Re: CUPS Admin (was Re: [Fwd: Re: No printing at all!])

From: Wolfgang Pfeiffer (roto_at_gmx.net)
Date: 02/29/04

  • Next message: Vincent Lefevre: "Re: exim HELO=fully qualified host name?"
    To: debian-user-list <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
    Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 23:41:24 +0100
    
    

    On Fri, 2004-02-27 at 22:07, CW Harris wrote:
    > On Fri, Feb 27, 2004 at 07:54:08PM +0000, Clive Menzies wrote:
    > > On (27/02/04 13:00), Wolfgang Pfeiffer wrote:
    > > > On Wed, 2004-02-25 at 19:18, Clive Menzies wrote:
    > > > > On (25/02/04 17:23), Alisdair wrote:
    > <snip>
    > > > Here's the URL for CUPS where the documentation for authentication
    > > > stuff starts, IINM:
    > > >
    > > > <http://localhost:631/sam.html#AuthClass>
    > > >
    > > > And here's a
    > > > /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
    > > > that allows only users in group foo, on one machine with several users,
    > > > to manage the CUPS printing system, and only after he or she provided
    > > > their username/passwd ...
    > > >
    > > > [ /etc/groups file ....
    > > > adduser <user-login-name> foo
    > > > ... login ... logout .. IIRC ]
    > > >
    > > > I didn't test so far whether this also works on a network connected to
    > > > some printer, but I'd believe it could work ... not being sure on that
    > > > ..
    >
    > As I understand, you can specify in cupsd.conf the network or hosts that
    > are allowed to have admin privs. (The "Allow From" directive).
    >
    > > >
    > > > At least here on
    > > > http://localhost:631
    > > > on a single machine with several users: after some initial tests it
    > > > seems to work:
    > > >
    > > > Here's the corresponding cupsd.conf:
    > > > ---------------------------
    > > > LogLevel debug
    > > > Printcap /var/run/cups/printcap
    > > > <Location />
    > > > Order Deny,Allow
    > > > Deny From All
    > > > Allow From 127.0.0.1
    > > > </Location>
    > > > <Location /admin>
    > > > AuthType Basic
    > > > AuthClass Group
    > > > AuthGroupName foo
    > > > Order Deny,Allow
    > > > Deny From All
    > > > Allow From 127.0.0.1
    >
    > Here is where you can control where admin privs are allowed from.
    >
    > > > </Location>
    > > > ----------------------------------
    > > >
    > > > So with this last cupsd.conf it seems you don't need to be root to
    > > > change your CUPS settings and you can decide who of the users on a
    > > > machine will be able to to change these settings ...
    > > >
    > > > I swear I love this crap, at least some times ..... :)
    >
    > <grin> Yeah. So many things are beautiful...when they are working
    > right! </grin>
    >
    > > >
    > > > PS:
    > > > I'd
    > > > cp -r /etc/cups/ /path/to/other/directory/cups.working
    > > > before changing some printer settings ... :)
    > > >
    > > > HTH, too ...
    > > >
    > > > Best Regards
    > > >
    > > > Wolfgang
    > > Hi Wolfgang
    > >
    > > Thanks for this although I was responding to the OP who was having
    > > trouble setting up printing. Using the browser, as I understand it,
    > > you are only configuring cups as the administrator if you login as root.
    >
    > No. As he says, any user in group "foo".

    yow ... and just in case someone might be interested: Here's a
    /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
    that should let everyone on a machine configure CUPS, without the need
    to enter a passwd:

    ---------------------------------------
    LogLevel debug
    Printcap /var/run/cups/printcap
    <Location />
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny From All
    Allow From 127.0.0.1
    </Location>
    <Location /admin>
    AuthType None
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny From All
    Allow From 127.0.0.1
    </Location>
    --------------------------------------

    With the cupsd.conf above everyone should be able to acces
    http://localhost:631/admin

    This config *might* make sense if one is the only person having access
    to a machine.

    >
    > > I wouldn't imagine that you could inadvertantly do anything really
    > > dangerous from the browser except possibly screw up cups.

    I'm extremely talented in destroying settings on a computer by mistake
    once I'm on X, even on console: That's why, while being root, I try to
    never login to X at least ... :)

    >
    > Add/Change printers, classes, etc. Yes, this is only cups
    > administration. (Maybe I don't understand "anything
    > dangerous...except..cups").
    >
    > >
    > > However, I do find it a pain to login as root just for this and so I
    > > will add this to my growing list of tasks to conquer ;)
    >
    > Yes, I /still/ just feel like I'm muddling through. Started using cups
    > because I thought it would magically work better with the MS crap. Now
    > I'm taking the plunge to Samba 3.x

       [ ... ]

    I found Eric S. Raymond's Essay on CUPS from Feb. 27 this afternoon (E.S
    Raymond is the author of fetchmail, sed and other stuff.):

    "The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story"
    <http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html>

    Excerpt:
    "I've just gone through the experience of trying to configure CUPS, the
    Common Unix Printing System. It has proved a textbook lesson in why
    nontechnical people run screaming from Unix. This is all the more
    frustrating because the developers of CUPS have obviously tried hard to
    produce an accessible system — but the best intentions and effort have
    led to a system which despite its superficial pseudo-friendliness is so
    undiscoverable that it might as well have been written in ancient
    Sanskrit."

    Enjoy ... :)

    Best Regards
    Wolfgang

    PS: It's possible I made a mistake when writing in my previous posting I
    had set Gnome to forbid root here to log in to X. I didn't have the time
    so far to look at it ...

    -- 
    Profile, Links: http://profiles.yahoo.com/wolfgangpfeiffer
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  • Next message: Vincent Lefevre: "Re: exim HELO=fully qualified host name?"

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