Install Printer Driver on Steam Deck (CUPS)

18. February 2023

This script allows you to print from the steam deck to any local printer on your network. After installing, please open your browser with: http://localhost:631/admin there you can “Add Printer”, after that you can now easily print from your steam deck.

Thanks LittleJawa for the script! Edit: I fixed the Parameters (there were to much spaces) and added some files that need to be removed if you need to reinstall cups because of steam deck update.


sudo steamos-readonly disable

# Delete old files if persistent because you had cups prev. installed before
sudo rm /etc/cups/cups-files.conf.default
sudo rm /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.default
sudo rm /etc/cups/snmp.conf.default
sudo rm /etc/xdg/autostart/print-applet.desktop
sudo rm /etc/cupshelpers/preferreddrivers.xml

# initialize and populate pacman PGP keys

sudo pacman-key –init
sudo pacman-key –populate holo
sudo pacman-key –populate archlinux

# CUPS + KDE printer manager GUI
PACKAGES="cups print-manager system-config-printer"

# Auto-discovery via DNS
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Avahi#Hostname_resolution
PACKAGES="$PACKAGES nss-mdns"

# WARNING: requires to update the /etc/nsswitch.conf file
# use the following:
# sed -i s/mymachines resolve/mymachines mdns_minimal
#[NOTFOUND=return] resolve/ /etc/nsswitch.conf

# Optionals (helpful)
# foomatic pre-built ppd drivers
PACKAGES="$PACKAGES foomatic-db-engine foomatic-db-ppds foomatic-db-nonfree-ppds"

# ghostscript for non-pdf printers
PACKAGES="$PACKAGES ghostscript"

# cups-filters for driverless printers
PACKAGES="$PACKAGES cups-filters"

sudo pacman -Sy $PACKAGES

sudo systemctl enable --now avahi-daemon
sudo systemctl enable --now cups

# re-lock the filesystem
sudo steamos-readonly enable

Edit: Updated on 03.11.2024 (Added: sudo pacman-key –populate holo)

Categories:

Linux

Tags:

30 responses

Julian

8. April 2023

This is absolutely big. Thank you a lot for it! I’m a firm believer that Valve should add printer services in future updates, but until then, I’ll use this 🙂

Reply
Jeuris C Rodriguez

6. May 2023

Everything installed correctly, I just dont know what to do when it prompts for username and password. Is there a way to disable this ? Thank you in advance

Reply
1. deckplosion
  
  7. May 2023
  
  Which prompt? Have you set a password for the user “deck”? If not you can do this by opening a shell and type “passwd”. Or which user/password prompt are you refering to?
  
  Reply
Deejay

13. May 2023

When I select Add Printer local host:631 asks for username/Password.

Reply
1. Nathan
  
  5. June 2023
  
  You will probably want to use “deck” as the username, and whatever you set for your sudo password
  
  Reply
Gilladur

1. June 2023

I needed also to remove after the latest update
/etc/cupshelpers/preferreddrivers.xml
and added
sudo rm /etc/cupshelpers/preferreddrivers.xml
to the script

Reply
1. deckplosion
  
  5. June 2023
  
  Thanks I will add it to the script!
  
  Reply
JeFe_RoJo

12. July 2023

Thank you very much, everything has been installed correctly.

However, in my case, I have a canon MP495 connected by wifi to the network and the deck does not detect it.
I understand that the driver is missing or is “too old to be supported”.

Reply
Ben

18. July 2023

Worked for me. The hard part was getting my Brother HL-L2340D working. USB connection did not work, no driver shown and none of the others I tried work. But WIFI connection did work, and CUPS found a driver for the printer:

“HL-L2340D series – IPP Everywhere (grayscale, 2-sided printing)”

It’s slow as sin to get, process, and print, but it works.

Reply
anewark

3. August 2023

I print from my Deck to a CUPS print server I have. After running this script I could add the printer successfully, but when printing the job would not process on, showing the job as “Held for authentication”. To fix this, I had to run the two commands below to get it to work.

cupsctl –share-printers –remote-any
lpadmin -p printer -o printer-is-shared=true

Source -> http://localhost:631/help/sharing.html?TOPIC=Getting+Started&QUERY=

Reply
1. deckplosion
  
  6. August 2023
  
  Thanks for sharing!
  
  Reply
RatherNotSay

14. August 2023

Hay seems your providing alot of help on this so I was wondering if you would know why firefox keeps crashing after I go to print the document I want to print. I used the script, logged into the site, added my printer, rather flawlessly might I add, but I am kind of stumped. I’m going to try messing with the printer settings on the website to see if I can’t fix it but still wanna leave this here in-case someone else is having this issue.

Reply
Vigsterkr

18. August 2023

Jobs just show as stopped, I think this does not work for my samsung, how do I uninstall this completely?

Thank you

Reply
Thomas

22. September 2023

Hello
Im lost on PPD files as I’m looking for one that works with a HP LaserJet M506. Best I can find is an all in one file from HP but when I try to download it asks for a distro. Most of the files come up with a .run file witch I have no idea how to use.
Will someone help me.

