root / pykota / trunk / FAQ @ 2027

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Added a note about SNMP and power saving mode

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1PyKota's FAQ :
2
3  # $Id$
4 
5  * Nothing prints when my printer is in PowerSave mode, what
6    can I do ?
7    This happens if you use hardware accounting with SNMP, because
8    some (all ?) printers don't say they are idle when they are
9    in PowerSave mode.
10    For now your best bet is to disable PowerSave mode in
11    your printer. In the future, PyKota will modified to
12    handle such problems.
13 
14  * I've installed all correctly, I've created users
15    and printers, but when printing nothing works.
16    What is the problem ?
17    The most probable cause for this is that you didn't
18    adapt /etc/pykota/pykota.conf to your own configuration.
19    The file installed by default is just an example, you
20    have to modify it. See the rest of this document to
21    learn how to really diagnose what went wrong.
22   
23  * I've downloaded PyKota from CVS using a Windows based CVS 
24    tool, and now nothing works at all. What happened ?
25   
26    Some (all?) Windows based CVS tools translate *nix line endings
27    (character Line Feed, ASCII code 10) into Windows line endings
28    (character Carriage Return, ASCII code 13, followed with
29    character Line Feed). This breaks the software which has
30    to run under *nix compatible systems. Set correct options
31    in your CVS software so that it doesn't do any translation,
32    or use an Unix-like version of CVS, download again and
33    reinstall the software. It should work.
34   
35  * How can I diagnose the problem when something goes wrong ?
36 
37    Put "LogLevel debug2" in cupsd.conf (usually in /etc/cups/).
38    Then put "logger: stderr", "debug: yes" and
39    "crashrecipient: youremailaddress" in /etc/pykota/pykota.conf.
40    Finally restart CUPS.
41    CUPS' error_log file will now contain many informations which
42    will help diagnose your problem. You will receive failure
43    notices by email, and you can send all this to us for
44    diagnostic.
45   
46    For LPRng, better to put "logger: system" in pykota.conf so
47    that all debug messages for PyKota will go to syslog.
48 
49  * Why doesn't CUPS under Debian Woody automatically
50    detects PyKota managed devices ?
51   
52    The CUPS version in Debian Woody is 1.1.14 which is a bit
53    too old. To use PyKota with this version, just install
54    your printers as usual in CUPS web interface, and ensure
55    they work fine, then save your changes, and modify
56    /etc/cups/printers.conf manually as explained in
57    PyKota's toplevel README file. Finally restart CUPS,
58    and your printers should be managed by PyKota.
59    Another solution is to install a newer CUPS release.
60   
61  * Is print accounting ever exact ?
62 
63    No. Print accounting is **never** exact, because it depends
64    on external factors like the presence of paper in the printer,
65    the quantity of remaining ink in the print cartridge, paper
66    jams, etc... All these things are very difficult to account
67    for correctly, and no print accounting package deals with
68    these artefacts correctly in all situations.
69    We are however confident that PyKota is one of the more
70    exact print accounting software, because by default it
71    asks the printers for how many pages they have really printed.
72   
73  * Can PyKota account for ink usage ? 
74 
75    No. Actually PyKota doesn't account for ink usage, but this
76    may come in a future release. PyKota only accounts for pages
77    printed and/or money spent.  If ink accounting is a necessity
78    for you, PrintBill is recommended instead of PyKota. PrintBill
79    allows you to bill differently per color, and to bill depending
80    on the percent of the ink covered part of the pages.
81   
82  * What is a 'dumb printer' ?
83 
84    In PyKota, the term 'dumb printer' defines a printer which doesn't
85    natively understand PostScript, PCL5 (up to), PCLXL (aka PCL6), PDF
86    or ESC/P2 and doesn't have an internal page counter, and for which
87    you don't know how to compute a job's size in number of pages by
88    analyzing its content.
89    Any printer which is not a 'dumb printer' according to the above
90    definition is supported by PyKota.
91
92  * How can I make PyKota work with my non-postscript printer under
93    CUPS ? 
94 
95    From version 1.16alpha7, PyKota includes a CUPS backend which
96    allows you to use any type of printer and any driver, provided
97    your printer is not a 'dumb printer' (see above).
98   
99  * How can I use my 'dumb printer' with CUPS and PyKota. 
100 
101    You have to use a software accounter directive, and
102    create a script which understands your printer's
103    Page Description Language.
104   
105    PyKota natively understands DSC compliant PostScript,
106    PCL3, PCL4, PCL5, PCLXL (aka PCL6), PDF and ESC/P2. Support
107    for Binary PostScript is done through GhostScript. More PDLs
108    will be added in the future. 
109    However you can always plug your own PDL analyzer in PyKota.
110         
111  * I've got a great number of users. How can I automatically
112    set an initial print quota for them on first print ?
113   
114    You have to define an external policy for unknown users,
115    to automatically add them to the Print Quota database.
116    The sample configuration file contains examples to do this.
117   
118  * What does the --prototype command line option to edpykota do ?
119 
120    This option currently (v1.20) only copies the soft and hard
121    page limits from a template user to other users. This option
122    needs to be updated to new PyKota functionnalities, because it
123    currently lacks.
124   
125  * How can I share print quota between some printers only (not all) ?   
126 
127    To do this you have to put the printers into a printers group, and
128    set quota on the printer group, instead of (or in addition to)
129    the printers themselves.
130   
131  * What is a printer group ?
132 
133     A printer group is exactly like a normal printer, but is
134     unknown by the printing system. You can use printer groups
135     to share print quota between printers.
136   
137  * How can I create a printer group ?   
138 
139    Just use pkprinters, like for normal printers, then create
140    quota entries for users or users groups on it using the
141    edpykota command
142 
143  * How can I put a printer into a printer group ?
144 
145    Use the pkprinters command to do this.
146   
147      $ pkprinters --help
148     
149    Will print the complete help and tell you how to do.
150   
151  * How quota checking and update is done with printer groups ?   
152 
153    Print accounting and quota checking is done for a printer and
154    all the printers groups it belongs to, recursively.
155    If quota is reached on ANY of these printers for the current user,
156    printing is denied.
157   
158  * Is this feature robust ?
159 
160    It should be. However, beware of integrity problems. LDAP has no
161    sense of database integrity, and PostgreSQL constraints have not
162    yet been fully implemented. The code actually *tries* to forbid
163    circular printers groups, but if you create printer groups with
164    another tool (e.g. psql or gq), then you are mostly on you
165    own to not create infinite loops.
166   
167  * How is computed the job's price ? 
168 
169    A job's price is computed with this formula :
170   
171      SUM((NbPages * PricePerPage) + PricePerJob)
172     
173    For current printer and all the printers groups it is
174    a member of, if any, recursively.
175    This may be difficult to grasp, but offers unprecedented
176    flexibility.
177
178  * My question isn't answered there, can you help ? 
179 
180    Sure. Ask your question to the mailing list. If this is a
181    frequently asked question, or if your problem is on the contrary
182    very specific, it will probably be added to this document.
183   
184    You can also ask questions by IRC :
185   
186        /server irc.freenode.net
187        /join #pykota
188       
189Send any new questions to Jerome Alet - <alet@librelogiciel.com>
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