sobrique | The Curse of the Internet

There used to be a day, when software, even the free stuff came in a single, simple distribution.

Over the last two days I've been installing LPRng. It's the 'next generation' of LPR printing server.

My crib notes on how to install go something like this:

I'm assuming you're going to be wanting to put 'most' of LPRng in /opt/LPRng.
Most of these instructions work just as well, if not better, if you just use defaults and splatter all over your filesystem.

Download from lprng.com or lprng.sourceforge.net or google for it.
LPRng
IFHP
LPRngTool

You'll also be wanting:
GNU gzip Compression Utility
GNU tar Archive Utility
GNU make
GNU gcc Compiler or ANSI C Compiler
file (gnu version)
ghostscript
ghostview

Installing ghostscript
Download:
ghostscript-8.14.tar.gz, Ghostscript sources,
jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz, JPEG library sources,
libpng-1.2.5.tar.gz, LIBPNG library sources,
zlib-1.1.4.tar.gz, ZLIB library sources,
ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz, Ghostscript standard fonts,

See: GS documentation but:
Unpack ghostscript
Unpack jpegsrc, zlib, libpng _into_ ghostscript directory.
Rename to jpeg/ zlib/ and libpng/
(NB Zlib 1.2.1 doesn't work)

Run ./configure && make && make install
don't install in /opt/lprng stick it somewhere in your path. (although you can just put /opt/lprng/bin in your path instead)

The makefile installs all the files except fonts under the directory defined in the makefile as prefix.

Fonts need to be installed separately. The fonts should be installed in {prefix}/share/ghostscript/fonts.
(eg. cd $prefix/share/ghostscript && gzcat ghostscript-fonts.tar.gz && tar xvf - )

(That is, /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/ if you used the default configuration or /opt/lprng/share/ghostscript/fonts to use my example)

ghostview

get Xaw3d ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/widgets/Xaw3d/R6.3/Xaw3d-1.5.tar.gz
get gv http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

unpack Xaw3d and then put the 'Xaw3d' directory into /usr/openwin/include/X11

unpack gv
xmkmf
make Makefiles
make

Unpack LPRng, LPRngTool and ifhp.

unpack 'file' and run ./configure && make && make install (with or without prefix) Default to /usr/local/bin/file, so you'll end up using /usr/bin/file by default anyway (unless you do something _really_ fruity)

In LPRng run ./configure --prefix=/opt/lprng && make

install Net::SNMP - or use --disable-snmp
Net::SNMP needs Crypt::DES - which needs a line hacked out of it's DES.h because it clashes on solaris

(recommend newer version of perl)
perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Net::SNMP

install foomatic
You'll need A2PS from gnu first.
download
./configure --prefix=/opt/lprng/ && make && make install
It'll deposit a load of stuff in /usr/local/share, so in retrospect it's probably a good idea to skip the 'prefix' bit.

You'll need
foomatic-filters
foomatic-db-engine
foomatic-db
(maybe) foomatic-db-hpijs
cd $dir ./configure --prefix=/opt/LPRng && make && make install

install apsfilter
download
./configure --prefix=/opt/lprng/util && make && make install

Now install ifhp
In the ifhp directory run ./configure --prefix=/opt/lprng/ifhp --with-foomatic-rip=/opt/lprng/footmatic/bin/foomatic-rip && make && make install

_Then_ of course, you get to configure it.

Which is actually relatively easy, even to the point of not even having to specify the printer driver, since it basically talks to the printer over SNMP, and sort of generally asks what sort of printer it is, and whether it likes JCL, PCL, PJL, Postscript or some other print format. 3 lines of config per printer, and that's only because I want logs.

I don't know whether to be impressed at the level of integration, interconnectivity and development the 'net has triggered, or to be shocked, hurt and generally pissed off that i've been playing 'chase the fucking archive' for 2 days now.