Before we begin, you need to make sure cups is installed. Many Linux distributions install at least the cups client by default. If your linux installation does not have the cups packages installed, please refer to the distros documentation on how to install them, as doing so is outside of the scope of this article, and the number of linux distributions is too large to detail even a small subset of them here.
Purdue IT staff have found the shortest path for end-user supported linux devices to gain access to the university printers is to install cups, and then follow the instructions below.
In the examples, vi is used as the editor, though you can and should use whatever text editor you are most comfortable with. Also, the examples use a made-up printer name, bldg123p1-ps1. You should substitute the proper name of the printer instead. If you don't know the specific name of a printer, follow the procedures below, then open up your print preferences application. You should see A LOT of printers, as just about all of the printers in the Engineering buildings are served by the Engineering CUPS server. You can find the proper name of the queue you want in that list.
Open a terminal window, and make sure you are in your home directory by issuing the following command and hitting Enter:
cd
In your home directory, create a .cups directory:
mkdir .cups
In the .cups directory, create a file named client.conf:
cd .cups
client.conf should be edited, and contain two lines:
vi client.conf
ServerName cups.ecn.purdue.edu
User <insert your career account>
For example, on my self-sup linux laptop, mine looks like this:
ServerName cups.ecn.purdue.edu
User rmf
Doing so will give you access to the same printers Engineering supported linux hosts have access to.
Optionally, you can also create a file named lpoptions in the .cups dir, and use it to do things
such as set your default printer. For example:
Default bldg123p1-ps1
Will do exactly what it looks like: sets the default queue to bldg123p1-ps.
On the other hand, if you are using an Purdue IT-supported linux device, you should see the print queues
in any drop-down box in any app that supports printing in that way, or you can use:
lp -p bldg123p1-ps <filename>
To print a file from the command line.
NOTE: For some linux distros, you may have to reboot after installing cups to get the service running. Also, after editing the config files, you may have to log out, then back in for the changes to take effect.