Printing prerequisites for UNIX (GtkLP)

If you want to print documents using GtkLP, it is necessary to set some environment variables first. These variables can be set temporarily at the shell (tcsh is the default shell at D-ITET) or permanently in your home's shell's initialization file .cshrc.

• Set the default printer for more convenience. The default printer is always pre-selected in GtkLP's printer list (if you need a list of available printers, you can run  gtklp -S ipp2vpp.ee.ethz.ch  and then open the "printer" dropdown box in the "General" tab).

  Example to make printer "etlf11-x8400" the default printer:
  
  setenv PRINTER etlf11-x8400

• Allow applications to provide CUPS printing support:

  setenv CUPS_SERVER ipp2vpp.ee.ethz.ch

• Set the default printing tool to use (when printing from applications) to GtkLP:

  setenv PRINTER_TOOL /usr/sepp/bin/gtklp

Now you are ready to print with GtkLP. If you want to start printing, go on reading the article PrintingfromUnix.

Note for bash users

• If your default shell is bash, you must use the export command instead of setenv:

  export PRINTER_TOOL=/usr/sepp/bin/gtklp

  Note that export's syntax requires a = sign instead of a space to separate the environment variable name from its assigned value. To make your printing related bash-environment variable settings permanent, save them in your home's .bashrc file.