Printing within WUR on Linux

Last updated on Mon, Jun 13, 2022 5 min read WUR, Linux

Table of Contents

Motivation

At Wageningen University & Research the Linux Operating System is supported on a best effort principle, meaning that it is supported as far as the knowledge of Facilities and Services Information Technology (FB-IT) reaches. FB-IT is supported by their colleagues maintaining the High Performance Computing Cluster Anunna, who have a lot of knowledge about the Linux Operating System, because it’s the Operating System used by Anunna.

On the other hand Linux users are generally users, who are very independent and know how to search for and implement solutions themselves. Being one of those Linux users within WUR myself I want to share in this post, how I have set up printing on my Linux systems to use the facilities offered at Wageningen University & Research.

This post will show how to set up printing on a desk- or laptop using Linux as Operating System within WUR.

The described procedure should work on Ubuntu/Debian based Linux Operating Systems.

To be able to print on facilities (multifunctionals) at WUR the desktop or laptop needs to be within WURNET, either physically or via a VPN connection.

Download

For convenience the PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files of the printers in use at Wageningen University & Research are provided. You can save the files into the Downloads folder of your Linux desk- or laptop by right-clicking the link and selecting the option ‘Save link as…’ (IMPORTANT: DO NOT CHANGE THE FILE NAMES!):

RECOMMENDATION: Use the pxlcolor PPD file for the Ricoh MP C6003. The others are provided just in case you require one of them.

The Ricoh MP C6003 is the most advanced printer at WUR, having the most options. This specific driver also works perfectly with the Ricoh MP C4503 printers, that are more commonly used in WUR buildings.

Printer Setup

Open the system printer configuration tool (alternatively use console command: system-config-printer in a terminal) as displayed below in Figure 1.

Click the ‘+ Add’ button to configure a new printing device and a window will open as shown in Figure 2.

In the left column named Devices select ‘Network Printer’ > ‘Windows Printer via SAMBA’. As shown in Figure 2 fill the field SMB Printer with the address smb://scomp5170/WURprinter (printer queue, which handles printjobs at WUR).
Set the authentication details as shown in Figure 2. Click the ‘Forward’ button to start the search for the printer driver as displayed below in Figure 3

Username should start as displayed with wur\ and replace user001 with your personal WUR username. The Password provided should be the WUR Windows password for your WUR username.

The searching for drivers will take a little while, but none will be found. Instead a window will be presented as shown below in Figure 4 to choose the proper printer driver. Use the radio button to select ‘Provide PPD file’ and select, as advised, the Ricoh-MP_C6003-pxlcolor-Ricoh.ppd file (see Download section). Next click the ‘Forward’ button to continue.

A window with Installable Options for the new printing device will open as shown in Figure 5. Select the settings shown and, afterwards, click the ‘Forward’ button to continue:
- Large capacity tray: Installed
- Option Tray: Lower Paper Trays (SELECT THE PLURAL FORM HERE!)
- Internal Shift Tray: Not Installed
- Internal Tray 2: Installed
- External Tray: Not Installed
- Finisher: Finisher SR3140

Configure installable options for the printer.

Next you will asked to describe the printer, as shown in Figure 6. Fill the fields as shown in the figure or with you own information:
- Printer Name: WURprinter
- Description: WUR printer Ricoh MP C6003
- Location: Anywhere with wurcard!

Finish the printer setup by clicking on the ‘Apply’ button. A test print window will appear, as shown in Figure 7. Select whether you want to print a test page already or press the ‘Cancel’ button to ignore.

REMOVE SHARING OFF THE WURprinter!!
Sharing allows other users to print on your account, which is of course undesirable.

Right-click the WURprinter as displayed in Figure 1 and remove the tick-mark in front of Shared. This sub-menu has other nice features, such as making the selected printer your default.

Resetting your WUR Password for printing

Every 4 months you need to change the password of your WUR Account for obvious safety reasons.

This also means that you need to change it in the printer settings, when you have filled your password during the printer setup (see Printer Setup step 2.).

The are two options:

Delete the WURprinter and set up a new printer, as described in Printer Setup.
Modify the /etc/cups/printers.conf file to match your changed WUR password:
1. Open a terminal (CTR+ALT+T)
2. Issue the following command to shut down the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS daemon):
```
  sudo service cups stop
```
1. Open the /etc/cups/printers.conf file as adminstrator in a text editor, e.g.
```
  sudo xed /etc/cups/printers.conf
```
1. Modify the line:
```
  DeviceURI smb://wur%5Cuser001:password@scomp5170/WURprinter
```
1. In this line wur%5C represents wur\, where the \ is encoded as hexadecimal ASCII character (see ASCII table)). user001 will be displaying your own personal WUR username. The part between : and @ represents your password, in which special characters are encoded as hexadecimal ASCII characters. Modify the password part to match you new password.
  - e.g. new password: qu!ck4L!9H+2 (very strong password), needs to be provided in printers.conf as qu%21ck4L%219H%2B2
2. Save the modified /etc/cups/printers.conf file and exit the text editor
3. Restart the CUPS daemon:
```
  sudo service cups start
```

Having reset your WUR account password, you should be able to print again.

WUR Printing Linux

Maikel Verouden, Ph.D.

Researcher | Lecturer | IT & Organization contact person

My research interests include Statistics, Teaching and programmable matter (statistical software).