FreeBSD printing using CUPS (this is assuming a non-postscript printer on the parallel port /dev/lpt0, USB will be /dev/ulpt0): - on FreeBSD 5.3 and 5.4, the kernel may detect an interrupt storm during parellel printing, to avoid this use sysctl hw.intr_storm_threshold=2500 (put this in /etc/sysctl.conf without the word sysctl) - install CUPS (simplest is print/cups metaport) - install gimp-print with option WITH_CUPS=yes (you can place this in /etc/make.conf, /usr/local/etc/pkgtools.conf or similar) - make sure to stop and disable any other printing systems (e.g. lpd_enable in /etc/rc.conf) - make sure CUPS's lp and lpr are used # mv /usr/bin/lp /usr/bin/lp.bak # mv /usr/bin/lpr /usr/bin/lpr.bak # ln -s /usr/local/bin/lp /usr/bin/lp # ln -s /usr/local/bin/lpr /usr/bin/lpr this will cause trouble when upgrading FreeBSD - add to your devfs rules (see e.g. my freebsd-devfs.txt): add path 'lpt0' mode 0600 user cups - set the permissions now # chmod 600 /dev/lpt0 # chown cups /dev/lpt0 - enable CUPS, in /etc/rc.conf put cupsd_enable="YES" - start it now # /usr/local/etc/rc.d/cupsd.sh start - point a web browser at http://localhost:631, by default you can do printer administration with any account in group wheel -- Jilles Tjoelker