PyKota's FAQ : # $Id$ * I've installed all correctly, I've created users and printers, but when printing nothing works. What is the problem ? The most probable cause for this is that you didn't adapt /etc/pykota/pykota.conf to your own configuration. The file installed by default is just an example, you have to modify it. See the rest of this document to learn how to really diagnose what went wrong. * Why doesn't CUPS under Debian Woody automatically detects PyKota managed devices ? The CUPS version in Debian Woody is 1.1.14 which is a bit too old. To use PyKota with this version, just install your printers as usual in CUPS web interface, and ensure they work fine, then save your changes, and modify /etc/cups/printers.conf manually as explained in PyKota's toplevel README file. Finally restart CUPS, and your printers should be managed by PyKota. Another solution is to install a newer CUPS release. * Is print accounting ever exact ? No. Print accounting is **never** exact, because it depends on external factors like the presence of paper in the printer, the quantity of remaining ink in the print cartridge, paper jams, etc... All these things are very difficult to account for correctly, and no print accounting package deals with these artefacts correctly in all situations. We are however confident that PyKota is one of the more exact print accounting software, because by default it asks the printers for how many pages they have really printed. * Can PyKota account for ink usage ? No. Actually PyKota doesn't account for ink usage, but this may come in a future release. PyKota only accounts for pages printed and/or money spent. If ink accounting is a necessity for you, PrintBill is recommended instead of PyKota. PrintBill allows you to bill differently per color, and to bill depending on the percent of the ink covered part of the pages. * What is a 'dumb printer' ? In PyKota, the term 'dumb printer' defines a printer which doesn't understand PostScript AND doesn't have an internal page counter, AND for which you don't know how to compute a job's size in number of pages by analyzing its content. Any printer which is not a 'dumb printer' according to the above definition is supported with PyKota. * How can I make PyKota work with my non-postscript printer under CUPS ? From version 1.16alpha7, PyKota includes a CUPS backend which allows you to use any type of printer and any driver, provided your printer is not a 'dumb printer' (see above). * How can I use my 'dumb printer' with CUPS and PyKota. The solution is to plug the pykota filter into the filtering chain when the print job is still in PostScript format, before being converted to the dumb printer's native format. You can't use the cupspykota CUPS backend with 'dumb printers'. Here's how to do : - Disable raw mode by modifying *.convs and *.types files in /etc/cups, then restart CUPS. - If you print from Windows through Samba, don't put '-o raw' in the print command definition in smb.conf - Under Windows, use a PostScript driver set to maximum compatibility mode. - Modify *.convs and *.types files to insert the pykota filter into the filtering chain, as described here (url should be on a single line) : http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/pipermail/ ... ... pykota/attachments/20030721/753239b5/attachment.eml and restart CUPS. * I've got a great number of users. How can I automatically set an initial print quota for them on first print ? You have to define an external policy for unknown users, to automatically add them to the Print Quota database. The sample configuration file contains examples to do this. * What does the --prototype command line option to edpykota do ? This option currently (v1.17) only copies the soft and hard page limits from a template user to other users. This option needs to be updated to new PyKota functionnalities, because it currently lacks. * How can I diagnose the problem when something goes wrong ? Put "LogLevel debug2" in cupsd.conf (usually in /etc/cups/). Then put "logger: system" and "debug: yes" in /etc/pykota/pykota.conf. Finally restart CUPS. CUPS' error_log file will now contain many informations which will help diagnose your problem. Also your syslog's output for the LPR facility (usually /var/log/lpr.log) will contain PyKota's debug messages, notably all database related queries and their result, be your database PostgreSQL or OpenLDAP. With these two files the problem can usually be diagnosed within minutes. Send them to the mailing list and wait for an answer. * Some, not all, print jobs are never accounted for, why ? From version 1.16alpha7, you can now use the cupspykota CUPS backend, which ensures that all print jobs will be accounted for. The use of the old pykota filter is deprecated with CUPS. It remains the filter of choice for LPRng though, or when you absolutely need to support a 'dumb printer' (see definition above). * When printing from Windows, the jobs are never accounted for, but from *nix they are. Could you explain the reason for this ? First refer to the point above. If this doesn't solve your problem, try to set your print driver to PostScript mode and check the "maximum compatibility" box in its configuration, instead of "maximum speed". Often HP printers come with both a PCL and a PostScript driver under Windows. Don't install the PCL one. * How can I share print quota between some printers only (not all) ? To do this you have to put the printers into a printers group, and set quota on the printer group, instead of (or in addition to) the printers themselves. * What is a printer group ? A printer group is exactly like a normal printer, but is unknown by the printing system. You can use printer groups to share print quota between printers. * How can I create a printer group ? Just use pkprinters, like for normal printers, then create quota entries for users or users groups on it using the edpykota command * How can I put a printer into a printer group ? Use the pkprinters command to do this. $ pkprinters --help Will print the complete help and tell you how to do. * How quota checking and update is done with printer groups ? Print accounting and quota checking is done for a printer and all the printers groups it belongs to, recursively. If quota is reached on ANY of these printers for the current user, printing is denied. * Is this feature robust ? It should be. However, beware of integrity problems. LDAP has no sense of database integrity, and PostgreSQL constraints have not yet been fully implemented. The code actually *tries* to forbid circular printers groups, but if you create printer groups with another tool (e.g. psql or gq), then you are mostly on you own to not create infinite loops. * How is computed the job's price ? A job's price is computed with this formula : SUM((NbPages * PricePerPage) + PricePerJob) For current printer and all the printers groups it is a member of, if any. This may be difficult to grasp, but offers unprecedented flexibility. * My question isn't answered there, can you help ? Sure. Ask your question to the mailing list. If this is a frequently asked question, or if your problem is on the contrary very specific, it will probably be added to this document. You can also ask questions by IRC : /server irc.freenode.net /join #pykota Send any new questions to Jerome Alet -