OT: Dymo printer printserver on Pi Zero W.

A while back I asked here about the idea of using the Raspberry Pi as a low power printserver for a Dymo LabelWriter and was given some good pointers by Theo.

I was then able to set up a printserver (using Raspbian Linux) on my Raspberry Pi(1)B with a WiFi dongle and was able to print to the Dymo

450 from Windows XP, 7, 8 and 10 and Ubuntu (although I could only print a test page from Ubuntu as there is no Dymo app for Linux).

Then they released the Raspberry Pi Zero W (with wireless) and I have been using one successfully to run Domoticz so thought it might be a better solution for the Dymo PS (wifi built in, smaller / lower power etc).

So, I've managed to install the latest Jessie Lite, get it on the Wlan (headless) and installed CUPS, the Dymo drivers and Samba via SSH but whilst the likes of XP 'can' see the shared printer, it can't install it and W8 / 10 can't seem to see it. Ubuntu can see it and send it a test page so it is 'there' and so maybe a Samba configuration thing?

Then whilst trying to configure it for static IP I stumbled into what seems to be yet another Linux based clusterfcuk with 'them' (?) changing fairly important stuff between releases? ;-(

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So, after following a suggestion on that thread I'm now (remotely) shut out of the Pi and so I either have to waste even more time plugging in a keyboard and display and trying to sort it out locally or re-image it again and start from scratch (with no real hope I'll get it working any better / further). ;-(

Is it one of these things where you need to limit the Raspbian to an older release (and not apply any updates / upgrades) to try to avoid all the problems ... as I was really hopeful that this would be a really neat and useable solution?

Cheers, T i m

p.s. The Pi1 Dymo PS still works. ;-)

pi@Pi1Print:~ $ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Raspbian Description: Raspbian GNU/Linux 8.0 (jessie) Release: 8.0 Codename: jessie

Reply to
T i m
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Reads like a normal Linux problem. My Elemental install with the Latest Seamonkey is crap on handling pdfs. My Android phone can read the pdfs but can't see the printer from email pdfs. Email prints ok if it's a jpeg. My old install of Ubuntu 10.4 works perfectly. My Seamonkey install on MS is crap and doesn't see pdf attachments for some reason. The old Seamonkey works perfectly on MS and Ubuntu Linux.

I dont't update systems which are working ever.

Reply to
Capitol

It certainly seems to be something common amongst 'ordinary semi-tech users' that's for sure (as the link I posted to people *wanting* to be able to use Linux confirms).

Is there no better pdf tool for it?

Again, not 'uncommon' combinations of things that may or may not work, especially with anything not represented/ing 80% of the desktop using public (Windows).

I have several Linux installs (mainly Mint / Ubuntu) on a range of machines and they too 'work' for my temporary use and with a given subset of what I typically require on my 'main machine'.

Strange ... the last time I used a suite like that was Netscape Communicator (on Windows) but now I just use FF an TB.

Ok.

I have some (Linux machines only) marked as 'don't upgrade' as I have found the upgrade breaks it bigtime. All the rest (and firmware / BIOS's) I generally do upgrade 'just because'.

Back to the Raspberry Pi Zero W, I think I read somewhere that it was advised to stick with an older (2016?) release and of course, potentially not upgrade it but I can't find it again.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

It does printer sharing too - using CIFS rather than LPD or similar.

Reply to
Bob Eager

OK.

Two IP addresses is not a problem. In fact, most systems with IPv6 do it by default.

If the SSH daemon is listening on 0.0.0.0 (as it likely is) you should be able to get in via either address. The routing table will set which address outbound connections come from.

If you removed the address for the IP you were talking to it on, the connection would have dropped. But you should have been able to get in via the other.

I don't think it will have been related, since CUPS/Samba would presumably have been listening on both IPs?

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Ah, ok, I don't have IPv6 enabled on this PC (Mac Mini / XP) so didn't think I would see any IPv6 related stuff? I didn't think that an IPv6 address appeared in the std 4 octets format as it's bigger?

I saw the host PiZW-Dymo-PS as 192.168.0.132 (that I didn't intend and is within my routers DHCP scope) and the 192.168.0.164 that I intended it to be on via a static IP address set for wlan0 in /etc/dhcpcd.conf

I think I could.

Ok.

They both seem to be gone since I removed the dhcpcd5 package (following a hint on the forum that gave someone else success).

I thought it was a Samba issue but then Ubuntu could install and print to the Dymo when it was added under Samba shares?

I think I'll start again, get back to as close as I can get and report back in case there are some specific things you would like me to check?

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

And you can have as many IPv4 addresses as you like bound to an adaptor. Linux is clever, it will do the right thing by default.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Of copurse, we cpuld debate forever what was the 'right ting'

I do remember an urgent support call from a customer 'my NT box is losing 50% of its IP packets..." "EXACTLY 50%?"'

"Yes..."

Well that's what happens when you have two interfaces and *both* are nominated as the 'default' route.

Even *nix has never been stupid enough to allow that.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I did start again and I'm not sure what / if I did differently to the first time(s) but this time it worked. I've tried to document (for myself and maybe others) the key steps in the hope that it's still pertinent the next time.

If you (Theo?) wouldn't mind running a quick eye over it in case I've missed or added something that isn't correct.

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The object of the exercise was to create a very small, cheap and low power wireless (only) print server using a Raspberry Pi Zero W.

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In my case it was to be used to wirelessly share a Dymo LabelWriter

450 to mostly Windows clients.

Whilst I could have plugged the Pi into a HDMI monitor / TV and add a USB keyboard and mouse, I wanted to do it 'headless'.

