Linux printing

General information

The Informatikdienste (ID) maintain general information about the ETH-wide printing system, also known as "PIA" (Print service of Informatikdienste for All).

Available printers

• Printers are named and labelled following the scheme "p-building-floor-room", as for example "p-etf-d-104"
• The pull printing queue is named "card-ethz". It allows releasing a print job on any printer fitted with a card reader by holding a ETH card to the sensor labelled "ETH CARD".
• Printers in buildings ETF, ETL, ETZ and HIA are available from Linux clients managed by ISG.EE

Authenticated printing

In order to track usage and manage costs every print job needs to be submitted with personal ETH network credentials. The following process describes storing your credentials for automatic submission with every print job.

1. Open a console

2. type system-config-printer to open "Print Settings"

3. Double-click on the printer card-ethz.

   

4. Press Print Test Page

   

5. Enter your NETHZ credentials as described. The domain d\ before the username and the tick in the check box are necessary. In case of wrong credentials the dialog will simply reappear without informing about the fact.

   

6. Press Print Test Page again. If the dialog didn't pop up again, you have successfully saved the password in the keyring.

7. To be sure, you can verify the process with the instructions in the chapter Verifying the Keyring.

Verifying stored credentials

1. At first, open a terminal and type seahorse. That's a tool to get an overview of your saved passwords. If there is an entry like on the screen shot, your password has been saved successfully.

   

2. Next, open firefox and try to print on either the card-ethz PULL-queue or any of the pia printers ( p-et* ). The print-job should be sent without any further dialog popping up.

3. To finish the verification, head to a PIA/Nashuatec printer in your area and hold your ETH card/legi on the marked area on the printer. The previously send test pages should now appear on the display. Pressing the Print All button will release the jobs.

If all these steps went well, your password has been saved successfully and your printing system is installed correctly. If any of these steps fails, try the Initial steps to save the password for PIA printers or contact ISG.EE Support at <support@ee.ethz.ch>.

Set the default printer

1. Open a console.

2. type system-config-printer to open the printing management.

3. Double-click on the printer you want to set as the default printer.

   

4. Next, you have to close the window that opened again. These two steps ( 3 + 4 ) are necessary, to unlock the "Set As Default" button used in the next steps.

   

5. Right-click on the printer you want to set as the default printer and press the button "Set As Default".

   

6. Check "Set as my personal printer" and confirm your selection by pressing "Ok".

   

7. At last, the printer you selected as default printer is now marked with a heart.

   

Troubleshooting

Problem: I've printed something, but it didn't come out of the printer.

Solution I: First, you can check your local printer queue. Start system-config-printer in your console and right-click -> View Print Queue on the printer/queue you've selected previously. If your job's hanging here, try right-click -> Release. If the desired jobs isn't listed in the queue, check https://www.vppspy.ethz.ch (VPP) or https://www.print.ethz.ch (PIA) for errors regarding your print-job. If you can't find any problem, please contact ISG.EE Support <support@ee.ethz.ch>.

Solution II: There is another option, why the printing system isn't working properly. If the first printer in your print dialog isn't "card-ethz", you might have set an environment variable called "CUPS_SERVER" on the value "ipp2vpp.ee.ethz.ch". Please check your .bashrc / .profile and delete the corresponding line.

Problem: After sending the print job, the printer flashes a red LED and says: Paper size and type missmatched

Solution: The Paper type "Recycled" isn't recognized correctly. Use the type "Plain/Recycled".

Problem: I've changed my NETHZ password. How can I change the password in the keyring?

Solution: After a change of your NETHZ password, you have to re-enter your password on your next print-out. The safest way to do so, is following the "Initial steps to save the password for PIA printers" again.

Problem: I've started `system-config-printer` but no printers are available.

Solution: This probably means the cups service has crashed and can't recover itself. Restart your computer or contact ISG.EE support <support@ee.ethz.ch>

Problem: The tick in the check box of the password saving dialog disappears every time i press it. (probably XFCE)

Solution: This is only a visual error. Press the check box once, and it will save the password.

Problem: Printouts out of the firefox PDF preview look messed up

Solution: The firefox PDF preview is not compatible with our system. Please download the pdf and print it using a PDF viewer. (e.g evince)

Problem: The Application (e.g Firefox) crashes when I try to save the password in the keyring.

Solution: Please follow the Initial steps to save the password for PIA printers.

Problem: After I filled in the authentication popup, there appears another popup that makes the whole display darker and asks about a password for the Gnome Keyring. My NETHZ password doesn’t work!

Solution: open a console and type the command “seahorse”. A Gnome Keyring management tool appears. delete the “Login “ keyring in the top left corner and log out of your current session. After another login, the authentication process should work.

Problem: Print jobs take very long to process/ print out.

Solution: If you are using the embedded Firefox pdfviewer, please download the file and open it with the native document viewer. (evince)