Printing with a Self-maintained Linux at UvA

(February 2021)

This is an instruction on how to use the printing facilities of the University of Amsterdam on a Linux computer equipped with the CUPS configuration tool system-config-printer.

In October 2016 UvA has replaced its old printing facility based on the server uvaprint.uva.nl and individual printers named P005xxx, with the new Follow-Me printing system. With Follow-Me printing you send all your printing jobs to a single virtual printer associated with your UvAnetID. The submitted document is only printed after you go to one of the UvA printers, log-in to it using your personal UvA key card and select the print job from the display.

Setting up a UvA Follow-Me printer on your Linux

Follow these steps:

• Download the UvA Linux printer driver, a file named cnadvc5250x1.ppd, from here. Alternatively you can download the file from the official website http://uva.canon.nl but bare in mind that this driver contains a wrong queue name (*NickName: "MacFollow-Me") and before usage you will have to open the file in a text editor and change the string MacFollow-Me with LinuxFollow-Me.
• Verify the software package system-config-printer (GUI name in English is "Print Setting") is present on your system, and if not, install it with the software maintenance program.
• Issue the command system-config-printer in a command prompt (eg. xterm or Gnome Terminal) or, what comes to the same, start the application Print Settings from the window manager. Do not use the Printers applet featured in System Settings!
• A window labeled Printer Settings appears (in older versions named Printing). In the remainder of the text we will refer to the program not by its GUI name but by its package name: system-config-printer.
• If at the upper-right corner of the window you see a button labeled Unlock then system-config-printer lacks authorization to modify your computer's printer settings.
• Click, if present, the button labeled Unlock and enter the password. (Depending on how you configured the operating system this may be either the system's root password or your local password.)
• At the top of the window you see a toolbar with a plus sign (+) labeled Add at the left.
• Click + Add.
• system-config-printer will initialize the New Printer wizard. The first section is titled Select Device.
• In the Enter device URI: text box enter the string lpd://UvAnetID@LB.ps17.mycanonprint.nl/LinuxFollow-Me where UvAnetID represents your personal UvAnetID (e.g. hacker1). For students the UvAnetID corresponds to their student card number.
• Click Forward.
• Briefly a tiny message window pops up informing you that devices are being searched.
• When finished the New Printer wizard takes you to the second section titled Choose Driver Three option buttons are presented: Select printer from database, Provide PPD file, Search for a printer driver to download.
• Select Provide PPD file.
• At the center of the window you will see a file selector button labeled (None).
• Click the file selector button.
• A file selector window appears labeled Select a File.
• Browse to the file cnadvc5250x1.ppd which you downloaded above, select it and click Open.
• The file selector button will now feature the name of the PPD file cnadvc5250x1.ppd.
• Click Forward.
• Now the wizard presents a dialog Installable Options.
• Leave all settings as they are and click Forward.
• Now the wizard takes you to the Describe Printer section presenting three text boxes. Since in the new Follow-Me printing system all jobs are directed to a single virtual printer you could just name the queue "follow-me". But if you share the computer with multiple users it might be useful to clarify the queue's association with your UvA account. Therefore we recommend you incorporate your UvAnetID in the name of the printer queue.
• In the Printer Name text box enter an appropriate name for the printer queue. We suggest something like follow-UvanetID-bw with UvAnetID as your personal UvAnetID to reflect that the queue is associated with your UvA account, and bw that the queue only prints in black and white (assuming you do not change the default setting as explained further down).
• Click Apply.
• A tiny dialog box pops-up asking if you want to print a test page. Since the default configuration might contain wrong settings, such as paper size and color mode, it is better to postpone the test.
• Click Cancel.
• The main window of system-config-printer becomes visible again, but now featuring the newly configured printer queue.

Modifying the Printer Settings

• If at the upper-right corner of the window you see the Unlock button system-config-printer will need authorization to modify the printer settings.
• Click, if present, the Unlock button and enter the appropriate password.
• Right-click on the new printer and choose Properties in the context menu.
• This brings up the Printer Properties dialog box.
• In the list box on the left select Printer Options.
• This opens a dialog panel on the right containing a very long sequence of check boxes and drop-down lists. Only a few options are of concern.
• Verify the option Media size: is set to A4.
• Verify the option Duplex: is set to Long edge.
• Verify the option Color Mode: is set to Black and White. We recommend this for economical reasons since Canon charges a far higher price for "color" print jobs, even if the printed pages contain no colors at all. If occasionally you still need to print in color we suggest creating a second Follow-me printer queue named something like "follow-me-color" and option Color Mode: set to Color.
• Click Ok.
• Your Follow-Me printer is now ready for use. You may now close system-config-printer.

Unfortunately system-config-printer doesn't allow modifying the URI of a previously created Follow-Me queue. This is likely a bug in the software. If you need to associate a the queue with another UvAnetID the only way is to completely delete it (Right-click → Delete) and create a new Follow-Me queue, as described above.