll see how far I can get. I get little bursts of time. If I make any progress I'll report back soon.

[BruceL]

Here is what I have done:
0) I already installed a C++ environment.

1) Downloaded cups source code from

http://www.cups.org/software.php?VERSION=1.4.2&FILE=cups/1.4.2/cups-1.4.2-source.tar.gz

2) Untar the code into a folder and ran the configure script from that folder. This needed a better grep so I installed it. Here is how to reproduce this:


# Install grep
download other.tar.gz from: http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=5653&d=1263114654

$root
$cd /
$tar zxvf /home/user/FolderWhereSaved/other.tar.gz

$cd <folder where cups was untared>
$./configure


3) Ran make

$make

This built all the code but failed when trying to convert man pages to HTML. (Segmentation Fault)

The next step is to either disable generating HTML during make or find out why it's seg-faulting and fix it.

I'm out of time for now (It's valentine's day!)

If any of you who want printing have half an hour, take the next step! When you run out of time, document how far you get and I or someone else will go from there.

[salle74]

Cant find administration tab in debian, where is it?

[di1in]

Is it possible to use the polaroid pogo (http://www.symbianoasis.com/2010/03/print-pictures-direct-from-your-phone.html) with the n900?
i got it from the mobilefun store..

[crazy_jorgito]

Printing from the n900 would be awsome....make it please!

[mooninite]

One possible method for implementing this would be using the "Share" API. Most apps already support a "Share" button. Installing cups, plus a "Share" plugin would be pretty handy.

It would of course need to handle different document types, which would be more difficult but could support PDF files at first pretty easily.

[R-R]

Is it possible to use the polaroid pogo (http://www.symbianoasis.com/2010/03/print-pictures-direct-from-your-phone.html) with the n900?
i got it from the mobilefun store..

Why wouldn't it? You can send image via BT! :)

[Taomyn]

Just wanted to add to the knowledge-base that my Epson Rx700 with a Bluetooth USB adapter plugged in (that in itself was a pleasant surprise to get working with little effort) accepts BT connections from the N900 using "Share" and prints photos very nicely.

[dglent]

unfortunately i dont have a bluetooth or wifi printer
i d like to be able to print with cups

[Jetz]

just connect your n900 to printer via usb, then use printer browser search files you want to print, you can also scan pictures to n900

[Crashdamage]

I have a bluetooth-enabled battery-powered HP portable printer. Printing photos is a minor concern, but I really need to print documents, emails, etc. Anyone know a way to print these via bluetooth from the N900?

[umarzuki]

i'd say lets create a bounty for this. I'll pitch in my 10 usd for this, anyone?

[Crashdamage]

i'd say lets create a bounty for this. I'll pitch in my 10 usd for this, anyone?
I'll do $25 for bluetooth printing. Actually, I'd even pay more.

[Fumanchu]

Anyone aware of a resolution for printing documents (office), now that 1.2 should bring docs to go editor software at some point... for printing over wifi/bluetooth?
Is it possible for a wifi/bluetooth printer to directly recognize an office document from the N900 and also keep the formatting?

*I know some don't see printing as an important feature, but... If the N900 could, wouldn't a large portion of users use it? even once in a blue moon? I would use it at work all the time for sending office documents.

[mobilemania250]

I've got a new HP deskjet with wireless printing capability. I use it to print stuff from my laptop via wireless router. I had a 5800Xpress before and installed an app called HP iPrint which let me print directly from the 5800 to my printer. I so much wish somebody would come up with an app for the N900 as well.

[demos]

It would be snappy for printing images directly from the phone too. HP is bringing cloud based printers where you can print straight over the internet irrespective of your physical location (think how cool if your wife is home and you want to send a picture greeting from a business trip to printer - or need to share something in the office with everyone at the workplace), but in the meantime...

[bjknight]

Having just bought a new network printer, I am bumping this and sticking £15 into the bounty.

[deyons]

$15 USD from me for network printing...This would be good for when I go to offices when the computers are down I can print out help files. Hook it up peoplez!

