[Foomatic] Using usb IDs for autodetection

Grant Taylor gtaylor+foodev_cfhhc040704 at picante.com
Wed Apr 7 15:13:12 PDT 2004


Joe Shaw <joe at ximian.com> writes:

> I noticed that the foomatic printer XML files have an <autodetect> flag,
> but virtually none of the printers have anything in it.  

Yes, this data is intended to fill your very purpose.

It should be entirely straightforward to write a /sbin/hotplug
subscript, or similar, which invokes foomatic-configure, or similar,
to make printers "just work" when you plug them in.  Or similar. ;)

I just never had the time or inclination, and until the advent of USB
it seemed unlikely that we would ever be able to collect a useful set
of autodetect signatures.

> I'm proposing that we add <vendor_id> and <product_id> tags to the
> <usb> section of <autodetect>, and populate the printer database
> with those IDs.  This will make autodetecting a lot more reliable,
> at least for USB printers.  I'd also ask that this information (and
> probably also the IEEE-1284 data) be required for any new additions
> to the database, so that we can keep autodetection reliable.

We can require, but we won't "get".  Data entry is a problem, data
verification more so.  It's basically Till putting in all the data (on
Mandrake's dime), with the odd commit from other folks.  

Foomatic the filter and ppd generator is slowly attracting other
developers; the LPRng guy ponied up some good stuff recently, for
example.  But all in all the data is beginning to get pretty far
behind the set of printers in the world.

We also have the longstanding issue that foomatic data is slightly
insufficient - nobody has had a chance to add useful vendor-ppd
support to the core data, so postscript printers aren't doable
properly.  This is a bit silly; of all printers, these are the ones
that should "just work" the best!  Patches to address this problem are
welcome.  Clue sticks to pursuade vendors into providing
redistributable PPDs are welcome, too ;)

> [1] There's no formal web page for Project Utopia, but I give a brief

Hmm.  Ximian and predecessor projects have started two or three of
these efforts over the years, I do hope yours succeeds.

I strongly advise that you coordinate with the kprinter folks (Michael
Goefful et al, really nice guy), plus Mike Sweet and Patrick Powell.
Printer configuration should be *totally* independent of the gui du
user.  This is a key foomatic design goal, and should be for you, too,
even if you're Ximian.

Maybe do a good thing in Debian and encourage everyone to lift it from
there; this seems to be a good way to start a new integration
practice.

-- 
Grant Taylor - gtaylor<at>picante.com - http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/
   Linux Printing Website and HOWTO:  http://www.linuxprinting.org/



More information about the Printing-foomatic mailing list