You are here
Replacement of LPRng with CUPS
Description: Some work has already been done on writing a CUPS component with a view to possibly replacing LPRng with CUPS. This project should consider whether such a move is desirable and if so complete the work.
Deliverables: Enhanced and expanded CUPS component fully integrated with existing LDAP based printcap database.
Integration of PyKota quota management system managed via LCFG, possibly by a separate component.
Moving of the CUPs infrastructure off desktop machines and onto LCFG managed server hardware.
Customer: All users of DICE printers.
Case statement: The LPRng print system is now obsolete, is no longer being updated and is no longer part of the standard Fedora distribution. CUPS is now the standard print system on Linux systems and its adoption will remove the effort required to port the LPRng infrastructure to new versions of the operating system. More and more standard applications now expect CUPS to be the default print system.
Status: We are currently using both LPRng and CUPS (the latter to address issues with standard applications under FC6) within the school. This is causing problems with some applications such as acroread which expects lpr to be the CUPS version which is not currently the case on our desktops. In addition, many of the existing CUPS servers are desktop machines which is obviously undesirable. At the February Development meeting, it was decided that the pykota quota system should be a separate project.
Timescales: It would be desirable, but not essential, to have this in place by the time of the move to the Forum.
Priority: High
Time:
Proposal:
Resources:
Plan: 1) Extend existing CUPS component.
2) Integrate PyKota quota system.
3) Produce transition documentation for users.
4) Set up polling machines for each wire.
5) Set up print servers.
6) make CUPS default printing system on desktop machines.
Dependencies: None.
Risks: Impact on User Support if transition is inadequately managed
Milestones
| Proposed date | Achieved date | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008-04-03 | 2008-04-03 | Pykota | Evaluation/Installation of PyKota quota system
This milestone has beem moved to the separate pykota project |
| 2008-07-01 | 2008-05-07 | CUPS component | Complete the extension/enhancement of the existing CUPS component |
| 2008-12-11 | 2008-10-27 | make CUPS defau | Make CUPS the default printing system on desktop machines. |
| 2009-06-02 | 2009-05-06 | Polling machine | Move polling machines to server hardware. |
| 2008-10-06 | 2008-10-06 | intertype -> IF | Move intertype to the forum, SL5 it and install the new CUPS component |
| 2008-10-27 | 2008-10-13 | Z flag wrapper | Write and deploy the wrapper for handling legacy -Z flags with cups. |
| 2008-12-01 | 2008-10-13 | Documentation | Produce user based documentation for CUPS |
| 2009-07-01 | upgrade to 1.3. | Install test version of CUPS 1.3.7 and test. | |
| 2009-08-05 | migrate1.3.7 | Make CUPS 1.3.7 the default version in use in the school |