Reply
1. FlagCourier
  
  30. October 2023
  
  A run file is most likely just a bash script. You can verify this by opening it with Kate.
  
  Though, you can also install hp lip to cover most HP printers. Add it to the packages list, and you should be good.
  
  When in doubt, Arch Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CUPS/Printer-specific_problems
  
  Reply
Mattias

11. November 2023

If anyone else having issues with error
“signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust”, try adding the following line to the script (where the other pacman init lines are)

“sudo pacman-key –populate holo”

Reply
Genesis

24. November 2023

After updating to Steam OS 3.5.5 most of packages became corrupted, hoping you can update this script for it to work again.

Reply
Chromium

8. December 2023

I tried that script, but it says during installation, that all packages are corrupted and deletes them again.
Can anybody help here?

Reply
1. mikmikmikmik
  
  1. January 2024
  
  I have not had your issue, it just does what it is supposed to do.
  
  Reply
2. Nick
  
  24. March 2024
  
  Seems this has fallen off a bit. Just got my steam deck, ran this script. Same issue. Seems like this was once a great thing but now back to the drawing board. I am having the same issues you were having back in December.
  
  Reply
Shaz

29. December 2023

Hi!

Very new to all of this, and getting the following error:

error: qpdf: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/qpdf-11.4.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).

Any help would be much Appreciated!

Reply
mikmikmikmik

1. January 2024

At the top of the script, I put these words for myself in case I lost my Epson network printer after an OS update:

#https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/2/3273562123582957766/?l=greek&ctp=6
#https://deckplosion.de/install-printer-driver-on-steam-deck/
#https://wiki.debian.org/CUPSDriverlessPrinting

# After an OS update, this script has to be likely executed again as sudo /home/deck/Desktop/EnablePrinting_HAveToReDoAfterEveryOSupdate.sh
# If printer not found then
# Edit /etc/cups/cups-browsed.conf to set the CreateIPPPrinterQueues line to Driverless and restart cups-browsed::::
# sudo systemctl restart cups-browsed
# Can use http://localhost:631 after this script for more cups info but does not show current printer.
# lpstat -p -d should now show the printer. In my case my Epson printer.
# Could also use the command driverless list to show any printer that is advertising itself as driverless.
# Could also used the command lpinfo -v to see other advertised services by the printer.

Reply
Ben

4. January 2024

With SteamOS 3.5 I had to add:

pacman-key –populate holo

I was getting SSL errors before that.

Reply
Amayak

8. January 2024

I can’t connect to the printer HP LaserJet Professional M1214nfh MFP. I can’t find the PPD file.

Reply
LAR Games

14. January 2024

Same thing happened to me. Lots of corrupted files, apparently.

Reply
bebox

16. January 2024

Same for me.

Reply
dnkmmr

6. March 2024

I got this error
(deck@steamdeck var)$ /home/deck/Desktop/install-cups
[sudo] password for deck:
==> Appending keys from archlinux.gpg…
==> Updating trust database…
gpg: next trustdb check due at 2024-04-10
pacman-key: invalid option — ‘–’
:: Synchronizing package databases…
jupiter-3.5 is up to date
holo-3.5 is up to date
core-3.5 is up to date
extra-3.5 is up to date
community-3.5 is up to date
multilib-3.5 is up to date
warning: nss-mdns-0.15.1-1 is up to date — reinstalling
warning: ghostscript-10.01.1-1 is up to date — reinstalling
resolving dependencies…
looking for conflicting packages…

Packages (27) libexif-0.6.24-2 perl-alien-build-2.80-1 perl-alien-libxml2-0.19-1 perl-capture-tiny-0.48-6 perl-clone-0.46-1 perl-dbi-1.643-4
perl-ffi-checklib-0.31-2 perl-file-chdir-0.1011-4 perl-file-which-1.27-2 perl-path-tiny-0.144-1 perl-xml-libxml-2.0208-1
perl-xml-namespacesupport-1.12-5 perl-xml-sax-1.02-1 perl-xml-sax-base-1.09-5 python-cairo-1.23.0-6 python-pycups-2.0.1-6
python-pycurl-7.45.2-3 qpdf-11.4.0-1 cups-1:2.4.5-1 cups-filters-1.28.17-4 foomatic-db-engine-4:20220521-1
foomatic-db-nonfree-ppds-3:20230402-1 foomatic-db-ppds-3:20230402-1 ghostscript-10.01.1-1 nss-mdns-0.15.1-1 print-manager-23.04.2-1
system-config-printer-1.5.18-2

