Saturday, January 09, 2010

Been awhile...

So, what am I doing currently?

I've been having an issue getting a print server (Linksys PSUS4) to work with anything other than Windows.

I've two Macs in the house that do NOT like this print server. I've yet to test it in Linux but my wife is one of the people that uses the Macs heavily, so the Linux alternative won't work for her.

For now, I'm attempting to utilize my main Linux machine, 'slackbox' as a print server by using CUPS. The version of Slackware that this machine is using is v12.0. I've found that there is HPLIP support for Slackware v12.0 but I'll need to update the HPLIP version (it is currently at v1.7.4). So, I've the option of attempting to patch the current install to the latest version (no, I've not been keeping up with patches), or compile the latest version from sources and install it to the Slackware machine.

Another thing I've found is that http://packages.slackware.it/ has been down since at least this past October. I didn't realise how crucial this Slackware service was, but I'm hoping that this gets fixed soon or that Pat V. eventually addresses the issue by standing up his own service. As much as I agree with the manual approach to Linux, there will come a time to where some things may have to become simplified...this is one of those things, I think.

Anyways, I'll update this post with any notes as I continue to work around the print server issue (so that my wife can quit nagging me and making bad assumptions about things she doesn't understand).