Using the Novell iPrint client from Ubuntu Karmic
	Part X. Debian (sometimes also Ubuntu)

Using the Novell iPrint client from Ubuntu Karmic

Jurjen Bokma

January 2010

We use Ubuntu Karmic on the desktop, and our printer servers have Novell iPrint. With a bit of trouble, we can offer our users the convenience of using the iPrint client, so that they may install printers in a few clicks.

Note

The iPrint client for linux is available from our iPrint server. However, the server deals out clients that work on a SuSE version that uses CUPS 1.3, but they fail on Karmic, with a message the request contained bad syntax. Now if we turn tracing on in /etc/opt/novell/iprint/libiprint.conf, then the output of /opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprntcmd -a ipp://192.168.5.30/ipp/Some-Printer suggests that it is the communication with the local CUPS daemon that fails. And it happens that Karmic comes with CUPS 1.4. So I tried to use the newest iPrint client that I could find, in the hopes that it would be able to handel CUPS 1.4. It turned out it does.

	Note
	This is a bit of a quick writeup. If you don't know how to handle Alien, and packaging in general, you may want to read around first.

Preparing a machine to do the packaging on
We have an unattended install that sets up Ubuntu Karmic. For the purpose of packaging, we need a few extra packages on it:
sudo apt-get install build-essential alien
Getting the iPrint client
I went to my colleague who runs the Novell iPrint server, and got novell-iprint-xclient-sh-6.502.20090929-1.x86_64.rpm, intended for SLED-11. I wouldn't know where to fetch it on the Web.
Converting the rpm to deb

sudo alien --to-deb --generate --scripts --keep-version --fixperms novell-iprint-xclient.x86_64.rpm error: incorrect format: unknown tag Directories novell-iprint-xclient-sl-6.502.20090929 and novell-iprint-xclient-sl-6.502.20090929.orig prepared.
This generates directories owned by root, but we change their ownership to an ordinary user, then cd into one:
chown -R me:me ./ cd novell-iprint-xclient-sl-6.502.20090929
Creating the package
The iPrint client seems to depend on libglitz1 and xulrunner-1.3.1 (or equivalent), so we edit debian/control to reflect these dependencies.
```
<snip>
Package: novell-iprint-xclient-sl
Architecture: amd64
Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, xulrunner, libglitz1
Description: Mozilla Plug-In and Shared Library for iPrint
Novell iPrint is a printing solution that enables you to send documents
to printers located throughout the network.  Using Internet
<snip>
	
