Chapter 5. Printer Features
Because the driver on the ThinLinc server is device independent, it has no way to know what capabilities
(duplex ability, trays, paper size, etc.) the printer connected to the client has. At the same time,
applications that want to print needs to know about these capabilities to print correctly.
As a compromise, the universal printer is configured with a PPD (Postscript Printer Definition) that
covers a broad range of printer capabilities - it’s a Generic Postscript Printer driver. This makes it
possible for CUPS to convert input formats to the correct format before sending them to the local printer.
It also means that default values can be set for some of the configuration parameters, for example paper
size, using the CUPS configuration interface.
5.3.3. Device dependent mode
The device dependent mode is to be used when it is necessary to access all options on the printer, or
when the communication with the printer cannot be expressed in terms of normal pages (e.g. a label
printer). In this mode the printer driver is installed on the ThinLinc server and the data is sent unmodified
to the local printer.
Note: ThinLinc has no way of verifying that the connected printer is the correct one, so it is up to the
user to make sure that a device dependent queue is not used with a different printer.
5.3.4. Installation and Configuration
Use tl-setup to install the PDF conversion filter, the backend and queue in CUPS on all machines
running VSM Agent. This adds a new queue named thinlocal to CUPS and makes it available to your
users. This queue is the one to use for device independent mode described above.
After installation, the local printer is ready for use. Make sure your ThinLinc client is configured to allow
redirection of printers, then print to the thinlocal queue, and the job will be rerouted to the default printer
of the client you’re currently using.
Device dependent queues are installed as if installing the printer locally on the ThinLinc server. The only
difference is that the URI shall be specified as thinlocal:/. Example:
# lpadmin -p thinlocal-label -v ’thinlocal:/’ -P /media/cd/label-printer.ppd
5.3.5. Parallel port emulation
ThinLinc also includes a very basic form of parallel port emulation that gives legacy application access
to the local printer. It is built on top of the thinlocal queue, which means it only works if certain
requirements are satisified:
• The application must only write to the port. Reading is not supported, neither is monitoring or altering
the port status pins.
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