juergen
30c685e085
The HL-4150CDN emulates PostScript 3, so CUPS converts client documents to PostScript and forwards them to socket://<ip>:9100. The official BR-Script3 PPD turns device options (tray, duplex, colour, media type, toner save, ...) into setpagedevice instructions. This drops the i386 multiarch runtime and the broken Brother vendor filter chain, and removes the unused Brother Linux packages from the repo.
106 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
106 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
# Design
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## Context
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See proposal.md. We need a Podman container that runs CUPS for the Brother
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HL-4150CDN network printer and shares it over IPP/AirPrint.
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Facts established while exploring the device at `192.168.100.7`:
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- The printer is a Brother HL-4150CDN (`Ver.1.22`) with PCL6 and **BR-Script3
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(PostScript 3)** emulation — `@PJL INFO CONFIG` lists `POSTSCRIPT`.
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- Open services: `:9100` (raw/AppSocket), `:515` (LPR/LPD), `:631` (IPP/IPPS)
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and `:80` (Brother web UI). It has one paper cassette plus the MP tray.
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- A raw PostScript job sent to `:9100` is interpreted by the printer, and a full
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CUPS job with `Duplex=DuplexNoTumble BRPrintQuality=Color` printed correctly
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(duplex, colour).
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An earlier iteration used Brother's Linux packages. That vendor CUPS chain is
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broken in `debian:bookworm-slim`: `filterhl4150cdn` needs `file` (and `a2ps` as
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a fallback), which are absent, so the filter exits 1 and emits zero bytes. That
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chain also rasterises locally (Ghostscript → `ppmraw` → `brhl4150cdnfilter`) and
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stores per-queue options in a single global file (`brhl4150cdnrc`), which is
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heavy and racy. The packages have since been removed from the repository.
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Crucially, the Brother **vendor** PPD (`brhl4150cdn.ppd`) cannot be used for
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direct PostScript because its option values are blank (`" "`); all
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option handling lives in the vendor filter. Brother's **BR-Script3 PPD**, in
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contrast, encodes every option as PostScript `setpagedevice`.
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## Goals / Non-Goals
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**Goals:**
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- Build a working CUPS image for Podman with no 32-bit dependencies.
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- Drive the printer with its native PostScript (BR-Script3) interpreter.
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- Preserve the hardware options the user cares about: paper tray, duplex and
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colour/mono (plus the other options the PPD exposes).
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- Share the queue over IPP and advertise it via AirPrint.
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- Keep the printer address/name runtime-configurable.
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**Non-Goals:**
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- Managing multiple printers.
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- Sharing via SMB/Samba (Windows uses a client-side Brother driver).
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- Persisting CUPS spool/state beyond the container lifecycle.
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- TLS for the CUPS web interface.
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## Decisions
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### Base image and packages
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Use `debian:bookworm-slim` with `cups`, `cups-client`, `cups-filters`,
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`avahi-daemon`, `avahi-utils`, `libnss-mdns`, `dbus`, `ghostscript` and
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`poppler-utils`. No `dpkg --add-architecture i386` and no Brother `.deb`
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packages: the job is converted to PostScript in CUPS and interpreted by the
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printer, so no vendor binary is needed.
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_Alternative considered:_ keep Brother's Linux CUPS wrapper + LPR filter. It
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provides the same options but requires 32-bit libraries, Ghostscript
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rasterisation and the missing `file`/`a2ps` tools, and it writes options to a
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single global config file. Rejected.
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### Print path: direct PostScript via the BR-Script3 PPD
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Install Brother's official BR-Script3 PPD as
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`/usr/share/cups/model/BR4150_2.PPD` (committed at
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`assets/Brother HL-4150CDN/ppd/BR4150_2.PPD`, extracted from the vendor Windows
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driver) and create the queue with it. CUPS's `pstops` filter reads the PPD and
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injects the selected option code (e.g. `/BRFeeder`, `/Duplex`,
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`/BRProcessColor`, `/MediaType`) into the job; the PPD's `*JCLBegin`,
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`*JCLToPSInterpreter` and `*JCLEnd` entries wrap it in PJL. The result is
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forwarded unchanged to the printer.
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A stock PostScript PPD (like CUPS's own `generic.ppd`) has no `*cupsFilter`
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either, and CUPS accepts such PPDs — the printer's native format is
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`application/vnd.cups-postscript`.
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### Device URI
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Use raw AppSocket as the default: `socket://<ip>:9100`. `lpd://<ip>/binary_p1`
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and `ipp://…` remain available through `PRINTER_PROTOCOL`/`PRINTER_URI`.
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### Client support
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- macOS / iOS / iPadOS: AirPrint → CUPS. The queue advertises `image/urf`,
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`image/pwg-raster`, `application/pdf` and `application/postscript`, with
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`urf-supported = V1.4,CP1,W8,PQ4,SRGB24,RS600,DM1,FN3`, `sides-supported`
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(one-sided/two-sided long/short edge) and `color-supported = true`.
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- Linux: IPP / IPP Everywhere, or plain IPP with PDF/PostScript.
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- Windows: client-side Brother BR-Script3 Windows driver, pointed at the
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printer directly or at the shared queue.
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### Runtime configuration
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The printer endpoint and advertised name come from environment variables
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(`PRINTER_IP`, `PRINTER_PROTOCOL`, `PRINTER_URI`, `PRINTER_NAME`,
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`PRINTER_DESCRIPTION`, `PPD_FILE`) rather than being baked into the image. The
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entrypoint derives the URI and runs `lpadmin` on startup, then shares the queue.
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## Risks / Trade-offs
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- [Risk] The AirPrint path (URF → PDF → PostScript) relies on cups-filters'
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`rastertopdf`; it was not exercised with a real URF job during exploration.
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macOS/iOS printing should be verified end to end.
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- [Risk] Colour handling now relies on the printer's PostScript RIP rather than
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Brother's host-side colour tables; output may differ slightly from the vendor
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raster driver.
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- [Risk] The committed PPD is a Windows PPD and contains no CUPS-specific keys.
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CUPS accepts it as a PostScript PPD (verified for this CUPS version), but this
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should be re-checked on CUPS upgrades.
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- [Risk] Avahi needs host networking (or equivalent) to advertise mDNS.
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- [Risk] CUPS state is not persisted; the queue is recreated on every start.
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