I had been thinking about my inability to print as a linux user since the start of the trimester. I considered that a computer could act as a network interface for printers at the book binding station in the Studio. I experimented with this briefly on Thursday 29th February. I bridged two ethernet ports together on an Apple computer. One ethernet port was connected to the internet, the other to the printer. I was inspired to create a subnet on the network on the basis of other experiments I carried out the previous day. It didn't work as effectively as the alternative solution described below.

Printing on chopchop

In a recent meeting we spoke about producing an annotated reader to complement the publication of SI#23. Thus far, my annotations have been a bit thin on the ground. This is mostly because, as a Linux user, I am unable to print using the School’s FollowMe system. I’ve been making annotations with a variety of software and techniques. But it’s not the same as being able to write in the margins of a printed text. On Thursday 29th of February I went to the studio to solve this problem. There are three printers next to the book-binding station in the Studio. Two of these printers are very functional. I decided to plug them in to the School’s network via Ethernet and dig into the CUPS documentation. I quickly realised it was possible to print from Linux machines using both Command Line and Graphical User Interfaces. I printed network reports using the printers’ built in functionality to ascertain the IP addresses of the devices. Then, after some trial and error, I found myself able to print. I would like to setup CUPS on chopchop so that everyone can benefit from free printing.

The printer names are hp-laserjet-p2055dn and hp-color-laserjet-cp5225. Printing is now possible from chopchop using lp filename -d printername. For more information on command line printing, check out the documentation for CUPS as well as lp and related commands.