Please separate automatically discovered remote printers from locally configured printers

[Martin Pitt]

The main reason why Debian/Ubuntu does not enable automatic use of network printers broadcasted by remote CUPS servers by default is that there is no way to tell apart locally configured (and thus trusted) printers from those which got advertized by remote CUPS servers (and thus open the possibility of luring someone into printing confidential material onto a rogue network printer).

E. g. I have a locally configured "local_ps" printer, and an ML-1610 configured on a remote server which appears through cups browsing detection. The print dialog currently looks like this:

  http://people.ubuntu.com/~pitti/screenshots/print_dialog_gtk.png

the printers look exactly the same, I have no way to tell which ones can be considered trusted. It would be great to separate the locally configured from the remotely detected ones:

  |_| Print to file |
  Locally configured printers:
  |=| HP DeskJet 123 | room 10 |
  |=| Samsung Foo Color | |
  Automatically detected remote printers:
  |=| ML-1610 | dagobert |

Locally configured and automatically discovered remote printers can be told apart with the CUPS_PRINTER_DISCOVERED flag (see cups/cups.h).

<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Printing#listing>: "whenever available printers are listed, they should be listed in up to two sections: * Whenever at least one manually configured printer is available, a section beginning with an insensitive item, “Configured printers”. * Whenever at least one broadcast printer is available, a section beginning with an insensitive item, “Discovered printers”."

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

I also filed it at the upstream Qt tracker, but did not get a ticket ID/URL. Maybe they need to approve it, or something.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

http://trolltech.com/developer/task-tracker/index_html?method=entry&id=240319

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The bug didn't get any change in 1.5 years, pitti do you still work on it? Or should that one be unassigned?

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Sebastien Bacher [2010-08-16 11:43 -0000]:
> The bug didn't get any change in 1.5 years, pitti do you still work on
> it?

If someone else wants to work on it, please go ahead. I'd still like
to keep it on my radar as a pet bug.

Martin

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I have changed the formulation of the subject and description somewhat to make more clear what is requested. It also looks like that it is rather simple to implement, so I have awarded this report with the paper cut status.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Attached the screenshot of the bug description, to keep it conserved for the case that it gets later removed from its original location.

[Adam York (aaylnx)]

Not a developer - just a regular user hoping that this bug will get fixed since it places a big roadblock in front of new users who do not know about: click "Server", click "Settings", click "Show printers shared by other systems" option. Glad to see its been moved to a papercut. Hopeful for Natty.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Taking for design.

A quick dump of ideas to start with:
- use the same emblem for untrusted printers as for untrusted .deb packages in Ubuntu Software Center
- a /!\ emblem (but Mac uses that for printers that seem to be offline)
- a shield emblem
- the passport-holding dude from Firefox's security warnings
- in the Print dialog, don't list untrusted printers directly, but finish the printer menu with "Set Up Another Printer… (3 detected)"
- prefix the name with "(Untrusted)"

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Here's how we shouldn't do it: http://screenshotsofdespair.tumblr.com/post/49449036514/aslaneatsapples-i-dont-even-know-anymore

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

*Unix's Rule of Silence*
If there isn't any important thing to say, nothing shall be said.

El 29/05/13 19:23, Matthew Paul Thomas escribió:
> Here's how we shouldn't do it:
> http://screenshotsofdespair.tumblr.com/post/49449036514/aslaneatsapples-i
> -dont-even-know-anymore
>

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Specification updated. <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Printing?action=diff&rev2=23&rev1=21>