Linux use of an Airport Express/Extreme.

        Hello. Today I had the pleasure of setting up a network printer
connected via an Airport Express basestation (these instructions also
apply to Airport Extreme basestations). To allow Linux (Ubuntu) to
print to this, I did the following:
1) Note the IP. This step could be done away with once
Avahi/mDNS/Bonjour is integrated into Ubuntu a bit better.

2) Add a new printer in CUPS using Network (TCP). This is because the
protocol that the Airport Extreme/Express uses is a JetDirect/TCP
networking protocol. I specified the IP and port first (the IP is given
out via DHCP to that device in a fixed fashion, but mDNS/Bonjour can
fill in if you don't use static IPs for special network devices),

3) Add the specific printer model (in my case, a Samsung ML-2010 that is
always on sale at NCIX).

4) Print test page. It worked like a champ!

I had to fiddle with a few more dialogs in the "add printer" wizard (I
got to this wizard via KDE menu -> System Settings -> Printers, then
clicked into Administrator mode so I could add the new printer).

This is the summary page it generated when I set it up:
   =-=
General
Type: Network printer (TCP)
Name: Samsung_ML-2010
Location: Front room.
Description: SAMSUNG ML-2010

Backend
Printer IP: 192.xxx.xxx.xxx
Port: 9100

Driver
Type: DB driver
Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
Model: ML-2010
Description: Samsung ML-2010 (Foomatic + gdi)
  =-=

        I assume the port allocation stays fixed on my end. It has been noted
to change (one of the bits of info I found on the net was that a guy had
to use port 9101 since port 9100 was not open/listening on his Airport
Extreme). It may vary -- in which case it'll be desire to enable
Ubuntu's Bonjour/mDNS autoconfiguration somehow, since the Airport
devices will advertise the printer name, IP, and port via that
service/protocol. The port is NOT open for listening if the printer is
off, even if it is still connected via USB (the Airport device has no
way of knowing if the printer is present if it's off).

See http://ldopa.net/2006/07/24/linux-airport-printing/ for more details.

        Ironically, this was roughly as hard/easy as it was on the Mac (on the
Mac I had to run the MacOS X Samsung ML-2010 installer and click 2
times, then add the printer via the Bonjour browser).

        There has also been some decent progress in making it possible to
stream music to an Airport Express via Linux. DVD Jon cracked the
method of authenticating to the device as an iTunes client for sending
music, and there are now somewhat mature solutions for sending the audio:

http://raop-play.sourceforge.net/

        There's still no way that I know of for making a Linux machine act as
an AirTunes speaker (which would allow me to stream my music from my
laptop to a Linux machine in another room hooked up to speakers). The
big hurdle here appears to be the encryption key needed to fake the
iTunes clients into believing they are talking to an Aiport Express
basestation (this information should be hidden in the firmware update
binary for the device).

I hope some of you find this information useful :)
Received on Tue Jul 10 04:40:10 2007