Rhodes' iPrint service is a centralised IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) print server that services a large number of printers across campus. This means you can  print from any IPP capable software, such as CUPS.

The first thing you need to do is work out the IPP address of the printer you're interested in printing to.

To do this, open a Web Browser (Firefox) and go to http://iprintc.ru.ac.za/ipp (Staff and Departmental Printers) or http://iprintf.ru.ac.za/ipp (Residence and Student Printers) depending on which printer you want to install.

From here, scroll down and look for the printer you're interested in from the list. The click on the (i) information button on the right hand side. Look for the Printer URI line, which will have an ipp:// URL that looks something like this: ipp://iprintf.ru.ac.za/ipp/Residence-Livingstone.

This ipp:// URL is what you'll need to configure your printer software to use. How exactly you do this will depend on the window manager you use and your exact version of Linux -- see its documentation for adding a networked or IPP printer. (Some instruction on how to do this on Ubunutu Linux is provided in the numbered steps below, you may attempt this but the exact steps may not work with your preferred distro).

It is important to note that Rhodes' iPrint service requires encryption. Some window manager's add printer interface has a tick box for this. Otherwise you can enable it by adding ?encryption=required to the IPP URL (e.g. ipp://iprintf.ru.ac.za/ipp/Residence-Livingstone?encryption=required ).  See the CUPS documentation for details.

Note that you'll need to use your Rhodes username and password to authenticate to the print server. If your "add printer" utility doesn't have specific fields to enter these, you can embed them in the URL itself like this: ipp://g10A1234:password@iprintf.ru.ac.za/ipp/Residence-Livingstone?encryption=required. This isn't ideal, but it usually works.

You'll need to work out what print driver to use for the specific printer you've got. Without the iPrint client, you won't get the driver automatically.

Step-byStep (Ubuntu Linux)

1. Ensure that the Novell iPrint Client is not installed. To uninstall (if installed) open a terminal and run "sudo apt-get remove novell-iprint-xclient-sl"
   If you experience errors, edit the following file by using the following command in the terminal window "sudo nano /var/lib/dpkg/info/novell-iprint-xclient-sl.postrm"
   Insert a # at the start of the last line sbin/insserv....
2. Open FireFox and browse to localhost:631
3. Click on Administration
4. Click Add Printer
5. Select "Internet Printing Protocol (ipp) click Continue.
6. Show quoted text
   Here is the tricky part. Because we are eliminating iPrint client, you will need to type in an elaborate path. Remember that special characters will be replaced with URL friendly replacements in the password, i.e. @=%24, $-%40 >>etc.
   One way is to use something like http://www.url-encode-decode.com/, but you should be cautious of putting an actual password into a third party site.
7. In Connection, type:
   ipp://username:password@iprintf.ru.ac.za/ipp/printername?encryption=required
   Example: iipp://g10A1234:Pa%40%40word@iprintf.ru.ac.za/ipp/Residence-Livingstone?encryption=required
8. Click Continue
9. Provide Name without spaces i.e.: Residence-Livingstone
10. Provide Description: Xerox WC 7120 Colour
11. Provide Location: Common Room
12. Click Continue.
13. You can now attempt to find the specific driver or alternatively use a Generic PCL6 driver.
14. Click Add printer
15. Change Media size to A4 and click Set defaults.

Last Modified: Fri, 11 Mar 2022 10:05:58 SAST