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where does qcad get its printer list?

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 8:23 am
by boscaiolo
We have two networked printers, and each has a stanza in /etc/cups/printers.conf. Consequently every application shows these two printers on the print menu when trying to print a document.

Except qcad.

Qcad shows one of the printers and two long-defunct names for the other. Its current name is defined in printers.conf, and also provided by the local dns on the adsl modem/switch, or could be found by scanning the /etc/cups/ppd directory. But qcad has another source of information, which is out-of-date.

Can anybody suggest a method to teach qcad the current list of available printers?

This problem is present both in the current 2.2.2.0 and also in my old 2.1.2.8 version. The box is running debian squeeze, the kernel is 2.6.32-5-686.

SOLVED: where does qcad get its printer list?

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:01 pm
by boscaiolo
The solution to this question is easily found at http://www.ribbonsoft.com/rsforum/viewt ... nter+shown

For anybody else wanting the answer:

It seems that Debian's cups does not follow the FHS, and the file at /etc/printcap is not the active printcap maintained by cups. The solution is simply to delete any outdated file at /etc/printcap and symlink thus:

ln -s /var/run/cups/printcap /etc/printcap

HTH

Re: where does qcad get its printer list?

Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 3:06 am
by mikeyc1945
I'm replying to this post three years after the last reply to let everyone know this fix still works.

In Linux, Qcad searches for /etc/printcap for printer data. In today's Linux flavors there is no longer an /etc/printcap file. By creating a link to /var/run/cups/printcap named /etc/printcap, whenever Qcad looks for printer data in /etc/printcap it is directed to /var/run/cups/printcap and voila a list of current printers appears.

Open a terminal and enter:

su
ln -s /var/run/cups/printcap /etc/printcap

HTH