Module 10 Review: Printers

Consolidate Your Learning

A review of core printer concepts, from hardware technologies to the modern, driverless printing workflow in CUPS, with activities to reinforce your understanding.
Author

Chuck Nelson

Published

November 17, 2025

1 Purpose

This document provides a comprehensive review of the key concepts covered in the Printers module. Through a series of active learning exercises and review questions, you will solidify your understanding of printer hardware, automatic network discovery, and the modern software processes that make printing work on today’s Linux systems.

2 What You’ll Accomplish

By the end of this review session, you will have:

  • Reinforced your knowledge of different printer types and the laser printing process.
  • Practiced applying concepts of automatic discovery (Bonjour) and driverless printing (IPP).
  • Tested your ability to recall the purpose of key CUPS command-line tools.

3 Active Learning and Engagement

Complete the following exercises to actively engage with the material and deepen your understanding.

3.1 Exercise 1: Concept Mapping

This activity helps you visually organize the key terms and their relationships, strengthening your mental model of the system.

Using a digital tool like draw.io, create a concept map that connects the following terms. Draw lines between related concepts and write a short phrase on the line to describe the relationship.

  • CUPS
  • Spooler
  • Bonjour / mDNS
  • IPP Everywhere
  • Driverless
  • PPD File (Legacy)
  • ippeveprinter
  • lp
  • lpstat
  • lpoptions
  • Fuser Assembly
  • Imaging Drum

3.2 Exercise 2: Scenario Challenge

This activity challenges you to apply your knowledge to a realistic problem, a key skill for any IT professional.

Read the following scenario and write your answers to the questions in your personal notes.

A user gets a new, modern, IPP Everywhere-compliant network printer for their home office. They connect it to their Wi-Fi network. A few moments later, they see a printer named “Office-Printer” automatically appear in their Fedora laptop’s list of printers.

  1. What network protocol was most likely responsible for the printer automatically appearing?
  2. The user wants to see the list of paper sizes and other capabilities that the printer advertised to CUPS. What command could they use to see these options?
  3. To test the printer, the user wants to send a simple text file named report.txt to it. What lp command would they use?
  4. After sending the print job, what command would they use to check its status in the queue?

3.3 Exercise 3: Peer Instruction

This activity helps you solidify your own understanding by explaining concepts to others and hearing their perspectives.

This exercise is for discussion. Find a partner or a small group and choose one of the tabbed sections below. Each person should choose a different topic (A or B) and take a turn explaining it to the others.

Person A explains: The “old” way of printing on Linux (using PPD files). What was the purpose of a PPD file?

Person B explains: The “new” way of printing on Linux (IPP Everywhere). In this model, how does CUPS know what the printer’s capabilities are?

Person A explains: The purpose of the ippeveprinter command in our exercises. What did it simulate?

Person B explains: The purpose of the lpstat command. What are two different pieces of information you can get from it?

Person A explains: The role of Bonjour (mDNS) in the printing process. What problem does it solve?

Person B explains: The role of IPP Everywhere in the printing process. What problem does it solve?

4 Review Questions

Answer the following questions to test your knowledge.

  1. What protocol is primarily responsible for the automatic discovery of printers on a local network?
    1. IPP
    2. CUPS
    3. Bonjour (mDNS)
    4. PPD
  2. When creating a driverless print queue manually with lpadmin, which flag is essential to specify the IPP Everywhere model?
    1. -p
    2. -v
    3. -E
    4. -m everywhere
  3. In a driverless model, where does CUPS get the printer’s capabilities (like paper sizes and quality options) from?
    1. From a PPD file in /etc/cups/ppd/
    2. Directly from the printer device itself over the network
    3. From a central driver database on the internet
    4. From the application that is printing
  4. Which command would you use to see the list of options a printer has advertised, such as available PageSize values?
    1. lpinfo
    2. lpoptions
    3. lp
    4. lpstat
  5. On Fedora, which package provides the ippeveprinter utility?
    1. cups
    2. cups-client
    3. cups-devel
    4. cups-printerapp
  6. Which command-line tool is used to view the status of jobs in the print queue?
    1. lp
    2. lpc
    3. lpstat
    4. lpadmin
  7. During which step of the laser printing process is the toner melted onto the paper by heat and pressure?
    1. Exposing
    2. Transferring
    3. Fusing
    4. Developing
  8. What does IPP stand for?
    1. Internal Print Protocol
    2. Internet Printing Protocol
    3. Instant Printer Provisioning
    4. Integrated Print Processor
  9. Why did we set up ippeveprinter as a persistent systemd --user service?
    1. To ensure it had root permissions.
    2. To make it run automatically on login without needing a dedicated terminal.
    3. To assign it a static IP address.
    4. To connect it to the CUPS web interface.
  10. A user complains of faint, “ghost” images on their laser prints. They have already replaced the toner. What is the next most likely component to suspect?
    1. The laser
    2. The fuser
    3. The imaging drum
    4. The paper tray
    1. Bonjour (mDNS)
    1. -m everywhere
    1. Directly from the printer device itself over the network
    1. lpoptions
    1. cups-printerapp
    1. lpstat
    1. Fusing
    1. Internet Printing Protocol
    1. To make it run automatically on login without needing a dedicated terminal.
    1. The imaging drum

5 Reflect and Review

ImportantFinal Reflection: 3-2-1

You’ve reached the end of the module review. Take a final moment to synthesize your thoughts. In your personal notes, write down:

  • 3 new commands you learned in this module.
  • 2 key differences between legacy (PPD) and modern (IPP) printing.
  • 1 area you still want to review or a question you plan to ask.
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