Printer install thru PPD (PostScript Printer Description)

[francois]

The PPD strategy is the way to solve the problem of not finding an appropriate driver for your printer in the porteus printing module. you will still need the porteus printing module but add the appropriate ppd needed for your printer. Often the ppd of a close model will work and if not there are three generic ppds offered with porteus printing module. Searching the net with keywords ppd my-printer-model linux should provide the solution.

According to wikipedia:
PPD file

DEFINITION OF PPD
The PPD is defined as (citation):
"PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files are created by vendors to describe the entire set of features and capabilities available for their PostScript printers."

FINDING PPD FILES.
Ppd files could be very useful when there is no printer driver available thru CUPS or system-config-printer interfaces. These could be found:
1) on the openprinting website:
https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/en/Ope ... umentation

2) If it is not there, it is possible to use the manufacturer website download driver section (or cd-rom that came with the printer) to get the windows .exe driver. Then you will extract the ppd from it:
https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/en/Ope ... umentation
http://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=7001441

3) You could also try to find the printer driver under C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository. Good luck with the name of the printer.

4) An additional source of ppd could be found at Adobe. They are packed by manufacturer make:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/ ... atform=win

EXTRACTING PPD FROM .EXE, .ZIP .CAB FILES
You can use "unzip -L" (comes with every GNU/Linux distribution) for ".zip" and ".exe", or "cabextract" for ".cab", ".exe" (the latter seems to have to be executed from windows).

In my case, decompressing the .EXE file was enough.

EXAMPLE FOR THE BROTHER DCP-7020
From the brother website the windows printer driver was downloaded for brother DCP-7020:
root@porteus:/tmp/ppd-brother# unzip -L 7225-USB-WIN7-64-PNP-A-US.EXE
root@porteus:/tmp/ppd-brother#

The BP7020.ppd was put at its deserved place, that is /etc/cups/ppd/. Then thru:
menu > system > printer settings

The Brother-DCP-7020.ppd was installed thru the ppd option.

It did not worked.

So I entered my printer manufacturer and model at openprinting:
http://www.openprinting.org/printers

Downloaded the driver Brother-DCP-7020-hl1250.ppd. This time it was functional. 8)

[francois]

Still actual. 8)

[francois]

Modified first post to clarify ppd use.

For porteus 3.2, the ppd approach could be the way for lighter porteus installation. That is CUPS system-config-printer and the needed ppd.