Sharing local CUPS printers via IPP Everywhere

Since I set up the workplace printer on my machine, it's been working great.

Recently my colleagues asked if I could share the printer so they could print without installing drivers. Thanks to Nix and IPP Everywhere, this wasn't a problem.

Because I have another NixOS machine, I decided to set up the printer there.

The first thing is to enable CUPS and add the printer.

While it's possible to use the web interface manually, there is a better (and declarative) way: hardware.printers. One thing to note is that value for the model field can be found with lpinfo -m.

{ pkgs, ... }:
{
  services.printing = {
    enable = true;
    drivers = [
      pkgs.mccgdi
    ];
  };

  hardware.printers = {
    ensureDefaultPrinter = "Panasonic_KX-MB2138CN";
    ensurePrinters = [
      {
        name = "Panasonic_KX-MB2138CN";
        description = "Panasonic KX-MB2138CN";
        location = "SIST 1B-203";
        model = "panasonic/L_Panasonic-MB2100-gdi.ppd";
        deviceUri = "lpd://10.0.2.15/queue";
      }
    ];
  };
}

Next we need to expose the CUPS service.

{
  services.printing = {
    listenAddresses = [ "*:631" ];
    openFirewall = true;
    allowFrom = [ "all" ];
  };
}

The last thing is to enable sharing on the server and actually share the printer, which can be done on the command line.

cupsctl -E --share-printers --remote-any
lpadmin -E -p Panasonic_KX-MB2138CN -o printer-is-shared=true

Now the printer is ready to be added as a IPP Everywhere printer through the web interface with URL ipp://10.0.2.16/printers/Panasonic_KX-MB2138CN, or it can be added using the same way as above.

{
  hardware.printers = {
    ensureDefaultPrinter = "Panasonic_KX-MB2138CN";
    ensurePrinters = [
      {
        name = "Panasonic_KX-MB2138CN";
        description = "Panasonic KX-MB2138CN";
        location = "SIST 1B-203";
        model = "everywhere";
        deviceUri = "ipp://10.0.2.16/printers/Panasonic_KX-MB2138CN";
      }
    ];
  };
}