Re: Using an LPR printer under Wine

[andy <geek_show@dsl.pipex.com>]

Nyizsnyik Ferenc wrote:

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 10:28:16 +0100
andy <geek_show@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:

  

Hi all

On my Etch machine, I am running a Windows programme (Quickbooks)
under Wine. I tried to print a report but Quickbooks throws an error
that no printer is installed and that I should use the Windows
Control Panel to install a printer. I do have a printer installed, it
is the default printer and it does work (I tested it under a
different app).

Any suggestions on how I might be able to get this to print reports 
(it's income tax time again, so the print outs are critical) using
the default GNU/Linux set-up. Must I, for example, try to set up a
printer under Wine as well (and if so, how on earth do I do that?),
or are there some other workarounds?

Thanks in anticipation.

Andy

    

So tax softwares use Window$ all around the world :(
I managed to print from the one here in Hungary. I made a symbolic link
in /usr/local/bin:

ln -s /usr/bin/gtklp lpr

So, since /usr/local/bin precedes /usr/bin in my path, wine (and other
tools) use gtklp to print. This approach may also work for you while
you are waiting for your government to make their tax software 
platform-independent.

PS: Specifying gtklp instead of lpr in ~/.wine/config somehow didn't
work.

  

Hello Nyizsnyik

Thanks for your reply. Although the British government is not the most GNU/Linux friendly of the European governments, unlike Germany I understand, this is down to my wife who is doing the tax returns and who prefers QuickBooks and doesn't have time (or inclination, perhaps?) to learn GnuCash from scratch. So, I have set up the Win98SE partition for her, found a graphics card that is both PCI-E and Win98SE compatible (no mean feat, as it turns out), and now she is working away on that partition. Now the next "fun" part will be trying to get Windows to work off of the USB printer which is connected to my Lenny machine via CUPS. It may just be a case of unplugging the USB cable and inserting that into her machine when she's running Windows and hoping for the best!!

I also wouldn't recommend using QuickBooks on Wine, because it not only doesn't know how to print (although I will bear your suggestion in mind, Nyizsnyik), but it also hangs when trying to write an update to an account.

Windows is like having some snivelling little brat of a kid sibling in the corner - just never goes away and always wants its own way!! :D

Cheers

Andy

-- 

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"