How to install a printer in DSL
Created by clivesay from the DSL Forums
(editors note: screenshots have been removed, but instruction and order should remain the same.)
Access Apsfilter by clicking on the "Printer Setup" button in the DSL Control Panel
The first screen of Apsfilter asks you to accept the license agreement. Enter a "y" and press the key.
In this screen the author asks if you would like to request his mailing address. You would normally enter "n" and press the key. You can enter "y" if you would like the authors address.
Just press the key here to enter the Apsfilter setup.
Press the key to continue
This screen shows the permissions for apsfilter. You should just have to enter "y" and press the key.
This screen allows you to setup a new printer or change an existing one. We want to add a new printer so enter an "a" and press the key.
Now we are ready to add our printer settings. For this example we are going to setup an Epson Stylus C62 printer that is connected via a USB port. For normal printing, you will only need to fill in values for sections 1, 2 and 3.
Type a "1" and press the key
Here we will choose the appropriate print driver for our printer. I recommend starting with the drivers under the option 4 gimp print menu. The drivers in this menu seem to work well with most printers. If you cannot find a suitable driver, you can try drivers under the other menu options. Choose "4" and press the key.
Here are our navigation options while searching for our driver. Press the key to continue.
Here is the first screen you will see. We will hit the enter key to scroll through the screen until we find a driver that references our Epson Stylus C62 printer.
After scrolling down a short time we find "29 - Epson Stylus C60 [stp/escp2-c60]". We will want to remember the number "29". when we get to the end of the list. Press the key until we get to the bottom of the list.
Now enter the number "29" and press the key to choose the Epson C62 driver. You will be asked if you want to accept that driver. You want to answer "y" and press the key again.
We have selected the driver and now we want to tell Apsfilter how your printer is connected to your PC. Enter option "2" and press the key.
Our printer is connected to the PC via a USB cable so we will choose option "1". Choose option "1" and press the key.
We are working with a Linux OS and most likely your printer is on the port LPT1. Since we are connected with a USB cable we will want to use the option shown under the LPT1 option that says "USB under Linux". Under "Full path of the parallel print device:" we want to enter:
Full path of the parallel print device: /dev/usb/lp0 press the key
If we were using a parallel printer cable to connect to the PC we would have entered /dev/lp0
Option 2 shows 'parallel' but that is OK. That value will show for parallel or usb port printers. We are now ready to define the paper format. Choose option "3" and press the key.
We want to choose our paper format. I will choose "US Letter" for this example. Choose option "3" and press the key.
Now we are ready to test our printer by printing a test page. Choose "T" and press the key. You will be asked if you are sure you want to print a test. After a few seconds, a test page should start to print. If you do not get a test page, you may need to go back to option "1" to ensure you have chosen the correct driver for your printer. Another thing to check would be the device path in option "2" to make sure there isn't a typo in the path name.
After the test page is successful, press the key to return to the main setup menu.
If your printer is setup properly, we are ready to finalize the installation. Choose the "I" option and press the key to give your printer a name.
Here we will enter the name of our printer. If you just press the key your printer will be given the name "lp". We will name our printer "EPSON_C62". Press the key to continue.
Press the key to accept the printer name.
Congratulations! You have setup your printer. You can setup more printers if you like. We will choose option "Q" to quit Apsfilter. You can hit the key repeatedly to exit Apsfilter and get back to the DSL Control Panel.
You are almost ready to print. Open a console window so that all applications will recognize your printer.
Type "export PRINTER=EPSON_C62" substituting the name of your printer for 'EPSON_C62'
Now you should be able to use your printer in all applications. Congratulations on setting up your printer!!
Now we need to start the printer daemon before we can print in applications. Click on the "Printing/lpd" button to turn on the print daemon.
If you are running a regular hard drive install, you are done. If you are running from USB, CD or frugal install with the backup/restore features, there are a few more steps to complete to save your printer settings.
THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR LIVE CD, USB and FRUGAL install options utilizing the backup/restore features.
Open the Emelfm file manager and choose the "filetool.lst" file in the /home/dsl directory. Choose the file and click the button.
In your filetool.lst file you will want to add three entries. I have separated them from the others for illustration. The last entry must contain your printer name. For our example, the entries would be as follows:
opt/printcap
opt/apsfilter/
var/spool/lpd/EPSON_C62
Now we want to go to the /opt directory in Emelfm to add some commands to the bootlocal.sh file. This file contains scripts you would like to run when your PC boots up. Choose the bootlocal.sh file and press the button.
We need to enter the same comand in bootlocal.sh that we entered in the console earlier. This will allow all apps to use your printer without you having to enter your printer information.
This is one more option you can add to bootlocal.sh if you would like the printer daemon to start automatically at boot. As shown above, add /usr/sbin/lpd and save.
That's it for this howto. Enjoy your printer!!