[mark_ireland]

i can print photos from the n900 to my hp C7000 series printer via bluetooth, its outstanding. i cannot print docs or pdf.

[BruceL]

Anyone who says that all you have to do to install a program in Linux is "./configure && make && make install" is EVIL! :)

I am working on building CUPS. I finally got most of it to build then built a deb and installed it. Sadly, it segfaults on use. I believe that the default Makefile in CUPS uses a compiler flag that doesn't work on the N900 so I am experimenting with different compiler flags.

EDIT: Now it installs and does not segfault, but I cannot start the scheduler daemon. For example:

>sudo /etc/init.d/cups start
cupsd: Child exited with status 1!
cups: unable to start scheduler.


There is no log that I can find so I have no idea what is going wrong. I'll sleep on it.

[BruceL]

SUCCESS!
I got CUPS to build and install and it is running on my N900! I am building an optified deb.

Can I get some people to test installing it and printing over a network? I'll make it public after any kinks have been worked out.

Bruce

[jacktanner]

@BruceL, is it actually printing for you?

[BruceL]

I won't have access to a printer until late tonight (it's 2pm here). But it acts like it is ready to print. I can try to add a printer, etc. That's why I hope someone will try it out.

[BruceL]

Testing would mean: installing 3 debs (cups, lpr, cups-tools), browsing to the control panel using the web browser (http:.//localhost:631), adding a printer, and trying to print a photo or pdf with lpr. (lpr myPaper.pdf).

[olighak]

Testing would mean: installing 3 debs (cups, lpr, cups-tools), browsing to the control panel using the web browser (http:.//localhost:631), adding a printer, and trying to print a photo or pdf with lpr. (lpr myPaper.pdf).

Bruce I´ll be happy to become a gunea pig for you on this over the weekend. I´ve been waiting for this for a long time.

[BruceL]

Sadly, there is a configuration problem. ('Unsupported Format' whenever I try to print anything.) I'll keep working on it this week.

[fLegmatik]

Testing would mean: installing 3 debs, browsing to the control panel using the web browser, adding a printer, and trying to print a photo or pdf with lpr.
Hmm... Where we can download these debs? 'Unsupported Format' message may occur due to wrong ppd or configuration file of your printer. I will test your build of cups with my HP Photosmart D7263 printer connected with wi-fi router by LAN cable.

[BruceL]

fLegmatic, the problem is that I had not included foomatic and ghostscript. I have built and installed foomatic and I am working on ghostscript. So it wouldn't work for you just yet.

[trelirodia]

Hi BruceL,

thank you for all the work. I'd also be very happy to try this so let me know if you'd need some more hands.

Good luck :-)

[BruceL]

It's printing! I just printed a test page, a text file, and a PDF.
Now I need to figure out how to package it all. CUPS can make its own debs. But I need to figure out how to 'en-debify' foomatic and ghostscript.

[judhaz]

Cool! Nice work - looking forward to be able to print SMS's and emails!

[Swirnoff]

will bluetooth printing work?

[chiefb]

Bruce any progress with ghost script and foomatic?

N95
n900
5800
nexus one

[BruceL]

I have set aside some time this weekend to work on it. If things go smoothly it should be done soon! I have to do some reading about how to create debs and where to put them.

[mase]

Have a look at this:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=56932

[BruceL]

Thanks Mase!
If everyone is OK with Mase's package I'll consider printing a success. If not, I'll continue packaging them, but I get free time in 1/2 hour bursts so it could be awhile.

[woody14619]

I like what he's done, but his package doesn't have a server-side, which means you need to have cups running on another device somewhere else to act as the server. This doesn't allow for stand-alone printing from what I can tell.

For example, if I want to print to a (network enabled) HP printer here at work, how can I do that? We have no cups servers at work. With a local cups server on the N900 I could configure the printer and print to it "locally" directly from an app by selecting it. Without a server I can't even setup the printer on the device. :( (lpadmin say can't connect to server)

[DaveQB]

FYI

http://www.fommy.com/view-full-page.asp?divid=Nokia&model=Nokia+N900&skuno=80818