Topic: Announce: PDF-over-LAN on SME RPM

[Craig D. Jensen]

March 26, 2003
Hello All,

     Lasse Johansson has an excellent how-to
     available to implement "PDF printing to file" on SME 5.  

     I have created an rpm to implement this on SME 5.6.  

     ***This rpm is ONLY FOR SME 5.6!!***
     
     The packages are specifically for this
     version of the underlying redhat OS.

     Binary and Source found here:
     http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/cjensen/mitel/contrib/pdf-over-lan-sme_5.6-ONLY/

     Follow the install instructions in the document here:
     http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/cjensen/mitel/contrib/pdf-over-lan-sme_5.6-ONLY/pdfoverlan-install.txt


     Alternatively,
     MANUAL instructions from Lasse Johansson's site are available here:
     http://e-smith.saxdalen.com/howto/How_to_install_PDF_over_LAN.html
     

--
Regards,
 Craig D. Jensen               mailto:cjensen@acenet-tech.org

http://www.acenet-tech.org/ My computer services site.
http://www.acenet-tech.org/phpBB2/ My forum, business and otherwise.

[Per Sørensen]

I whish i could build RPM, but i can't. So i hope you will build one for older SME versions!

Per

[Robert Harlow]

Craig

Thank you for that work, I don't know if my request prompted it or whether I was just plain lucky;~/

Still having problems - even installing your new 34MB rpm.

Step/1 complete.

Step/2 displayed some text about running an install.sh file at /opt/?pdf?/administration/  (my ??, it was either pdfprint or printpdf - see next). Using Midnight Commander I couldn't see an install.sh file further down the administration route so I decided to ignore the instruction on the screen and go by your text file's instructions.

I navigated to /opt/printpdf/ and was relieved to see your install.sh file and a bunch of likely suspect rpm's. F10 out of MC there and then to run ./install.sh but there was a bunch of error statements about not finding files and/or directories:-(

Back to MC, F3 into install.sh and I think it has a problem? Inside were a bunch of code lines. All of them refer to the /opt/ area but list it as /opt/pdfprint/. Perhaps this is why everything falls apart at this point?

Should I try editing this install.sh file with MC, or must I use PICO perhaps, to try and alter the path to /printpdf/ to see if that kicks thing off?

best wishes, Robert

[Robert Harlow]

OK, I see a duplicate thread running in the General forum under the alternatively spelt heading of...  .

best wishes, Robert

[Dean Mumby]

Yes Robert simply edit the install script to reflect the correct file locations and install.

Dean

[Robert Harlow]

Dean

Thanks, I did just that:-) But it didn't get me very far. I have not had a trouble-free time with the installer rpm at all... still:-( Continued in the General section - thread is alternatively spelt .

best wishes, Robert

[Craig]

Hi,

Found an error in install.sh

There was two rpm's were on the same line

IE:
/bin/rpm -Uvh --nodeps /opt/printpdf/ghostscript-6.52-8.i386.rpm ghostscript-fonts-5.50-3.noarch.rpm

Which gave an error. I edited the two lines to read

/bin/rpm -Uvh --nodeps /opt/printpdf/ghostscript-6.52-8.i386.rpm
/bin/rpm -Uvh --nodeps /opt/printpdf/ghostscript-fonts-5.50-3.noarch.rpm

I then re-ran install and recieved  the following

Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:ghostscript            warning: /usr/share/ghostscript/6.52/lib/Fontmap saved as /usr/share/ghostscript/6.52/lib/Fontmap.rpmorig
warning: /usr/share/ghostscript/6.52/lib/Fontmap.GS saved as /usr/share/ghostscript/6.52/lib/Fontmap.GS.rpmorig
warning: /usr/share/ghostscript/6.52/lib/gs_init.ps saved as /usr/share/ghostscript/6.52/lib/gs_init.ps.rpmorig
error: unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/share/ghostscript/Resource/pdfcorefont/chinese_t/Adobe-CNS1-UCS2;3e8686ff: cpio: MD5 sum mismatch
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
package ghostscript-fonts-5.50-3 is already installed


I'm assuming that ghostscript-6.52-8.i386.rpm was corrupt. My next step is to try to find it elsewhere and manually install it.

