CUPS, netatalk, pap, and my LW 4/600

From: mneptok (mneptok_at_localhost.localdomain)
Date: 04/25/05 

Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 13:03:10 -0700

I'm having a devil of a time getting my Ubuntu (5.04) install to print to
my networked Apple Laserwriter 4/600.

The printer:
Is a Postscript-capable Appletalk printer with a Localtalk/Ethernet
bridge. The printer is happy printing from MacOS X, so I know the network
connection is fine.

My desktop:
Ubuntu 5.04 with netatalk installed. The netatalk "pap" binary can
successfully send an .eps file to the printer, which the LW4/600 prints.
So netatalk works, sees the printer, and the printer is happy to accept
input from the netatalk install.

The problem comes when trying to get CUPS to pipe info to the printer
using a pap backend. I have tried several backends (installed to the
proper CUPS backend location and chmod'ed +x) and have gotten to the point
where CUPS no longer instantly put the printer into "Busy" mode when a job
is sent. Apparently CUPS thinks it is spooling, but I never get any output
from the printer.

Ubuntu has made the curious decision to completely disable the web
interface to CUPS. The GNOME CUPS interface does not allow for pap:// URI
types, so I'm forced to manually edit /etc/cups/printers.conf. Here's how
it looks at present (the printer's Appletalk name is "seshat").

=====

# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.1.23
# Written by cupsd on Mon Apr 25 12:10:19 2005
<Printer LaserWriter-4/600>
Info LaserWriter-4/600
DeviceURI pap://seshat@*
State Idle
Accepting Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
</Printer>

=====

Any netatalk/CUPS gurus able to shed some light on this? Thankee in
advance.

./k

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