Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 49920
spadmin won't save fax command for cups printers
Last modified: 2005-05-31 09:50:45 UTC
On it's own, fax4cups provides a convenient method to send fax jobs to remote faxmodems through the cups system It also provides a convenient method via it's web gui to track completed fax jobs but .. it also shows up as a printer in openoffice but it doesn't work I can change it's type to a fax device in spadmin, but spadmin won't save the command (it comes up blank if I exit spadmin and start spadmin again). Stangely enough, when I enter the fax command in spadmin for the fax4CUPS device, and while the command is still there (ie before I exit spadmin), I can successfully fax the spadmin test page using the "Test Page" button. Adding a new fax device in spadmin and assigning it the lpr command to invoke fax4CUPS works. I'm trying to avoid listing 2 printers in openoffice (one that doesn't work) by modifying the cups printer rather than adding another printer through spadmin I've had this problem on 2 different machines running Fedora Core 3 with the Fedora supplied version of openoffice.org 1.1.3 I've removed the rpm on a third Fedora Core 3 machine and installed 1.1.4 obtained from the openoffice.org site. On this machine, the CUPS printers do not even show up in spadmin (they show up in oowriter though). Since fax4cups works with efax, hylafax, and mgetty+sendfax (according to them), this concept could be universally applied to all *nix based machines running cups .. which these days is most of them Additionally, using the cups web gui for a fax spool tracking system is an added user convenience.
Reassigned to JA.
Really all that is needed is a way to send the phone number to CUPS as a print option .. but that doesn't seem to correspond to oowriter's concept of how fax devices should be handled
The fedora core 3 version contains a downport of CUPS code from the 2.0 codeline; sadly this was downported at a time when CUPS in 2.0 was still incomplete. Question: does the command line for the fax queue vanish in the regular OOo1.1.4 version, too ?
I have removed the fedora rpm of 1.1.3 on one of the Fedora Core 3 machines and have installed 1.1.4 from openoffice.org. spadmin no longer shows ANY of the CUPS printers, so I am unable to test whether the command line assigned to a CUPS printer in spadmin is retained. I have confirmed that the psprint.conf files on the 1.1.3 machines retain the command line even though it does not display in spadmin. However, the command line stored in psprint.conf seems to be ignored by both spadmin and oowriter
bjohnsonoo: It is totally irrelevant what printing-system you use for faxing. Faxing always works by running a command and pass a postscript-file to that command. The same goes for printing. OOo always generates postscript that is printed. "Cups support" only means that OOo reads the configuration of the printers from the system installation. In OOo 1.x you can still use cups to print even when the printers are not listed. You can optionally create the printer using the printer-specific ppd to have access to the printer specific options and features (page-margins, print-modes, etc.). Just point spadmin to the directory where the ppds reside (for a local setup usually in /etc/cups/ppd) and you're done. Why don't you just run spadmin, click "Create new printer" choose the option for fax and follow the instructions?
Why don't you just run spadmin, click "Create new printer" choose the option for fax and follow the instructions? I have done that (said so in the first post). I am not looking for A solution, I'm looking for a BETTER solution From my review of efax, hylafax, and mgetty+sendfax, I think they ALL have usability issues in a LAN environment with mobile users and fax modems that are also used as dial-in ppp access. I think fax4CUPS on top of mgetty+sendfax IS the best modem (fax AND data) solution for linux. It's one current downside is it's interaction with openoffice .. or should I say openoffice's interaction with it. ALL I want to do is modify a CUPS printer in spadmin so that it appears to openoffice as a fax device and can have a command assigned to it. This is exactly what you suggest, but prevents having 2 printers for the same fax device listed in the openoffice printer lists (one that works and one that does not) Do I need to do a feature comparison of the fax software options or can we simply agree that what I ask SHOULD be possible and try to get one system that actually DOES it.
I'm still not clear chere your problem is. You CAN use fax4cups. You can use *anything* that accepst a postscript document. You don't need to set-up a printer and then convert it to a fax - why would you do that? So please answer the question: /Why/ do you want to reconfigure a *printer* to a fax?
