Wow! Granny, you indeed know your printing and so many workarounds.
I don't know that much about printing and especially CUPS. All I know is what I've had to deal with. I tend to do a lot of computer things by rote and afterward I have a hard time explaining what I did.
I can see how my interest in photography would benefit by trying to learn as much as you have. The operative word is TRYING. :-).
I'm not a good photographer, though I have a nice digital camera and take lots of pictures of grandchildren and other family when they're around. I don't usually print photos. Too expensive compared with just taking the file to a photo kiosk in a store and having the prints made--and on good photo paper, to boot. Photo paper for a home printer is very expensive and when you add in the considerable cost of ink, it's cheaper by far to have a photo service do the printing. If you're interested in photography, the Gimp is what you want to learn. Big learning curve for the Gimp but you can do all sorts of wonderful things with your photos.
The other reason I rarely print photos is that I've decided they look better onscreen. Besides the computer screen itself, I can display the photos on our TVs through their DVD players. I also have a 10" digital frame, which is great for viewing photos instead of having 100 photos in frames all over shelves--the Granny school of decorating, as I call it.<g> I remember my grandmother, dead for 48 years now, had every flat surface covered with family photos. I can achieve the same thing by having the digital frame cycle through these precious photos. I can carry photos around in my Sony Clie PDA--just a small device instead of a wallet loaded with 100 photos. I'm not saying there's no advantage to printed photos in some cases--photos you want to enlarge, for example. But for viewing snapshots, I see many reasons for using digital devices.
I did another install on a Dell Dimension, Pen 2 ,with, lenny also. Using same root and user passwords. Cups, would seem to only see my second install as a network computer and did not give the option to add LPT #1, it just was not on the drop down list or menu. I am guessing Cups knows I already have one printer. In passing, when prompted by Cups, I felt compelled to use root and password, I don't know if could have used my user name and password.
I'm not sure I understand the situation. I do know that when CUPS ask for a username and password, you can use your user name, not root, and user password. Root can always run CUPS and make modifications to installed printers. When you're running CUPS as root, you are telling it what user can do the same.
I assume that when you say a second install on the Dell computer, you want to use your LaserJet that's on lpt1 of the first computer. Yes? Here I run into trouble because I haven't had a printer connected to a parallel port for years. My old LJ4 was connected to a print server, not a parallel port, and my Epson is also connected to a print server. My new LJ P2055dn has built-in networking. I have a Canon inkjet connected to a USB port on one computer. It's the only one not on a print server. Let me investigate a bit more to see if I can figure anything out. CUPS in my two other Linux computers does see that printer.
My question, is there a workaround so that Cups sees my Second Install as a first install?
I'm not sure what you mean. It doesn't matter whether a printer is installed first or later. If the printer is attached to the parallel port of a different computer, you have to install it to something other than LPT1 on the computer you're using because nothing is on LPT1 there. I'm not sure how to do this for a parallel port printer attached to a different computer. Did you publish the LJ6 through CUPS on the printer it's attached to? That's an option in CUPS, Printers. That may make it visible to your second computer. I'm guessing here. Hopefully someone who knows about this will jump in.
I use the same router, on both computers. I tried installing the printer without router and using a modem connection. That did not work.
Have you set up a network? You need to have a different computer name and the same domain name for each computer on the network. An example would be soyo.frank56 and dell.frank56. Your computer names are soyo and dell and frank56 is your domain. "Domain" is used loosely here because it's not a real domain. In Windows it would be called a workgroup. But doing it this way works! If your router is working as a DHCP server, you use DHCP to assign IP addresses to the computers on your network. After you've completed NETCONF in VASMCC, see if you can ping the other computer. In order for your printers to communicate and allow use of a printer attached to just one of them, you have to have your network working. At least, I think that's right. I use fixed IP addresses for the computers and print servers on my home network and I'm not familiar with using DHCP.
I bought this printer at a second hand store, so I don't know its history. I don't even know if the parallel port is dead or working.
If it's not working, I guess there's no hope.<g> If you get the computers talking to each other by successful pings, we can work on getting the printer recognized by the nonattached computer. If those efforts are unsuccessful, the next step might be to attach the printer directly to the parallel port of your other computer and see if you can set it up there. At least you'll know that the parallel port is working. Then you can put it back on the other computer and we'll know we need to do something else to get it working there.
--GrannyGeek
