PSA: lpd/lpr will be removed from FreeBSD

[hruodr]

If you use HP, then that's the driver to use.

No. If it is postscript or PCL, you do not need hplip.

 

[scottro]

Agreed, (stops to add a like to hruodr's post). I've avoided HP for many years now, and I'm sure, that like any other vendor specific program, they add a lot of unneeded cruft.

 

[AlfredoLlaquet]

(stops to add a like to hruodr's post)

Very meta. Me like (bozo me is clicking like above).

 

[fjdlr]

This is good, because it will force a compliant implementation to come along.

3 major changes so far in 2026 in response to that mailing list thread, hardly any before this most recently.

sysutils/lprng is GPL. It didn't work for me on FreeBSD when I tried it: in this case, for an HP printer.

It seems to be a Linux Foundation sponsored implementation. CUPS required GCC to build, when the main printing application should use base compilers and tools.

Good, but heavy, that it requires a browser, network settings, and uses lots of non BSD components.

When I used HPLIP, it required CUPS as a dependency. If you use HP, then that's the driver to use.

CUPS and LPRng have LPR implementations in their own relevant directories.

CUPS needs a lightweight fork which uses BSD components as dependencies. Otherwise, there's a need for a command line BSD replacement for LPR, which is jointly maintained by NetBSD and OpenBSD. LPR uses the description of RFC1179, so this RFC is more important than the old implementation itself.

What is lacking is a Scanner version of CUPS with a browser interface. There was an online mention of one, such as a college hobbyist attempt, but nothing solid.

The mailing list discussions are good.


https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-arch/2026-February/001231.html



CUPS uses both IPP and an implementation of LPR. In the mailing lists as well as in this thread, using the -s option with LPR was also mentioned. The purpose of firewalls and keeping daemons local to protect such applications was also mentioned in the mailing list.

I just changed printers because my old HP one was out of order.

I configured it differently:
IPP, driveless, Avahi,

#>avahi-browse -rt _ipp._tcp


http://localhost:631

ipp://xxx.xxx.x.x/ipp/print
run tests

lp -d name_printer /etc/hosts

scanner

$>curl http://IP_printer/eSCL/ScannerStatus

Check
pf.rules
and end of hplip

Much better.
I also have access to the HP Embedded Web Server IP web interface.
Everything is OK, printer and scanner.

 

[sidetone]

If it is postscript or PCL, you do not need hplip.

Weren't Postscript printers more expensive? As they were identical to another printer, but had an added letter to some they were Postscript, for using licensing rights. Postscript printers are required for older Apple though. But PCL is a more used standard.

The newer printers use a "driverless" standard, where they could print certain file formats directly.

However, those are exceptions for HP printers not using HPLIP.

 

[Alain De Vos]

My brother printer is PCL. But i cant send a pcl file directly to it. It does not understand.

 

[hruodr]

Weren't Postscript printers more expensive? As they were identical to another printer, but had an added letter to some they were Postscript, for using licensing rights. Postscript printers are required for older Apple though. But PCL is a more used standard.

Postscript is a wonderful high level programming language, PCL low level, I doubt it is usable to write programs by hand. Postscript printers process it inside the printer.

The first postscript printer, made by apple, had a more powerful processor than the computer it served:

LaserWriter - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

My brother printer is PCL. But i cant send a pcl file directly to it. It does not understand.

Strange. I always used HP, with postscript or PCL, and was thinking on buying a brother.

There are many versions of PCL. You can try with ghostscript the flag -sDEVICE=ljet4 for PCL5e or the flag
-sDEVICE=pxlmono for PCL6.

Here ps2pcl6 filter:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/local/bin/gs -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -q -sDEVICE=pxlmono -r600\
-sPAPERSIZE=a4 -sOutputFile=- -

Here ps2pcl5e filter:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/local/bin/gs -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -q -sDEVICE=ljet4 -r300\
-sPAPERSIZE=a4 -sOutputFile=- -

 

[scottro]

I've had the Brother multifunction MFC-L3780CDW for a few years now and though I don't use it often, it works well. At one point, I had a color inkjet HP and monotone Brother laser when I had more need for both. Brother's always served me well. I also remember at one point buying a Samsung MFC because I didn't want to get stuck with HP's toner lock in even for lasers. Then, about two weeks after I bought it, HP bought Samsung's printing division. I was lucky though, it lasted several years, and I was aways able to find generic toner that worked well.

 

[Alain De Vos]

I use MFC Brother printer with generic-HP-Toner.

 

[ralphbsz]

My brother printer is PCL. But i cant send a pcl file directly to it. It does not understand.

If it has a parallel port, cat'ing the PCL to the port should work. Sometimes you have to send an EOF character afterwards. If may be network only.

 

[Alain De Vos]

it's on IP,
this works,

gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pxlmono \
   -dDuplex=true -dTumble=false \
   -sOutputFile=output.prn \
   -c "<</Duplex true /Tumble false>> setpagedevice" \
   -f $1
nc <IP-ADRES-PRINTER> 9100 < output.prn

 

[RussellASC]

I used to run a chain of 30+ clinics off of LPRNG with 1200 print queues. My experience with CUPS is that it is a single user printing engine (ie: desktop), not a print server for lots of queues (ie: centralized printing).

Lpd provides that core centralized printer daemon. Can CUPS cover that role?

 

[atax1a]

we replaced LPRng in that role with CUPS as a college sysadmin in the early 2000s. CUPS can absolutely do this. We even added in page accounting that queried the printer for its pagecount register between jobs.

 

[RussellASC]

we replaced LPRng in that role with CUPS as a college sysadmin in the early 2000s. CUPS can absolutely do this. We even added in page accounting that queried the printer for its pagecount register between jobs.

Interesting. Then maybe that's ok.