Version: (using KDE KDE 3.5.5) Installed from: SuSE RPMs OS: Linux I connect usb printer to my laptop running Gnome and opensuse 10.1.A dialog comes up asking for installation and I can install it. In KDE,not only one doesn't see this wizard,installing a printer is difficult requiring root password and quite an amount of digging where to add new printer. That's bad.KDE needs to change this.And there should be a userspace UI to add a printer at user's level and access to that should be easy. Also,if a printqueue for the user exists,printer should appear in the system tray.
The only sensible wish here (imho) is userspace UI -- but I doubt it is real need/problem here. Talking of the rest of this report -- difficulties with adding printer (I think it is rather easy) and I don't think anything should appear in tray by default.
I am really surprised by the attitude! A wish for a userspace UI is of doubtful need ! Anybody hearing the talk of Linux adoption in Desktop space I thought instinctively would grab my suggestion. Window manager detecting a printer being connected (USB) and leading the active user to install it and use it ( IT WOULDN'T BE CONNECTED IF IT WAS NOT REQUIRED) is an esoteric need!
I think the wish is sensible. (And if you bypass KDE, and just rely on the CUPS web interface on http://localhost:631/admin/ , the most recent 1.2.x CUPS version does support something like this already). Making it a "userspace affair" will however be very difficult. CUPS is a system service, not designed to be run in user space. It also does not support adding printers (+drivers) for a user only. Therefor, you'll need an administrative accoount (i.e. root in most cases) to set up a printer. KDE won't change that, because KDE will not design a printing subsystem of its own to run in user space. However, what we should be doing in KDE4 is make use of such auto-discovery possibilities: a printer is plugged into the USB port, CUPS discovers this, notices that this printer is still not "installed" and sends a notification about this event. If KDE4 listens to this notification, it can let popup the wizard and make printer installation a one-click affair (since it will be able to preselect the correct driver as well) which may even hide the need to enter a password (with the help of kwallet).
Thank you Kurt. Gnome already has a wizard for this event.I connected USB printer,a message popped up to install it and if my memory serves me right,I did not supply an administrator password. Maybe,as you explained,as the cups backend detected and took action ( Gnome only relaying messages),it ran with the administrator's privileges. Hope to see my favorite KDE more usable and more integrable with non-kde applications at 4.
KDEPrint is obsolete, unmaintained and will never be revived. Closing all open bugs.
(In reply to comment #5) > KDEPrint is obsolete, unmaintained and will never be revived. Closing all open > bugs. So, a nice part of KDE 3.5 will be without replacement in KDE4? Though I can't do anything about it, without a print manager, KDE is never worth it's name as a Desktop manager! KDE visionaries chase newer and newer dreams, but every dream is left half realised ! There is no decent Print manager in kde, but kde coders already chase a new vision of plasma active !but not care to finish kde4 porting!
There is a separate printer management gui which uses the standard OpenPrinting tools to auto-detect and install printers. Such hardware and low-level systems rightly belong outside KDE with the distro's and people who are experts at that stuff doing it all in one place. Yes, we should have a nicer gui but the existing one works. A different gui is being developed by another coder and we'll see if that is better. This is a volunteer effort, we can't tell people what to do, they work on what they enjoy.
(In reply to comment #7) > Such hardware and low-level systems > rightly belong outside KDE with the distro's and people who are experts at that > stuff doing it all in one place. That is not correct. Imagine every distro doing it's own print manager! printing is a very corec function of a desktop manager, like file-managemnet, it cannot be left out of Desktop manager suite. > Yes, we should have a nicer gui but the > existing one works. A different gui is being developed by another coder and > we'll see if that is better. This is a volunteer effort, we can't tell people > what to do, they work on what they enjoy. I understand it is all labour of love and that's why better product in parts ! I wish there was a central guiding vision, central holding-hand which channelised and bound volunteer efforts. Though I love KDE and I use it everyday, I would not recommend KDE to my wife. Some behaviour of KDE and absence of things like a print-manager can be un-nerving to a non-power users. In opensuse 11.4, you add a usb printer, kde4 desktop does not react to it. Yast helps only when you invoke it. It can be baffling to a new user.