Typing ps2 as directed in the install notes gets the following error

bash: ps2: command not found

regards
Craig

[Thor Anthrax]

You can try the software from http://sme.nightspirit.nl/e-smith-PDF-printer/

Maybe it will help you out here

[Craig]

Well, after editing the install script, and finding a new ghostscript RPM using RPMfind.net it worked really well.

The only thing is that some of the applications (Word XP) printed out nice crisp looking text, whereas others (Quicken) printed out very blurry or ugly fonts.

Is there a solution to this? Is this an issue with ghostscripts fonts or with the application doing the printing?

Other than that, a nice (and I found useful) RPM.

Thanks.
Craig

[Craig D. Jensen]

Craig,

This is what i am now attempting to debug.  Some suggestions currently point to a set of additional packages which improve output.

With the information I now have, I will spend time this week tracking the cause of the less-than-desired quality output when this is implemented on SME 5.6.

As I have shared with a few others, this implementation on SME 5.5 produces very crisp, quality pdf's.

Also, the install script has been corrected in the rpm available at my site as well as at contribs.org:

http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/cjensen/mitel/contrib/pdf-over-lan-sme_5.6-ONLY/cdj-mitel-pdf-over-lan-1.0-01.noarch.rpm

One other note... Dustin Blad has included information about an addon to allow easy browsing/manipulating of the pdf's (or any other repository on your server) called cjgexplorer (http://www.cjgexplorer.com.ar/).  It is similar to an add-on Darrell May has available for the 'webshare' package called "phpfm".  These are worth a look.

Craig Jensen

[yo@teleo.es]

Thank you Craig. I've installed the RPM and i follow the instruccions and everything runs ok. Now i have a pdf printer on my network.

Thanks again and good Job.

[Geoff Fruin]

I have the pdf printer install. but I have tried to set up the windows side. but I have had on luck at all. Windows sees the printe PDF. I try and see the stats of it. comes up with this error: Printer: pdf@skyhand-puter - ERROR: spool queue for 'pdf' does not exist on server skyhand-puter.skyhand-puter non-existent printer or you need to run 'checkpc -f'. The widows size prints but it does not show up on the server side.

[Craig Jensen]

Geoff,

Snip from install instructions:

--------------------------------snip--------------------------------------------------------------

6. Unpack and install the package "Adobe universal installer" (from step #3)
in your client, and make sure you have the PPD file (ADIST5.PPD) available...
During the install, select "Network Printer" and "Browse" to find the printer
attached to your SME server.  Now an "Error" box will appear, select "Yes" to
install the PPD file that you downloaded earlier.  Finally, name the printer
"PDF-printer"

--------------------------------snip--------------------------------------------------------------


Was your install of the adobe postscript driver successful from step 6 of the install?

Also, are you able to browse your server's ibays and such in windows explorer?  I have a mapped drive to my /primary/html which ensures I have logged on each time my windows system starts.  Some have a script for such connection.

Let us know where you get from here

[Craig Jensen]

Geoff,

Snip from install instructions:

--------------------------------snip--------------------------------------------------------------

6. Unpack and install the package "Adobe universal installer" (from step #3)
in your client, and make sure you have the PPD file (ADIST5.PPD) available...
During the install, select "Network Printer" and "Browse" to find the printer
attached to your SME server.  Now an "Error" box will appear, select "Yes" to
install the PPD file that you downloaded earlier.  Finally, name the printer
"PDF-printer"

--------------------------------snip--------------------------------------------------------------


Was your install of the adobe postscript driver successful from step 6 of the install?

Also, are you able to browse your server's ibays and such in windows explorer?  I have a mapped drive to my /primary/html which ensures I have logged on each time my windows system starts.  Some have a script for such connection.

Let us know where you get from here

[Geoff]

I have done everything that was ask to do in the text file that came with it. I still can not work out why it will not work.  I am able to browse your server's ibays but when I try a test print I get not a thing ending up in the pdfdrop ibay. I might end up giving it away as a bad joke