Setting Up Printers by Using the OpenSolaris Print Manager

When you connect a new local USB printer to your computer, the printer is auto-discovered, and the Add Printer Queue dialog opens automatically. This dialog contains configuration information about the printer. If you choose, you can provide additional configuration information for the printer in this dialog.

The Add Printer Queue dialog allows you to check or change the configuration information for a newly discovered local or network printer. You can also use this dialog to manually add a printer that, for any reason, was not automatically discovered.

The Add Printer Queue dialog is opened from the Printer menu or by clicking the Add icon on the toolbar. The Add Printer Queue dialog looks and behaves almost the same as the Printer Queue Properties dialog, with a few minor differences.

Note - In the Print Manager Preferences dialog, you can turn off the automatic appearance of the configuration dialog when you connect a new local USB printer.

When a new network printer is auto-discovered, a printer queue is automatically created for the new printer. At the same time, a notification message appears on the desktop in the panel notification area. Clicking the message launches Print Manager. From here, you can customize the configuration information for the new network printer queue.

To enable the automatic detection of network printers, first select the Auto-detect network printers option in the Network tab of the Print Manager Preferences dialog.

How To Set Up Auto-Discovered Printers by Using the OpenSolaris Print Manager

Use this procedure to complete the setup of a new local or a new network printer queue that has been auto-discovered.

To configure the new printer queue, enter all the appropriate information for the printer in the dialog.
1. In the Connection section of the dialog, select the connection type from the drop-down menu.
  If you are adding a local printer queue, the connection type is Local Device.
2. Enter the name or IP address of the print server. (Applies to network printer queues only)
Note - For a local printer queue, no print server or IP address is required.
In the Printer Details section of the dialog, enter all the appropriate information.
To set the printer queue as the default, select the Set as default printer queue check box.
To add the new printer queue, click Add.
The new printer queue is displayed in the Queue pane of the Print Manager window.
(Optional) To print a test page, click the Print Test Page button.

How to Manually Add a Printer by Using the OpenSolaris Print Manager

Use this procedure to manually add a new printer queue for a local or a network printer, if for some reason, the printer is not auto-discovered.

From the Printer Menu, choose Add Printer Queue.
The Add Printer Queue dialog opens.
To configure the new printer queue, enter all the appropriate information for the printer in the dialog:
1. In the Connection section of the dialog, select the connection type from the drop-down menu.
  If you are adding a local printer queue, the connection type is Local Device.
2. Enter the name or IP address of the print server. (Applies to network printer queues only)
Note - For local printer queues, no print server or IP address is required.
In the Printer Details section of the dialog, enter all the appropriate information.
To set the printer as the default, select the Set Printer as Default checkbox.
To add the printer queue, click Add.
The new printer queue is displayed in the Queue pane of the Print Manager window.
(Optional) To print a test page, click the Print Test Page button.

Managing Printer Queues

The Print Manager Queue pane lists all the printers in the currently selected group. You can manage printer queues in the Queue pane of the Print Manager window or from the application's Printer menu.

The Queue pane shows the type, name, and current status of each printer queue. The default printer queue is marked, if the queue is in the currently-selected group. Double-clicking a printer queue icon opens its job list in a new Job List window, where you can view the status of any pending print jobs.

From the View menu, you can choose to view the printer queues in the Queue pane as icons or as a list.

From the Sort by menu item, you can choose from the following sort options:

Name: Sorts printer queues by name, in the locale's sort order. This is the default sort order.
Description: Sorts printer queues by description, in the locale's alphabetical order.
Status: Sorts printer queues by Ready printers first (alphabetical), then by printers with one or more pending print jobs.
Number of Jobs: Sorts printer queues by number of pending print jobs, from lowest to highest.

How to View or Change Printer Queue Properties

The properties dialog for a printer queue allows you to edit the properties of an existing printer queue. Open this dialog from the Properties menu item in the Printer menu. This dialog looks and behaves almost the same as the Add Printer Queue dialog.

In the Queue pane, select the printer queue in which to view or change properties.
From the Printer menu, choose Properties.
The properties dialog for the printer queue is displayed.
- You can also right-click the printer, then choose Properties from the popup menu that is shown.
To change settings for the printer queue, type or select the new information, then click OK.
Type

Connection type: Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), Remote IPP, Line Printer Daemon (LPD), Remote LPD, Socket or Local Device

Printer Name or IP

Hostname or IP address of the remote printer. (IPP, LPD, Socket only)

Print Server

Hostname or IP address of the print server. (Remote IPP, Remote LPD only)

Queue Name

Name of the remote printer queue. (IPP, Remote IPP, LPD, Remote LPD only)

Port

Port number through which to communicate with the printer queue, default = 9100. (Socket only)

Device

Path to the local printer device, default = /dev/printers/0. (Local Device only)

Local queue name

Local name for the printer queue.

Description

Optional text description of the printer queue.

Manufacturer

List of printer manufacturers for which PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files are installed.

Model

List of printer models that are available for the selected manufacturer.

Note - The printer manufacturer and model is discovered. If the exact model is not available, a similar model is provided.

Driver

List of drivers that are available for the selected printer model.
Note that this field is blank until you have entered the minimum amount of information about the printer queue.

To print a test page, click the Print Test Page button.
To add the printer queue, click the OK button.
To set the printer queue as the default in the application print dialogs, select the Set as default printer queue checkbox.

Note - Some printer queue settings cannot be changed after a printer queue has been created.

How to Delete a Printer Queue

To permanently delete a printer queue, you must first select the All Printers group in the Group pane. If you delete a printer queue when another printer group is selected, the queue is deleted only from that printer group.

In the Group pane of the Print Manager window, select the All Printers group.
- To delete a printer queue from a specific printer group only, select the group from which to delete the queue.
In the Queue pane, select the printer queue that you want to delete.
From the Edit menu, choose Delete.
- You can also right-click the printer, then choose Delete from the submenu that is shown.
To delete the printer, click Yes in the confirmation alert that is displayed. To cancel the operation, click No.

How to Pause or Resume a Printer Queue

Pausing a printer queue suspends the processing of any documents for the queue.

Note - You can only pause printer queues that you own.

In the Queue pane, select the printer queue you want to pause.
From the Printer menu, choose Pause.
The queue icon and status text are updated to indicate the queue is online, but that processing of the queue has been paused.
To resume processing of the printer queue, from the Printer menu, choose Resume.
The Resume menu item is only available when a printer queue is paused.