1) Get Raspbian image. I used Jessie Lite (v March 2017)

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2) Write image to uSD card. I used an 16G card and Win32DiskImager under Windows.

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3) Because ssh is disabled by default (now), create an empty file called 'ssh' (no quotes) on the uSD card Fat32 partition called 'boot'. I opened up Explorer, browsed to the boot partition and right clicked there, New, > Text document, and call it ssh 4) Whilst on the boot partition, create another plain text file called 'wpa_supplicant.conf' and enter (I opened it with Notepad (Open with)) and save the following code:

network={ ssid="myssid" psk="mypassword" proto=RSN key_mgmt=WPA-PSK pairwise=CCMP auth_alg=OPEN }

(change myssid and mypassword to suit your own)

5) Put the uSD card in the Pi and power up (the uUSB connector nearest the end is for power) and wait till the green LED stops flickering (stays on solid). 6) Locate the Pi on the LAN. I use the free 'Advanced IP Scanner' on Windows.

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7) Connect to the Pi using an ssd client. Many use 'Putty' and I also use MobaXterm Personal Edition.

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The default login is 'pi' with the password 'raspberry'.

8) You should now be able to run raspi-config and change some stuff from there:

sudo raspi-config

Then as a minimum use '7 Advanced options' then A1 'Expand Filesystem

I also

Change Hostname Set Localisation Update utility.

Exit raspi-config (escape) and reboot

sudo reboot

(I *think* you should also update Raspbian at this point with:

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade)

9) If you want to use a static ip address, edit /etc/dhcpcd.conf

sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

and add / edit:

interface wlan0 static ip_address=/24 static routers= static domain_name_servers=

Ctrl+O > Enter, Ctrl+x.

10) To create the printer server part for the Dymo I needed to install CUPS and some other bits to be able to provide the Dymo drivers.

sudo apt-get install libcups2-dev libcupsimage2-dev g++ cups cups-client

(It's possible that if you didn't have to make the drivers you could just install cups)?

For the Dymo stuff I did the following.

wget

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(Watch line wrap. Should be one string)

then (one cmd at a time)

tar xvf dymo-cups-drivers-1.4.0.tar.gz cd dymo-cups-drivers-1.4.0.5/ sudo ./configure sudo make sudo make install

12) add user pi to lpadmin

sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin pi

13) To be able to access the CUPS server from a workstation on the LAN you need to edit the Cups configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

You then need to change add the following 4 bits:

# Only listen for connections from the local machine # Listen localhost:631 Port 631

< Location / > # Restrict access to the server... Order allow,deny Allow @local < /Location > < Location /admin > # Restrict access to the admin pages... Order allow,deny Allow @local < /Location >

# Restrict access to the configuration files... Order allow,deny Allow @local < /Location >

Ctrl+o Enter, Ctrl+x

restart the CUPS server:

sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart

13) You should then be able to access the CUPS admin remotely using a web browser:

:631/admin

Username should still be 'pi' and password still 'raspberry' (unless you have changed it previously).

Because I wanted to share the Dymo LabelWriter 450 I made sure that was plugged into the other uUSB port (I ordered a short uUSB to Type B usb lead from eBay). The printer then appears in the list and can be added by just following the prompts.

Add Printer, select Dymo etc ... and make sure you check the Shared option.

14) To share the printer to Windows machine I added SAMBA.

sudo apt-get install samba

Then edit the configuration file to resemble the following sections.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

workgroup = WORKGROUP (Change to your workgroup if you have one)

[printers] comment = All Printers browseable = no path = /var/spool/samba printable = yes guest ok = yes read only = yes create mask = 0700 [print$] comment = Printer Drivers path = /var/lib/samba/printers browseable = yes read only = no guest ok = no

I used the following sites for some of the info and other bits gleaned from elsewhere.

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I think I should be able to upload the drivers into the various folders under /var/lib/samba/printers but I'm not sure where to get them from?

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

I'm not familiar with all of the steps, but:

1-2, 5-8, 12-13b look ok

10: good practice not to 'sudo' before ./configure and make, but necessary before make install (either way won't really make a difference here)

3-4, 9, 14 I have no experience with

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Oh ok, why may I ask (as I just copied and pasted it from someone who seemed to know more about it than I did)?

Ok and thanks for looking. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

'sudo' is the equivalent of Windows' 'run as administrator', for the command that comes after it.

Here you configure the build, build and install the program. The configure and build don't need to run as administrator - in general the least you run with admin privilege the better. Installation does need privilege to copy into system folders, so you need sudo for that.

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Yes, I understood that much, but from my experience (of Linux) so far, anything of any worth seems to require one to be an administrator to do it.

Ok. I understand the suggestion and I guess that could be a good thing for non - admin people etc, bit to me having to type in a password or prepend each command with sudo (or use su etc) is actually a PITA and I'm pleased when I use a system that only has one user that is an admin by default.

FWIW, I have always run my user as Admin and with no password since W3.1 and any other system that would let me. I'm not suggesting that would be a good idea for most, just that it suits me best. ;-)

The problem here is not knowing what you can or can not do without being an Admin to do so might prepend *every* command with it to save not being told I can't.

I even have to start the likes of nautilus as a sudo so that can

*just* open any file to edit and save it (from the gui, so I don't have to navigate the filesystem manually and use 'sudo nano' etc).

Whilst I can use the keyboard, I'm not a typist and since we have GUI's on most these desktop OS's, I like to use them. ;-)

Also, as I installed most of the system I use myself, I feel I also have the right to break them (not that I have very often in nearly 40 years). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

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