GNOME Desktop Support for Network Attached Printer Discovery

Network attached printer support in the Solaris OS is designed and implemented through a HAL add-on module, /usr/lib/hal/hald-addon-network-discoveryAfter the printer has been discovered by the system, print queue configuration works the same way as it does for USB directly attached printers. See How Automatic Printer Discovery Works.

The network discovery components are standard service interfaces that are offered by classes of network attached devices. This module is capable of actively scanning a network for new devices. The service is directly controlled through the svcadm interface. For more information, see the man page. svcadm(1M). To determine the device type, an active scan is performed through a Simple Network Management Protocol version 1 (SNMPv1) broadcast. Be default, the SNMP based network attached printer discovery service probes the network for printers every 60 seconds. This property is configurable. See Modifying the Network Device Discovery Service Properties. During this active scan, SNMP determines the device type by attempting to connect to the device.

If the device is determined to be a printer, it is then probed by SNMP for the following properties:

• Manufacturer (mfg)

• Model (mdl)

• Description (desc)

• Serial number (serial)

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Note - Only active device discovery is available in this Solaris OS. Passive device discovery through the Multicast DNS (mDNS) is not available.

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Initiating the HAL Network Device Discovery Add-On Module

Network attached printer discovery is available through a HAL device discovery add-on module that you can initiate in GNOME Desktop Environment or from the command line. To utilize network printer discovery in a supported Solaris release, you must first initiate this add-on module. The process of printer discovery, print queue configuration, and event notification for newly discovered, network attached printers works much the same way as USB printer discovery, configuration, and event notification works. For task-related information, see Setting Up Newly Discovered Printers in the GNOME Desktop Environment.

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Note - If you have an ECPP capable printer that is physically connected to the system when the HAL service is initiated, either by booting the system or by using the svcadm command, the printer will now be properly identified. This probe applies only to the startup of the HAL device discovery add-on module. If you add an ECPP capable printer to a running system, you must restart the service for the device to be discovered. Additional printer properties are then added to the ECPP port's HAL device tree entry.

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For more information about the HAL device tree properties, see http://opensolaris.org/os/project/tamarack/.

How to Initiate the HAL Network Device Discovery Add-On Module in the GNOME Desktop Environment

The following procedure shows how to initiate the HAL network device discovery add-on module in the GNOME desktop. For information about how to initiate and manage the HAL network device discovery add-on module by using the Service Management Facility (SMF), see Administering the Network Device Discovery Service by Using SMF.

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Note - If you are running the current Solaris release, you can also activate or deactivate the network printer discovery service through the Network tab of the Print Manager Preferences dialog in the GNOME desktop.

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1. From the GNOME Main Menu, select the Services application:

   Main Menu -> Administration -> Services

   Services settings window is displayed.

2. Initiate the HAL device discovery add-on module, by placing a checkmark in the check box next to the Hardware Abstraction Layer network attached device discovery (network/device-discovery/printers:snmp) option.
3. Click OK, then close the window to save your changes.

   To disable this feature, remove the checkmark from the check box and click OK.