Print from Linux CUPS to printer on Win8.1 with server side rendering [sort of solved]

[Swamp Thing]

I have installed a Canon LBP 6030w printer on an old Windows 8.1 laptop that I would like to use occasionally as a print server.

The main reason for this is that Canon does not provide drivers for ARM Linux, and I want to print from a Raspberry Pi.

What I have done so far is:
1. Shared the printer on the laptop, and disabled the checkbox for "Render on client".

2. Followed the steps in https://cheapwindowsvps.com/blog/ho...windows-shared-printer-a-comprehensive-guide/ to create a special user called raspicups

3. Installed smbclient (SAMBA client) on the Pi.

4. Did smbclient -L \192.168.1.21 -U raspicups to verify that the printer is visible to the Pi.

Now according to the instructions linked to in step 2, one has to use the CUPS interface on the Pi to install the printer. This involves selecting a vendor and model number. However, since Canon don't provide ARM Linux drivers for this model, the dropdown list does not include my LBP6030w.

However...
since I have disabled client side rendering on the shared printer, CUPS should not need to have drivers for it. And CUPS does offer an alternative to selecting a vendor and model, namely to select a "PPD" file. I gather from a quick search that this is a file that should tell CUPS something about the printer's features in order to create a print setup dialog, while freeing CUPS from the responsibility of rendering the pages.

I could not find a PPD file for this model, though.

Which brings me to: is there a way to hack a solution for this?

 

[pbuk]

And CUPS does offer an alternative to selecting a vendor and model, namely to select a "PPD" file.

1. Providing a printer through a Windows printer share is not a magic way to overcome driver problems and is only adding to your difficulties: I suggest you remove it from the equation and print directly to the printer from Raspberry Pi OS.
2. PPD stands for "Postscript Printer Definition" and works with Postscript printers.
3. The model you describe does not support Postscript, it only supports UFR II.
4. Canon provides a Linux driver for UFR II at https://asia.canon/en/support/0100924010. For the Raspberry Pi OS you will want the ARM 64 Debian driver.
5. This does not guarantee success with any particular combination of Pi OS and printer but posts on the Raspberry Pi forums do give some hopes of success.
6. The Raspberry Pi forums (https://forums.raspberrypi.com/) are a much better place than PF to find help on getting things to work on a Raspberry Pi: they are not so good on general relativity.

 

[Swamp Thing]

Thank you! I had not been able to locate Debian/ARM drivers even after much searching, and I also read many different forum posts saying that Canon doesn't support this model on ARM. Probably because I was always searching for the model number (LBP 6030w) rather than the protocol (UFR II).

Although I have now installed those drivers from your link, there is one more road block. The setup utility that is part of the installation, has a list of models to select from, and mine is not listed.

 

[Tom.G]

there is one more road block. The setup utility that is part of the installation, has a list of models to select from, and mine is not listed.

Try them all.
Since you will be using few, if any, printer-specific features you have a good chance of success. (Carriage Return, Line Feed, Form Feed are the ones really needed.)

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Swamp Thing]

Try them all.

There are lots of them. The first few I tried didn't work.

Anyway, I had been meaning to install Ubuntu alongside Windows on that old laptop, so I finally did that. Next I installed the official AMD64-Linux drivers from Canon.

And now the Raspberry can find the printer over the network automagically and install it. If one wants to install manually, there is now an option called "IPP Everywhere" at the top of the Canon models dropdown that you can select for driverless printing (or to be more precise, the client is driverless while the server runs the driver).