Total Download Size: 79.07 MiB
Total Installed Size: 171.00 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 127.39 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
:: Retrieving packages…
perl-alien-build-2.80-1-any 374.2 KiB 515 KiB/s 00:01 [#######################################################] 100%
qpdf-11.4.0-1-x86_64 955.7 KiB 1304 KiB/s 00:01 [#######################################################] 100%
system-config-printer-1.5.18-2-x86_64 1285.0 KiB 1669 KiB/s 00:01 [#######################################################] 100%
print-manager-23.04.2-1-x86_64 457.3 KiB 584 KiB/s 00:01 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-dbi-1.643-4-x86_64 708.0 KiB 850 KiB/s 00:01 [#######################################################] 100%
libexif-0.6.24-2-x86_64 483.7 KiB 576 KiB/s 00:01 [#######################################################] 100%
foomatic-db-engine-4:20220521-1-x86_64 209.1 KiB 3.24 MiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
cups-filters-1.28.17-4-x86_64 856.1 KiB 995 KiB/s 00:01 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-xml-libxml-2.0208-1-x86_64 263.6 KiB 2.03 MiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
python-pycurl-7.45.2-3-x86_64 102.6 KiB 1333 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
foomatic-db-nonfree-ppds-3:20230402-1-any 159.8 KiB 1258 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-xml-sax-1.02-1-any 41.8 KiB 734 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-path-tiny-0.144-1-any 46.2 KiB 660 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
python-cairo-1.23.0-6-x86_64 94.5 KiB 675 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-xml-sax-base-1.09-5-any 23.5 KiB 500 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
python-pycups-2.0.1-6-x86_64 59.6 KiB 390 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-capture-tiny-0.48-6-any 17.7 KiB 264 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-file-which-1.27-2-any 12.1 KiB 228 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
nss-mdns-0.15.1-1-x86_64 11.1 KiB 185 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-ffi-checklib-0.31-2-any 15.8 KiB 94.5 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-file-chdir-0.1011-4-any 10.6 KiB 186 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-alien-libxml2-0.19-1-any 9.3 KiB 93.0 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
cups-1:2.4.5-1-x86_64 5.2 MiB 3.85 MiB/s 00:01 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-xml-namespacesupport-1.12-5-any 11.7 KiB 40.2 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
perl-clone-0.46-1-x86_64 10.5 KiB 44.2 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################################] 100%
ghostscript-10.01.1-1-x86_64 19.7 MiB 9.94 MiB/s 00:02 [#######################################################] 100%
foomatic-db-ppds-3:20230402-1-any 48.1 MiB 13.8 MiB/s 00:03 [#######################################################] 100%
Total (27/27) 79.1 MiB 22.4 MiB/s 00:04 [#######################################################] 100%
(27/27) checking keys in keyring [#######################################################] 100%
(27/27) checking package integrity [#######################################################] 100%
error: qpdf: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/qpdf-11.4.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: libexif: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libexif-0.6.24-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: cups-filters: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/cups-filters-1.28.17-4-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: cups: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/cups-1:2.4.5-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: print-manager: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/print-manager-23.04.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: python-pycups: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/python-pycups-2.0.1-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: python-pycurl: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/python-pycurl-7.45.2-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: python-cairo: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/python-cairo-1.23.0-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: system-config-printer: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/system-config-printer-1.5.18-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: nss-mdns: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/nss-mdns-0.15.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-capture-tiny: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-capture-tiny-0.48-6-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-ffi-checklib: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-ffi-checklib-0.31-2-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-file-chdir: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-file-chdir-0.1011-4-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-file-which: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-file-which-1.27-2-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-path-tiny: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-path-tiny-0.144-1-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-alien-build: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-alien-build-2.80-1-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-alien-libxml2: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-alien-libxml2-0.19-1-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-xml-sax-base: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-xml-sax-base-1.09-5-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-xml-namespacesupport: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-xml-namespacesupport-1.12-5-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-xml-sax: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-xml-sax-1.02-1-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-xml-libxml: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-xml-libxml-2.0208-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-clone: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-clone-0.46-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: perl-dbi: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/perl-dbi-1.643-4-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: foomatic-db-engine: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/foomatic-db-engine-4:20220521-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: foomatic-db-ppds: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/foomatic-db-ppds-3:20230402-1-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: foomatic-db-nonfree-ppds: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/foomatic-db-nonfree-ppds-3:20230402-1-any.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: ghostscript: signature from “GitLab CI Package Builder ” is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ghostscript-10.01.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: failed to commit transaction (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature))
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
Failed to enable unit: Unit file cups.service does not exist.

Reply
1. Ian balmer
  
  19. May 2024
  
  same here.
  
  Reply
Simon

28. May 2024

I was able to get this working by updating the following lines:

# initialize and populate pacman PGP keys
sudo pacman-key –init
sudo pacman-key –populate holo
sudo pacman-key –populate archlinux

I was then able to access localhost:631 and login with the ‘deck’ user to add my Epson printer.

Hope this helps someone 🙂

Thank you for the original script!

Reply
1. David
  
  17. August 2024
  
  Thank you! This worked for me … big happy smiles!
  
  Just need to remember the commands are have the double –
  
  # initialize and populate pacman PGP keys
  sudo pacman-key –-init
  sudo pacman-key –-populate holo
  sudo pacman-key –-populate archlinux
  
  Reply

Install Printer Driver on Steam Deck (CUPS)

30 responses

Leave a Reply Cancel reply