Managing printers and print jobs

Configuring an UUCP dialup printer

A ``UUCP dialup printer'' is a printer that connects directly to a system through a dialup modem using UUCP to queue jobs on the remote system. For more information on UUCP, see ``Connecting to other computers with UUCP''.

To configure a dialup printer:

Set up your modem and verify that it works with cu(C). See ``Adding modems''.
Because cu accesses printers in the same way the print service does, set up the files as though preparing access to the printer for cu. The cu command is not used to access printers; however, if cu can access a printer, the print service can access it, too.
CAUTION: The entry you use for the dialup configuration in the /usr/lib/uucp/Devices file should use a Dialers entry rather than a dialer binary.
Add the following line to /etc/default/lpd:
```
   DIALUPPRINTER=YES
```
Enter the following:

/usr/lib/lpadmin -p printer_name -m dumb -U phone_number -h -A mail
This command sets up printer_name as the dialup printer; phone_number is the phone number for the remote system.
Set up the printer to accept jobs, and then enable the printer. See ``Accepting or rejecting print jobs'' and ``Enabling and disabling printers''.
Test the printer by submitting a job:

lp -d printer_name filename

If the printer or port is busy, the print service automatically tries again. If the printer is busy, the retry rate is once every 10 minutes; if the port is busy, the retry rate is once every 20 minutes. The retry rates are not adjustable; however, you can force an immediate retry by enabling the printer. If the port or printer is likely to be busy for an extended period, disable the printer.

If an attempt to reach the dialup printer fails, lpstat -p reports the reason for a failed dial attempt. If you have set up fault alerting, the fault alert message reports the reason for the fault, see ``Setting up printer fault alerts''. These messages are identical to the error messages produced by the UUCP system for similar problems, see ``UUCP STATUS error messages''.