Using Raspberry Pi as print server

Question

By looking at a cool project and remembering that I have occasional problems connecting my old Cannon LBP1120 printer with Ubuntu, I thought if Raspberry is capable to work as print server.

(As a Print server I mean that it is possible to print from other computer without installing necessarily driver.)

I have sketched two solutions with QEMU:

• Installing Windows 2000, LBP1120 driver and providing from there network interface
• Installing Lubuntu 12.04 and configuring the LBP1120 printer from there

The questions are:

• Can QEMU give USB interface for guest?
• Is Raspberry Pi performance suitable for the task?

• lenik: if you're unable to use this printer with Ubuntu, you should not even try to use it with RPi.
• Jānis Erdmanis: For version Ubuntu 12.04 it worked, but as Ubuntu 14.04 came out printing with LBP1120 got broken again.
• einpoklum: A question from a newbie: What does QEMU have to do with setting up a print server on a Raspberry? Why would a virtual OS be interesting/useful/necessary?

Answer 1

Can qemu give USB interface for guest?

Yes, QEMU can pass USB devices to a guest. See this document.

Is raspberry pi performance suitable for the task?

No, the Rasperry Pi has a very limited processor. Instead of virtualizing another Linux guest, consider directly installing CUPS.

• Dmitry Grigoryev: What purpose does CUPS serve without a printer driver? Or do you have a source where one can get ARM printer drivers?
• Lekensteyn: @DmitryGrigoryev Not all printer drivers are closed source, so in theory some drivers should work. No idea for the second question, I guess you have to do some research for that.

Answer 2

If you don't mind paying 10ドル for it, I would suggest to get Exagear for RPi, and then either install WINE and try out Win2000 driver, or configure your printer directly in x86 Debian guest system, without WINE.

The project you refer to is indeed cool, but considering 12 minutes boot time for WinXP, I'd expect printing to be quite slow as well (if you ever get it working).

PS. Another option (which probably won't work for your printer though) is to run

sudo apt-get install printer-driver-gutenprint

and hope that your printer is supported.

• Jānis Erdmanis: My curiosity have been rised. I will try this out in a following month