OpenSolaris

Presto prototype information

We will be refining this prototype and interfaces are likely to change as we make these refinements.

We have spent a few weeks implementing a reduced-scope prototype
to provide broader exposure for what we are doing and to get feedback
on the concept behind PRESTO. The prototype currently includes
support for

• local USB hotplug printers 
• Automatic configuration/removal of queues for hotplug printers.
• Automatic remote print queue detection and configuration.

Requirements

You must be running Solaris Nevada build 53 or later to use this.
Due to some critical bugs in printing and technologies that it
uses, you should be running build 63 or later.

Automatic installation

If you are lazy, like me, you can download an installation script that will install the latest Presto bits from the internet.

    # wget -O ${HOME}/bin/presto-install [[http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/presto-install>>Project presto.presto-install]]
    # chmod a+x ${HOME}/bin/presto-install
    # ${HOME}/bin/presto-install

This installation script is self updating, so it should always install the latest Presto bits.  If you don't want it to update itself, you can execute as follows:

    # env UPDATED=1 ${HOME}/bin/presto-install

Manual Installation

The desktop notifications make use of libnotify and friends.  Thus support is expected to integrate in Solaris Nevada build 65 with GNOME 2.18.  Until that time, you will need to install the SFEnotify packages.  They are packaged and on the web for direct download and installation.

    # pkgadd -d http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/SFElibnotify-\{{code}}uname -p\{{/code}}.pkg all
    # pkgadd -d http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/SFElibnotify-devel-\{{code}}uname -p\{{/code}}.pkg all
    # pkgadd -d http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/SFEnotification-daemon-root-\{{code}}uname -p\{{/code}}.pkg all
    # pkgadd -d http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/SFEnotification-daemon-\{{code}}uname -p\{{/code}}.pkg all

Once you have installed the notification support, you will need to install the OSPM desktop component.  Like the notification support, it too has been packaged and placed on the web for direct download and installation.

    # pkgadd -d http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/SUNWospm-root-0.1-\{{code}}uname -p\{{/code}}.pkg all

    # pkgadd -d http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/SUNWospm-0.1-\{{code}}uname -p\{{/code}}.pkg all

Once you have installed these packages you will need to reload gconfd.

    $ gconftool-2 ~--shutdown

Optionally You may also want to install the Queue Detection support.  This support will listen for cups-browse advertisements and add access to print queues on remote print servers (Solaris w/experimental bits, Linux w/Cups, and Mac OS/X)

    # pkgadd -d http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/SUNWcbsvcr-0.1-\{{code}}uname -p\{{/code}}.pkg all
    # pkgadd -d http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/presto/files/SUNWcbsvcu-0.1-\{{code}}uname -p\{{/code}}.pkg all
    # svcadm enable queue-detect:cups-browse

And finally, you will need to logout of your desktop session and re-login.
Once you have done this, you should be able to plug in USB printers and they should automatically configure and unconfigure.

Additional support will be added shortly.

Usage

The services supplied by presto are intended to be largely automatic and transparent.  As a result, you should not need to do anything to get them to work.

Limitations

• The prototype implementation is currently limited to discovery of hotplug capable local devices (USB). Support for network attached printer detection is on the horizon and expected to be available in the next Presto snapshot. 
• Print queue name generation
   doesn't handle conflict at this time. Print queues configured by
   Presto will be named based on their model information returned from
   the printer. If you connect more than one printer to a host and the
   identify themselves with the same Model information, only the last
   one connected will work. This limitation will not be present in the
   final product. 
• Printer PPD file selection is
   based on a "closest" match to the manufacturer and model
   name information supplied by the printer. This may result in the
   selection of a PPD file that doesn't work with your printer. In a
   future snapshot of the GPM, PPD file selections that don't exactly
   match the printer supplied data will most likely require user
   confirmation. 
• None of the menus/preferences/... in the OSPM work at this time.