Red Hat Summit Red Hat SummitSupportConsoleDevelopersStart a trialContact

Chapter 7. Setting up a legacy printer

You can use the printer applications for supporting legacy printers which do not support driverless standards. After you install the legacy printer in a printer application, the application makes the legacy printer available for CUPS to use.

Important

Installing printers with classic drivers in CUPS is deprecated.

You can utilize classic CUPS drivers with a modern printing architecture by configuring a legacy printer in a printer application. Currently, RHEL includes printer applications based on the PAPPL, such as lprint and legacy-printer-app. The current PAPPL-based printer applications in RHEL and their TCP ports they are listening at are the following:

  • LPrint: 8000
  • Legacy Printer Application: 8001

7.1. Setting up PAPPL-based printer application

To easily and effectively support various printing requirements and prepare it for installing legacy printers, you can set up a PAPPL-based printer application.

Prerequisites

  • CUPS is configured with TLS certificate.

Procedure

  1. Install a PAPPL-based printer application package, for example, lprint : 

    # dnf install <printer_application_name>
    Copy to Clipboard

  2. Optional: Enable the port 8000 in firewalld to access the printer application web interface from a remote host: 

    # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8000/tcp
# firewall-cmd --reload
    Copy to Clipboard

  3. Enable and start the service: 

    # systemctl enable --now <printer_application_name>
    Copy to Clipboard

You can check the port in the /etc/lprint.conf configuration file.

7.1.1. Installing a legacy printer in PAPPL based printer application by using web interface

You can install the legacy printer by using the PAPPL-based printer application web interface.

Prerequisites

  • CUPS is configured with TLS certificate.
  • Printer application is configured and running.

Procedure

  1. In the printer application home page, click Add Printer.

  2. Choose printer name, device, hostname/IP address in case of network printers, select the driver name from the offered list, and click on the Add Printer. You can also use auto-detect option to search for the driver.

    Using the auto-detection option for driver might result in finding an incompatible driver for your device, if the device model is too different from available drivers. It is recommended to check the assigned driver before printing and change the driver manually to prevent any printing issues.

  3. The used driver is on the second line in the block Status. You can test the functionality by clicking on the Print Test Page.

7.1.2. Installing a legacy printer in PAPPL based printer application by using the command line interface

You can install a legacy printer in the PAPPL-based printer application by using the command-line interface.

Prerequisites

  • CUPS is configured with TLS certificate.
  • Printer application is set and running.

Procedure

  1. Search the available drivers in PAPPL based printer application: 

    # lprint drivers
zpl_2inch-203dpi-dt "Zebra ZPL 2-inch/203dpi/Direct-Thermal
    Copy to Clipboard

  2. Install the printer. For example, to install a network printer with a specified driver, enter: 

    # lprint add -d <printer name> -v socket://<hostname> -m zpl_2inch-203dpi-dt
    Copy to Clipboard

Verification

  1. Check printer is visible in the printers list, together with its raw socket for sending raw data: 

    # lprint printers
<printer_name> - printer - ipp://localhost/ipp/print/<printer_name>
<printer_name> - raw socket - socket://localhost:9101/
    Copy to Clipboard

7.2. Setting up a generated network printer as CUPS permanent queue

You can set up a generated network printer from a dedicated printer application as CUPS permanent queue by using the command line interface.

Note

In the following procedure, the LPrint printer application is used as an example. However, the similar steps are valid for any PAPPL-based printer application.

Prerequisites

  • CUPS is configured with TLS certificate.
  • You have permission in CUPS to manage printers.
  • The legacy printer is installed in a printer application.

Procedure

  1. Check if the generated network printer is available: 

    # lpstat -e
<printer_name_in_printer_application>
    Copy to Clipboard

  2. Search for the port that the printer application is using: 

    # grep 'server-port=' /etc/lprint.conf
server-port=8000
    Copy to Clipboard

  3. Install the permanent queue by using the port number 8000: 

    # lpadmin -p <printer_name_in_CUPS> -v ipps://localhost:8000/ipp/print/<printer_name_in_printer_application> -m everywhere -E
    Copy to Clipboard

  4. Check if CUPS queue is installed: 

    # lpstat -a
<printer_name_in_CUPS>  accepting requests since Wed 07 May 2025 02:31:04 AM EDT
    Copy to Clipboard
Back to top
Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust. Explore our recent updates.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

Theme

© 2025 Red Hat