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Re: automatic printer recognition



Marc Wilson wrote:
On Mon, Nov 15, 2004 at 02:51:28PM -0500, Matt Price wrote:

I would like to be able to just plug in the printer on
my USB port & print; I don't have any other reliable way of getting
data into the printer (no cd-burner, mac's have no disk drives).


Macs have disk drives.  Zip drives, floppy drives, magneto-optical drives,
you name it, you can hook it to a Mac.  By default, maybe not, but many do.
Both of my Macintosh towers came with internal Zip drives.  You can get a
USB floppy for *cheap*.

fair enough. I guess I meant "the mac I'm going to be using, a standard-equipped model, has no floppy drive, & I'd rather not buy one to attach to it since it's not mine."



I imagine your laptop has ethernet.  I can't imagine a Mac that can run OS
X that *doesn't*.


Printing doesn't have to be perfect, I just have to be able to read
the text...  is there a package that can probe for printer info & set
up a new printer e.g. from CUPS or some other print queue manager?


Ah, you run CUPS.  As long as the Mac is running OS X 10.3.something, tell
the Mac to share its printer(s).  Your copy of CUPS on your laptop will
pick up the shared printers from the Mac.


this assumes that we're attached to a network atthe same time, right? and if not... should I bring a cross-cable that connects the two computers?

& actually I don't think I am running CUPS on the laptop right now, though I don't have it at my fingertips right now.

I can't stand CUPS, but it *does* at least do that well.


... so... maybe my problem is solved. but is there any possiblity at all of a package that scans (usb| parport) & tries to match the printers it finds with a printer description/ppd? This owuld be a more elegant solution, IMO.

matt



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