```
We also modify the {pre,post}{inst,rm} scripts a bit: mostly all is commented out in preinst and {pre,post}rm, and in postinst we add a snippet that sets FIRST_ARG to 1. Then we set a few environment variables, and since Alien doesn't honor them, we change them in a few files before running debuild:
export DEBEMAIL='j.bokma@rug.nl' export DEBFULLNAME='Jurjen Bokma' sed -i 's%jurjen@host\.some\.network%j\.bokma@rug\.nl%g' debian/changelog sed -i 's%jurjen@host\.some\.network%j\.bokma@rug\.nl%g' debian/control debuild dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -D -us -uc dpkg-buildpackage: set CFLAGS to default value: -g -O2 dpkg-buildpackage: set CPPFLAGS to default value: dpkg-buildpackage: set LDFLAGS to default value: -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions dpkg-buildpackage: set FFLAGS to default value: -g -O2 dpkg-buildpackage: set CXXFLAGS to default value: -g -O2 dpkg-buildpackage: source package novell-iprint-xclient-sl dpkg-buildpackage: source version 6.502.20090929-1 dpkg-buildpackage: source changed by Jurjen Bokma <j.bokma@rug.nl> dpkg-buildpackage: host architecture amd64 fakeroot debian/rules clean dh_testdir dh_testroot dh_clean -d dpkg-source -b novell-iprint-xclient-sl-6.502.20090929 dpkg-source: info: using source format `1.0' dpkg-source: info: building novell-iprint-xclient-sl in novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.502.20090929.orig.tar.gz dpkg-source: info: building novell-iprint-xclient-sl in novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.502.20090929-1.diff.gz dpkg-source: warning: file novell-iprint-xclient-sl-6.502.20090929/debian/postinst has no final newline (either original or modified version) dpkg-source: warning: file novell-iprint-xclient-sl-6.502.20090929/debian/preinst has no final newline (either original or modified version) dpkg-source: warning: file novell-iprint-xclient-sl-6.502.20090929/debian/prerm has no final newline (either original or modified version) dpkg-source: warning: file novell-iprint-xclient-sl-6.502.20090929/debian/postrm has no final newline (either original or modified version) dpkg-source: warning: missing information for output field Standards-Version dpkg-source: info: building novell-iprint-xclient-sl in novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.502.20090929-1.dsc debian/rules build dh_testdir fakeroot debian/rules binary dh_testdir dh_testdir dh_testroot dh_clean -k -d dh_installdirs dh_installdocs dh_installchangelogs find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name debian -print0 | \ xargs -0 -r -i cp -a {} debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl dh_compress dh_fixperms dh_makeshlibs dh_installdeb dh_shlibdeps dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/lib64/libiprint.so.1.0.0 contains an unresolvable reference to symbol xmlFreeTextReader: it's probably a plugin. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: 17 other similar warnings have been skipped (use -v to see them all). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/lib/libiprint-ui.so.1.0.0 contains an unresolvable reference to symbol g_free: it's probably a plugin. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: 9 other similar warnings have been skipped (use -v to see them all). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/npnipp.so contains an unresolvable reference to symbol g_str_hash: it's probably a plugin. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: 11 other similar warnings have been skipped (use -v to see them all). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/lib/libiprint.so.1.0.0 contains an unresolvable reference to symbol xmlFreeTextReader: it's probably a plugin. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: 17 other similar warnings have been skipped (use -v to see them all). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: couldn't find library libxul.so needed by debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin.so (ELF format: 'elf64-x86-64'; RPATH: '/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-suse-linux/4.1.2'). Note: libraries are not searched in other binary packages that do not have any shlibs or symbols file. To help dpkg-shlibdeps find private libraries, you might need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: couldn't find library libxpcom.so needed by debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin.so (ELF format: 'elf64-x86-64'; RPATH: '/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-suse-linux/4.1.2'). Note: libraries are not searched in other binary packages that do not have any shlibs or symbols file. To help dpkg-shlibdeps find private libraries, you might need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprint-listener-gui contains an unresolvable reference to symbol xmlTextWriterEndElement: it's probably a plugin. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: 16 other similar warnings have been skipped (use -v to see them all). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/lib64/libiprint-ui.so.1.0.0 contains an unresolvable reference to symbol g_free: it's probably a plugin. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: 9 other similar warnings have been skipped (use -v to see them all). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/npnipp32.so contains an unresolvable reference to symbol g_str_hash: it's probably a plugin. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: 11 other similar warnings have been skipped (use -v to see them all). