How do I add an USB printer?

cajos001

Server

FOG Version: 1.3.5-RC-13 SVN Revision: 6067
OS: CentOS Linux 6.8

Client

Service Version: 0.11.10
OS: Windows 7 Professional fully updated

Description

How do I add an USB printer?

Tom Elliott

Are you asking in regards to “FOG”? Or just in general? (I know this seems it should be obvious but people have asked stranger things before).

cajos001

@Tom-Elliott

In the FOG management interface it’s possible to create four types of printers:
TCP/IP Port Printer
iPrint Printer
Network Printer
CUPS Printer

None of these options seem to cover the case of a local printer connected to a USB port eg USB001. We have quite a few different makes and models. In FOG 0.32 we used this type of installation to cover many different printers.

Joe Schmitt

@cajos001 from a FOG perspective it doesn’t make sense to manage USB printers. If that printer is connected locally, its up to that computer to add it which could be done via Snapins but is still something FOG will not manage. If its connected to a server, its up to share it via some kind of system (CUPS, TCP/IP, Network …), which is definitely outside the realm of what FOG does.

cajos001

@Joe-Schmitt

Since I first installed FOG in 2009 the assignment and automatic installation of printers has been of primary importance. Windows does not automatically install the printers.

FOG version 0.32 has worked perfectly for our school in this regard until the actual server hard disk failed last December. I have my old database backups so I’m considering reverting to FOG 0.32 to save our technicians from having to manually install these USB printers.

Before this drastic step I’ll try to deploy the USB printers as snap-ins tomorrow.

george1421

@cajos001 I think I would be hard pressed to move back to 0.32 if you ever plan on supporting current hardware. I would surely explore how to improve the deployment process for these usb printers.

Can you tell us a bit more on how you deployed these printers last November? I assume these are local printers physically attached to these computers. How did you get the drivers installed on the hardware last November?

Wayne Workman

@cajos001 said in How do I add an USB printer?:

I have my old database backups so I’m considering reverting to FOG 0.32 to save our technicians from having to manually install these USB printers.

That would not be a wise choice. 0.32 is incapable of operating with newer hardware and newer OSs, the legacy client will not run on Windows 10, and 0.32 along with the legacy client has serious security flaws. Nobody here will be very willing to help you with 0.32 either, if at all.

Change happens, it’s for the better.

cajos001

@george1421

This is the SQL from FOG 0.32

CREATE TABLE `printers` (
  `pID` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `pPort` longtext NOT NULL,
  `pDefFile` longtext NOT NULL,
  `pModel` varchar(250) NOT NULL,
  `pAlias` varchar(250) NOT NULL,
  `pConfig` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
  `pIP` varchar(20) NOT NULL,
  `pAnon2` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
  `pAnon3` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
  `pAnon4` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
  `pAnon5` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`pID`),
  KEY `new_index1` (`pModel`),
  KEY `new_index2` (`pAlias`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=38 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Here’s some USB printers that used to work in FOG 0.32

(34,'USB002','C:\\drivers\\lj1018\\HPLJ1018.INF','HP LaserJet 1018','HP-LJ-1018-2','','','','','',''),
(30,'IP_192_168_0_244','C:\\drivers\\MX-3111\\MX-4112_5112\\Swedish\\PCL6\\2kXPVista\\ss0ejsve.inf','wtf','SÃ„RSKOLAN','','','','','',''),
(31,'USB001','C:\\drivers\\LJ1606DN\\HP1100.INF','HP LaserJet Professional P1606dn','Local HP1606','','','','','',''),
(32,'USB001','C:\\drivers\\LJ-1505\\hpljp1005.inf','HP LaserJet P1505','HP LJ 1505','','','','','',''),
(33,'IP_192.168.0.239','C:\\drivers\\Brother HL-2250DN\\32\\BROHL10A.INF','Brother HL-2250DN series','Marina_HP2250DN','','','','','',''),
(35,'USB001','C:\\drivers\\Brother HL-2250DN\\32\\BROHL10A.INF','Brother HL-2250DN series','Local Brother USB001','','','','','',''),
(36,'USB001','C:\\drivers\\XeroxPhaser_6010_32\\xrhkbzi.inf','Xerox Phaser 6010N','Xerox-6010','','','','','',''),
(37,'USB002','C:\\drivers\\Brother HL-2250DN\\32\\BROHL10A.INF','Brother HL-2250DN series','Local Brother USB002','','','','','','');

This was working perfectly so why was it removed? All change is not necessarily for the better.

Tom Elliott

@cajos001 It was removed because USB Printers are local to the machine in which they reside.

Managing a printer that is going to be local to a single machine is “out of scope” of management within FOG. Think of it this way:

FOG Manages multiple hosts. Part of the way the client works is based on the communication back to the FOG Server. If a USB Printer is plugged in, regardless of FOG Client being on a machine, the printer is available only to that machine. How should FOG manage this printer (or better why?) It’s going to be available no matter what the FOG Client does in regards to handling the printer. If you take a USB Printer within the FOG Printer management system, and apply that to all of your hosts, the only host that will have access to the printer is the host that actually has it connected.

Now if the only reason you’re wanting USB printer support on the client is to tell the client where to download the drivers for that printer, you may be better off actually telling the System WHERE to look at drivers in general.

I understand that this isn’t necessarily the answer you want to hear. I see it from both sides, but ultimately I have to side with the decision to make “printer management” handled in a more “networking-based” fashion. The client can actually assign a valid and usable printer to any/all hosts and know it will work the same from one host to the next.

cajos001

@Tom-Elliott

I can understand the decision not to spend valuable developer time on something that the developers deem unnecessary. It doesn’t solve my problem but has helped me make a decision that I’ve been thinking about a long time.

The teachers love their MacBook Airs and we’re going to migrate all the students to ChromeBooks. The rest of the school board agreed with me this morning and allocated extra budget resources for next year.

After this there will only be a few computers in the accounts dept that require Windows and we can do their printer installations manually.

george1421

@cajos001 one might wonder if there’s a powershell way to add local printers?

Maybe something like this ps script from our friends at Admin Arsenal: https://www.adminarsenal.com/blog/how-to-add-printers-with-powershell/

FWIW: Power shell scripts can be deployed as a FOG snapins. I might suspect that someone with a bit of skills could deploy the driver to the remote host and then run a powershell script to add it to the windows environment.

How do I add an USB printer?

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