For printing to po and rb printers from MacOS X systems, please follow the directions below. You will be required to edit text files on the command line. If you require any assistance, please contact Daniel Morrison.

Method 1

This is the preferred method, and should tried first. It is confirmed to work on Mac OS X 10.4 ("Tiger") and 10.5 ("Leopard").

Open a terminal, and configure the Mac printing system to browse anchor for access to printers:

  • type sudo -s and supply your password in order to become a privileged user.
  • edit /etc/cups/cupsd.conf, and add:

for MacOS X 10.4 ("Tiger"):

BrowsePoll anchor.phys.ocean.dal.ca

for MacOS X 10.5 ("Leopard"):

Browsing On
BrowseAllow anchor.phys.ocean.dal.ca
BrowseRemoteProtocols all
BrowsePoll anchor.phys.ocean.dal.ca:631

Mac OS X 10.5 printing options taken from this Internet article.

  • check if your Mac can reach anchor: On the terminal command line, try to ping anchor. Note that you must be able to ping anchor, not anchor.phys.ocean.dal.ca. If you are unable to reach anchor, then you must:
  • edit /etc/hosts and add the following line:

129.173.23.227 anchor.phys.ocean.dal.ca anchor

  • Restart the Mac print services. You can do this by killing cupsd with a 'hangup' signal:
    • type killall cupsd
  • NOTE: it may be necessary to re-run the command: killall cupsd after rebooting, especially if updates have been installed. If printing fails, try this first.

Printing is now setup. To view the status of your printer queues, open a web browser and visit http://localhost:631/ Click Manage Printers. You may delete any old printers (not 'po@anchor' or 'rb@anchor'). You will need to supply your MacOS username and password to perform administrative duties.

Any program that was running before the printing changes were made may need to be restarted (QUIT the application and reopen, not just close the file).

The first time you print, you will have to find either 'po' or 'rb' in the 'shared printers' section of of the drop down menu in the File->Print dialog box. For subsequent printing, the printer should now be available in the top-level menu.

Method 2

If method 1, above, does not work, you may choose to configure each individual printer manually:

  • Open a browser, and go to http://localhost:631/ Click Manage Printers. You may delete any old printers. You will need to supply your MacOS username and password to perform administrative duties.
  • Click Add Printer
  • Supply a suitable name, location, and description, as you wish. Anything will do, but avoid special characters, including spaces or dashes in the printer name, and, quotes, double quotes, or any sort of punctuation in any field. Now click Continue.
  • Select Internet Printing Protocol (ipp), and click Continue
  • Supply a Device URI, and click Continue:
    • For rb: ipp://anchor.phys.ocean.dal.ca/printers/rb
    • For po: ipp://anchor.phys.ocean.dal.ca/printers/po
  • For po, select an HP Laserjet Series printer; use HP Laserjet 4250DN if available.
  • For rb, select Xerox or Tektronix 8560DN, or, supply a PPD file, or try the Xerox drivers. The appropriate PPD file is available here: anchor:/data/anchor/drivers/printers/rb_8560_xerox/xr8560dn.ppd, or right-click xr8560dn.ppd and choose 'save link as'. The drivers are here: Phaser_8560_Installer_enu.dmg.
  • Click Continue to finish setting up the printer. Repeat these steps for additional printers.