/Why/ do you want to reconfigure a *printer* to a fax? Not sure how else I can explain this .. Printers created through CUPS automatically show up in the oowriter printer list. This is really great when you consider the ability of CUPS to automagically share printers through the LAN. fax4CUPS allows you to create a printer device in CUPS that reroutes the print job through the LAN to the machine that has the faxmodem and provides a good web gui for tracking fax spooler jobs. The fax4CUPS device automatically shows up in the openoffice printer list AS A PRINTER !!! So if I make a new printer in spadmin, there will still be the original listing from CUPS. So I would prefer to change the original pinter listing in spadmin (rather than make a second printer) so that only ONE entry for the faxmodem shows in the openoffice printer list.
Another advantage of NOT creating a second printer entry in spadmin: a mobile user with a laptop will continue to see the second spadmin created printer even when not on the LAN (and the device is not available), the CUPS printer however will only show up in the printer list when the user is on the LAN that hosts the device
Now I got the problem. But you already filed a new issue dealing with this properly: Autodetection of cups-fax-queues (issue 49980) So I'll mark this one as duplicate. (There won't be any changes for this in the 1.1.x branch and OOo 2.0 already supports detection/getting the configuration from cups - it even doesn't allow the creation or modifying the printer configuration with spadmin so issue 49980 is the only solution that will work) *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 49980 ***
closing issue. OOo saves the printer-command for fax-devices, but it doesn't allow the modification of "system-printers" (printers that are not created via spadmin but offered in the print dialog for convenience/easy acces). This leads to problems when the system printers is not a printer-que but a fax-queue. -> see issue 49980
reopen issue. It is possible to modify the printer-command for system printers..
resolving worksforme. It is possible to reconfigure the system printers' commands. You only have to name it accordingly (with the "<>") If the Fax appears as "<Fax4Cups>", you have to create a fax-solution in OOo and Name it "<Fax4Cups>". This way you'll only have one entry in OOo's print dialog (still "<Fax4Cups>"), but now attached to the fax-command. -> worksforme
closing issue.
Is redefining printers with "<>" documented somewhere? I'm unable to test at the moment but will do so at the earliest convenience Issue 49980 is related but not the same. This issue us that I have not been able to do this manually. The other issue it a feature enhancement request so that doing it manually on each workstation is not required
The cups fax/printer name is faxonmainserver Running spadmin and creating a new printer named "<faxonmainserver>" results in a second printer showing up in spadmin and oowriter named "<faxonmainserver>" Running spadmin and creating a new printer named "faxonmainserver" results in a second printer showing up in spadmin and oowriter named "faxonmainserver_1"
Created attachment 26701 [details] screenshot of my test-configuration
You must use the original OOo, not the RedHat-version. See the screenshot for an example. You should not enter the quotes as well, only the angle-brackets, as it appears in the print-dialog.
from issue 49980: > I can tell that the dialog box labelled "Druckerverwaltung" is the spadmin > program. Yes. > I notice that the CUPS printers do not show up in your version. They > do show in the Fedora 1.1.3 version that I have. Aren't they supposed to? Don't you pay attention to what you're told? On IRC and in this issue you were told numerous times that RedHat modifies OOo, that RedHat uses a different way to access the printers configuration. pl explained that they backported the cups-support from 2.0 (at a stage where this was not complete). On IRC I must have written 8 times or more that you should try with the original OOo since RedHats version differs in the way it handles printers (and spadmin). If you don't understand what the information you're given means, then please ask for clarification, but I'm getting tired of writing the same stuff over and over again. > The dialog box labelled "Drucken" is the print dialog from OpenOffice? Yes. > So it is Fedora that enabled the listing of CUPS printers in spadmin and > vanilla Openoffice is not able to do that? OOo 1.1.x doesn't support the automatic configuration of cups printers. That's right. And because of that they won't appear in spadmin (since OOo cannot tell what ppd and settings it should use since it cannot "ask" cups). OpenOffice.org 2.0 will support getting the configuration from cups. > Is there a config file anywhere for spadmin? erAck told you on IRC. And you tried the configuration only to see that the redhat version ignores the settings found therein. The user-configuration is in ~/OpenOffice.org1.1.4/user/psprint/psprint.conf But since RedHat changes the default installation directories as well you'll have to find out yourself where it should be placed.
