Is there any activity going on to port CUPS? If I remember correctly there was once a BeOS and Zeta port of it.
And since CUPS seems to change its license from LGPL/GPL to Apache license, maybe there is a way to integrate it into the system later?
The gutenprint drivers used to work very well, and covered many printers, however I seem to recall there is a problem with it now… but that was some time ago and I don’t know the current status. I don’t know what the barriers are for CUPS either I’m afraid.
gutenprint still works as well as it should. There are problems upper in the chain that prevents printing from working properly (mostly in BPicture and app_server), but swapping drivers will not help with that.
We don’t really need the whole CUPS as we have our own implementation of most of its parts (spooler, job sequencing, etc), which is why we ported just gutenprint (which is a lower level of the stack).
Do you have a printer that’s not supported?
I never tried to get my brother MFC to work with Haiku. I was just curious about CUPS on Haiku since I found references to Zeta and BeOS.
I use several brother printers, networked in different networks, and the only option I found to add them is through Gutenprint + HP Jetdirect, then add their IP, and the printers are “seen” by Haiku, but sending the test page always ends up in a white paper coming out from the printer, no ink, or no paper at all. (MFC-7460DN, DCP-J925DW, HL3150CDW, MFC-J6910DW).
Choosing IPP doesn’t allow to add the printer, as seems can’t search the network for IP, and IP can’t be added manually up front to tell the printer preference to search for a printer in such location.
Besides, scanning through the network does not work either.
I am supposed to add a ticket on that, so I will when I get everything ready.
Regards
RR
If your particular printer is not listed as supported by Gutenprint, then it will probably not work. Brother printers are not well supported. My own Brother MFC-J4510 does not work whatsoever. Epson printers are well supported for both printing and scanning. Canon and HP also have extensive support.