KDEPrint on other *NIX platforms.

[Kurt Pfeifle]

Nick Bartolotti wrote:

> Mattias & Kurt,
> 
> Thank you for your responses.
> 
> Since I'm not a seasoned UNIX expert, please correct me where I am wrong
> in the next statements.
> 
> We wrote a C++ class library that wrapped the CUPS API and planned on
> using it as a middle tier between a GUI and the lower-level printing
> sub-system (CUPS).  We were planning on using this class to support a
> specific printer (although, in theory, it could support any printer).
> We did this because CUPS is supported on Linux, HP-UX, and Solaris, our
> three target systems.
> 
> Later, we found KDEPrint essentially does what we want which is why we
> started investigating its possible use on other platforms (HP-UX and
> Solaris).

What exactly need this GUI to do? Just wrap the "lpr" print command --
or do all sorts of admin stuff (adding printers, configure the CUPS
server/daemon...) too?

>>From this investigation, it seems that the desktop environment's GUI
> library must match the library used for the GUI apps.  For Redhat, I
> have read that GNOME and KDE apps are mostly compatible,

If "compatible" means: you can run any single KDE app inside a GNOME
desktop and any GNOME app inside a KDE desktop environment -- the answer
is yes.

> but for Solaris
> and HP-UX, the default desktop environment is CDE.  My guess is that any
> GUI app that I want to run under CDE must be linked against the CDE
> libraries (whatever they are) as opposed to the Qt libraries.

No. Once you have compiled KDEPrint on Solaris (and if it is linked against
the libcups) you should be OK. It just needs an X server.

You need quite a few KDE libraries present too. No idea how much that would
be. Probably you need to see yourself....

If you install the complete "kdelibs" and "kdebase" package from the URL
I posted previously (http://sunrpms.mauraudingpirates.org/software/sparc/5.8/RPMS/),
you should be safe. [NOTE, that the "RPM" packaging and installation
method for Solaris sounds somewhat unusual, but seems to work well with
the additional tools provided on that side.... BTW, it also provides GNOME
and some other software there.]

"kprinter" and some other executables -- "kjobviewer", "kaddprinterwizard",
"cupsdoprint", "cupsdconf", "make_driver_db_cups" and a few more come to mind
-- are part of the "kdeprint" subdirectories in "kdelibs" and "kdebase" of the
overall KDE source tree.

Maybe Michael (Goffioul) jumps in and can tell more details about what
minimum dependencies are required to compile KDEPrint on its own with
CUPS support....

> I think the other option is Motif, but I'm not sure where Motif fits
> into the picture.

Motif is dead. (Unless you need to support some very old legacy apps).
And surely you don't need it anywhere to support a GUI interface to
CUPS.

A more lightweight approach to get a CUPS GUI working on HP-UX and
and Solaris are "xpp" and "gtklp" (these are limited to a GUI "print
command" only approach and missing the full control over administration
and job handling aspects KDEPrint provides):

   http://cups.sourceforge.net/xpp/
   http://gtklp.sourceforge.net/

And last, not least, you may want to check out the commercially supported
CUPS version "ESP Print Pro", made by the CUPS developers themselves:

   http://www.easysw.com/printpro/

This installs out of the box on HP-UX and Solaris and supports every
PostScript printer (plus 1000 non-PostScript printers too) in various
locales. Licensing ESP Print Pro helps feed the CUPS developers and
continue the development of the GLP version of CUPS.

> Thanks,
> Nick.

Cheers,
Kurt