>> I notice that the CUPS printers do not show up in your version. They >> do show in the Fedora 1.1.3 version that I have. Aren't they supposed to? >Don't you pay attention to what you're told? >On IRC and in this issue you were told numerous times that RedHat modifies OOo, >that RedHat uses a different way to access the printers configuration. >pl explained that they backported the cups-support from 2.0 (at a stage where >this was not complete). I'm sorry. This question was in my first post and still nobody has said yes or no. I have figured out by what I've seen in your screen capture that the answer is no. I'm also afraid I did not know whether pl's statement was referring to oo.org 2.0 or CUPS 2.0 .. or what that statement might imply in practical terms. I still don't. >On IRC I must have written 8 times or more that you should try with the >original OOo since RedHats version differs in the way it handles printers (and >spadmin). On my first post on this issue I pointed out that I have done that. I guess I should have been more specific in asking for clarification that it was not expected to show the CUPS printers in spadmin. At that time I was under the impression that I could modify the CUPS printers in spadmin and couldn't figure out how to do that if they weren't even listed in spadmin. Since then I've been able to piece together a better idea of what is expected to happen. >If you don't understand what the information you're given means, then please >ask >for clarification, but I'm getting tired of writing the same stuff over and >over >again. Again I must apologize for not knowing enough to be able to ask for clarification of specific points satisfactorily. Truly I do not understand the oo.org system for dealing with fax printers, I've had trouble finding information that I could use successfully, and I've had trouble finding anyone that had any knowledge of the fax system backend. It has come to light that part of the problem is that I'm using a customized version of the software that nobody else is (ie the Fedora Core 3 rpm of 1.1.3) >> Is there a config file anywhere for spadmin? >erAck told you on IRC. And you tried the configuration only to see that the >redhat version ignores the settings found therein. >The user-configuration is in ~/OpenOffice.org1.1.4/user/psprint/psprint.conf >But since RedHat changes the default installation directories as well you'll >have to find out yourself where it should be placed. Again sorry. I thought that was a printer config file for oo.org. I was unable to get anyone to confirm whether it was also used by spadmin Unfortunately replacing the fedora rpm with version 1.1.4 from openoffice.org takes some effort to complete the reconfiguration (desktop menus no longer work, moving of dictionaries, reconfiguring for template locations, etc) and I've trying to avoid testing it on my work machines. I started it on my home machine but since have had a power flicker and it no longer turns on (I'm working on debugging it). Hopefully I can continue testing with oo.org 1.1.4 on that Fedora Core 3 machine and will not find something else that prevents it from worling as expected. Then I will feel confident enough to attempt it on my laptop and the workstations at work.
cloph: no need to get uncivil. bjohnsonoo: The "<>" are normally only a mark for printer queues detected via either "lpstat -t" or "lpc status". There is nothing to prevent you from naming a printer containing "<>"; these were just chosen since they are not usually used for printer queues as they would have to be escaped on the command line. This is why in a vanilla OOo you see one "Generic Printer" and possibly some "<...>" printers, ideally one for each system print queue. Changing the properties of an automatic queue by creating one that has the same name was not intended; if this happens to work it is pure coincidence. The command line for the automatically added print queues is always "lpr -P queue_name" if the queue was found with lpc status and "lp -d queue_name" if the queue was found with lpstat. There is no way to configure an automatically added print queue. If you want a configurable printer add one in spadmin and you can edit its command line as all the other properties. Which is what cloph explained before. As for automatic fax queue detection in CUPS systems you filed issue 49980, so i think we can indeed close this one as duplicate. *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 49980 ***
closing