It is also possible to share printers over the network. Further information about
printing (general information, technical details, and troubleshooting) is available in
Chapter 11, Printer Operation (↑Reference).
In YaST, click Hardware > Printer to start the printer module. By default it opens in
the Printer Congurations view, displaying a list of all printers that are available and
congured. This is especially useful when having access to a lot of printers via the
network. From here you can also Print a Test Page and congure local printers.
2.3.1 Conguring Local Printers
Usually a local USB printer is automatically detected. There are two possible reasons
why a USB printer is not automatically detected:
• The USB printer is switched o.
• The communication between printer and computer is not possible. Check the
cable and the plugs to make sure that the printer is properly connected. If this
is the case, the problem may not be printer-related, but rather a USB related
problem.
Conguring a printer is basically a three-step process. First specify the connection
type, then choose a driver, and name the printing queue for this setup.
For many printer models, several drivers are available. When conguring the printer,
YaST defaults to the one marked recommended as a general rule. Normally it is not
necessary to change the driver—the recommended one should produce the best results.
However, if you want a color printer to print only in black and white, it is most conve-
nient to use a driver that does not support color printing, for example. If you experi-
ence performance problems with a PostScript printer when printing graphics, it may
help to switch from a PostScript driver to a PCL driver (provided your printer under-
stands PCL).
If no driver for your printer is listed, you can try to select a generic driver with an
appropriate standard language from the list. Refer to your printer's documentation
to nd out which language (the set of commands controlling the printer) your printer
understands. If this does not work, refer to Section 2.3.1.1, “Adding Drivers with
YaST” (page 33) for another possible solution.
A printer is never used directly, but always through a print queue. This ensures that
simultaneous jobs can be queued and processed one after the other. Each printer
queue is assigned to a specic driver, and a printer can have multiple queues. This
makes it possible to set up a second queue on a color printer that prints black and
white only, for example. Refer to Section “The Workow of the Printing System”
(Chapter 11, Printer Operation, ↑Reference) for more information about print queues.
Procedure 2.3 Adding a New Local Printer
1 Start the YaST printer module with Hardware > Printer
32 Start-Up
