linuxexpert-practice-labs/labs/lpic-1/108-4-printing/README.md

LPIC-1 108.4: Printers and printing

CUPS with a PDF printer: printing, holding and canceling jobs, and debug logging.

Before you start

The lab creates user alice (password Lab-Pass-1) and installs ipptool, which the check uses to read CUPS's job history. CUPS itself isn't installed yet: that's task 1. Reset removes CUPS and the PDF printer again.

Tasks

1. Install cups and a PDF printer, and find it with lpstat -p. On Debian and Ubuntu, install printer-driver-cups-pdf and cups-bsd; the first adds a printer named PDF by itself. On the RHEL family, cups-pdf comes from EPEL (dnf install epel-release first) and adds no printer, so add one: lpadmin -p PDF -E -v cups-pdf:/ -m CUPS-PDF_opt.ppd. As alice, print a text file to it (a job printed by root makes no PDF on the RHEL family); find the PDF it makes, and write the PDF's full path to /root/lab-answers/1.
2. Disable the printer with a reason, print two files, list them with lpq and lpstat -o, remove one with lprm and the other with cancel, then enable it again. Also reject jobs on the printer and try to print; read the message, then accept jobs again.
3. Turn on CUPS's debug logging, print a file, and read what error_log (or journalctl -u cups) shows. Leave debug logging on.

Hints

• lpstat -p -v; lp -d PRINTER file. The PDF lands in ~/PDF on Debian and Ubuntu; on the RHEL family it goes to ~/Desktop, or the home directory when there's no Desktop. lpinfo -m | grep -i pdf lists the PDF printer's driver.
• cupsdisable -r "reason", cupsenable, cupsreject -r, cupsaccept; lpstat -p -l. On Debian and Ubuntu, lpq and lprm are in the cups-bsd package.
• cupsctl --debug-logging, cupsctl; /var/log/cups/error_log.