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Line Printer Daemon (LPD)

Line Printer Daemon (LPD) is a printing protocol used for submitting print jobs to a remote printer. After setting the Line protocol to LPD, a device can send a print job using TCP/IP to the gateway, which will then print over the Line using LPD.

For example, to print from a Windows PC to a printer attached to the gateway, add the printer on a Standard TCP/IP port using the gateway's IP address, the LPR (line printer remote) protocol, and a queue name that matches the queue name configured on the gateway. See the use case Send a print job from a Windows PC using LPD for an example.

LPD Status

You can view the current connection status of LPD, including the queue name, information on what was last printed, and information on the last and current client.

To view LPD status:

LPD Configuration

To configure LPD:

  • In Web Manager, go to LPD and click Configuration.
  • For CLI, see Config LPD level in the CLI Reference section of the xPico 600 Software User Guide.
  • For XML, see configgroup LPD in the XML Reference section of the xPico 600 Software User Guide.
Setting Description
Banner Enables or disables printing of the banner page with the print job.
Binary When enabled, the entire file is passed to the printer. When disabled, only valid ASCII characters and control characters (tab, linefeed, formfeed, backspace, and newline) are passed to the printer.
SOJ Text This is the Start Of Job string sent to the printer at the start of the print job. Non-printable characters must be represented in decimal or hexadecimal and must be enclosed in square braces and separated by commas. To specify an open square brace, use two in a row. For example AB[255,0xFF]C[[D] results in AB..C[D].
EOJ Text This is the End Of Job string sent to the printer at the end of the print job. Non-printable characters must be represented in decimal or hexadecimal and must be enclosed in square braces and separated by commas. To specify an open square brace, use two in a row. For example AB[255,0xFF]C[[D] results in AB..C[D].
Formfeed When enabled, a formfeed will be sent to the printer at the end of each print job.
Convert Newline When enabled, single newlines and single carriage returns will be converted into DOS-style carriage return and linefeed line endings. If carriage return and linefeed characters are already in the correct DOS line-ending order, they will remain unchanged.

Use Case: Send a print job from a Windows PC using LPD

This example sends a print job from a Windows PC to the xPico 600 gateway using LPD. The instructions have been validated in Windows 10.

Step 1 - Set up the gateway

  1. In Web Manager, go to LPD > Configuration.
  2. Type testQueueName in Queue Name and click Submit.
  3. Click Line > Line 1 > Configuration.
  4. Set Protocol to LPD and click Submit.

Step 2 - Add a printer in Windows

  1. From a Windows 10 PC, open Printers & scanners in Settings.
  2. Click Add a printer or scanner.
  3. Click The printer that I want isn't listed when it appears after a few seconds.
  4. In the Add Printer dialog, select Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname and click Next.
  5. Type the IP address of your xPico gateway in Hostname or IP address. Uncheck Query the printer and automatically select the driver to use. Click Next.
  6. Under Device Type, select Custom and click Settings.
  7. Set the Protocol to LPR and click OK.
  8. Click Next.
  9. To choose a driver, under Manufacturer select Generic and under Printers select Generic / Text Only. Click Next.
  10. Select Use the driver that is currently installed (recommended). Click Next.
  11. In Printer name, type xPico 600.
  12. Choose whether to share the printer and click Next.
  13. A dialog box with the option to print a test page will appear. Leave this dialog box open while continuing to the next step.

Step 3 - Connect using a terminal and view print job

  1. Connect the xPico 600 gateway to the PC using a serial cable.
  2. On the PC, open a terminal such as Tera Term and connect to the device using serial.
  3. In the Add Printer dialog, click Print a test page and view the test page in the terminal.