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: couldn't find library libxul.so needed by debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin32.so (ELF format: 'elf32-i386'; RPATH: '/usr/lib/gcc/i586-suse-linux/4.1.2'). Note: libraries are not searched in other binary packages that do not have any shlibs or symbols file. To help dpkg-shlibdeps find private libraries, you might need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: couldn't find library libxpcom.so needed by debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin32.so (ELF format: 'elf32-i386'; RPATH: '/usr/lib/gcc/i586-suse-linux/4.1.2'). Note: libraries are not searched in other binary packages that do not have any shlibs or symbols file. To help dpkg-shlibdeps find private libraries, you might need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH. dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libplc4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libplc4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libplc4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libnspr4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libnspr4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libnspr4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libplds4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libplds4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: Can't extract name and version from library name `libplds4.so' dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: dependency on libplc4.so could be avoided if "debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin.so debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin32.so" were not uselessly linked against it (they use none of its symbols). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: dependency on libxml2.so.2 could be avoided if "debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprint-listener debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprntcmd debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/lib64/libiprint.so.1.0.0 debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/usr/lib64/cups/backend/iprint debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/lib/libiprint.so.1.0.0 debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprint-listener-gui" were not uselessly linked against it (they use none of its symbols). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: dependency on libplds4.so could be avoided if "debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin.so debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin32.so" were not uselessly linked against it (they use none of its symbols). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: dependency on libgcc_s.so.1 could be avoided if "debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin.so debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin32.so" were not uselessly linked against it (they use none of its symbols). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: dependency on libgmodule-2.0.so.0 could be avoided if "debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprint-listener debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprint-ppdeditor debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/bin/iprint-listener-gui" were not uselessly linked against it (they use none of its symbols). dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: dependency on libnspr4.so could be avoided if "debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin.so debian/novell-iprint-xclient-sl/opt/novell/iprint/plugin/libiprint-plugin32.so" were not uselessly linked against it (they use none of its symbols). dh_gencontrol dh_md5sums dh_builddeb dpkg-deb: building package `novell-iprint-xclient-sl' in `../novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.502.20090929-1_amd64.deb'. dpkg-genchanges >../novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.502.20090929-1_amd64.changes dpkg-genchanges: including full source code in upload dpkg-buildpackage: full upload (original source is included) Now signing changes and any dsc files... Could not find a signing program (pgp or gpg)! debuild: fatal error at line 1255: running debsign failed
Signing and uploading
Since the build host doesn't contain my pgp keys, signing fails, so I copy the generated files to another machine and sign and upload from there:
debsign novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.502.20090929-1_amd64.changes dupload -t my-repository novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.502.20090929-1.dsc
Installing the package
With my repository in the sources.list, installing is simple:
apt-get update sudo apt-get install novell-iprint-xclient-sl Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: libglitz1 The following NEW packages will be installed: libglitz1 novell-iprint-xclient-sl 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded. Need to get 601kB of archives. After this operation, 2,138kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y Get:1 http://osmirror.rug.nl karmic/main libglitz1 0.5.6-1 [88.5kB] Get:2 http://myrepo.rug.nl jaunty/experimental novell-iprint-xclient-sl 6.502.20090929-1 [512kB] Fetched 601kB in 0s (2,260kB/s) Selecting previously deselected package libglitz1. (Reading database ... 220151 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking libglitz1 (from .../libglitz1_0.5.6-1_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package novell-iprint-xclient-sl. Unpacking novell-iprint-xclient-sl (from .../novell-iprint-xclient-sl_6.502.20090929-1_amd64.deb) ... cat: /etc/SuSE-release: No such file or directory Processing triggers for ureadahead ... Setting up libglitz1 (0.5.6-1) ... Setting up novell-iprint-xclient-sl (6.502.20090929-1) ... /var/lib/dpkg/info/novell-iprint-xclient-sl.postinst: line 67: test: configure: integer expression expected Note: * Exit and restart all instances of your Web browser before installing the printers. * Run the iPrint Launcher from the applications menu, if you want to install/use a secure printer without re-login or rebooting your system. Processing triggers for libc-bin ... ldconfig deferred processing now taking place

Note
Yes, the repository is wrongly named, and yes, the {pre,post}{install,rm} scripts should be cleaned up. Especially removing the package results in an ugly mess.
Using iPrint
The user can surf to the printer list on the iPrint server's webpage. Click a printer, have it installed.
Note
The Linux driver of the printer has to be installed though, and the user must have permission to add printers to the local CUPS server.

	Note
	Yes, the repository is wrongly named, and yes, the {pre,post}{install,rm} scripts should be cleaned up. Especially removing the package results in an ugly mess.

	Note
	The Linux driver of the printer has to be installed though, and the user must have permission to add printers to the local CUPS server.


Figuring out Critical Debian-Installer questions		Upgrading Landscape