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Introduction

The iPrint client that is provided by Novell is a RPM package. To let Debian-based Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu Linux, use the iPrint client, you need to take a few steps to convert the RPM into a Debian package. Note that because this is not officially supported by Novell, don't expect any technical support when you run into problems. This tip assumes that you are working in a Ubuntu environment.

Before I begin, I should state that the posting in Ubuntu's forum is where I got my information from.

Making the Debian Package

When you visit the iPrint page with the printers, e.g. http://iprintserver/ipp, you can choose to install the iPrint client or install one of the printers. If you choose to install a printer, the system should inform you that you don't have the client and prompt you to install it.

Click to view.

In any case you will have to install the iPrint client first. The Web page should be able to detect your operating system. If you are using Linux, regardless of either SUSE Linux or Ubuntu Linux, you will download a RPM file. This is the RPM file that you will convert to get the Debian package.

Download the RPM file to a directory of your choosing. I assume here that you download it to your home directory. Start your terminal/console/command prompt or whatever you call it. It should directly bring you to your home directory. We will use the "alien" program to convert the RPM file to a DEB file. So you have to make sure that "alien" is installed.

sudo apt-get install alien

You will be prompted to enter your sudo pasword. After alien is installed, run the following command to convert your RPM file.

sudo alien -d --scripts novell-iprint-xclient.i586.rpm

You will then find a file named something like this:
novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.500.20070508-2_i386.deb.

Preparing for Installation

Before you install the iPrint Debian package, ensure that you have the package libglitz-glx1 installed. You can do so with

sudo apt-get install libglitz-glx1

You can now proceed to install the Debian package with your GUI by right-clicking on it and choose Open with "GDebi Package Installer"

Click to view.

The package should be installed. You might encounter a "75" error if you did not install libglitz-glx1 beforehand. Don't worry about it, you can proceed with the next step.

Run the following commands:

. /opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprint-gnome-init

If the command above completes without any error, proceed with the next one.

. /etc/profile.d/novell-iprint.sh

The next thing you should do is to check whether the plugin exists for Firefox.

cd /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
ls

If you don't see the file npnipp.so, type the following

ln -s /opt/novell/iprint/plugin/npnipp.so

You're Done!

Then open up Firefox and go to the printer page. This time, install the printer drivers again. It should ask you for a confirmation on whether you want to install the printer driver. Click Yes to proceed.

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.