Ubuntu Wiki

• Launchpad Entry: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/printer-driver-auto-download-service

• Created: 2008-12-3 by Till Kamppeter https://launchpad.net/people/till-kamppeter

• Contributors:

• Packages affected: Printing Infrastructure

Summary

Ubuntu Linux (and probably also Fedora and Mandriva, as they also use system-config-printer) has the infrastructure for automatically downloading printer drivers through the Internet from the OpenPrinting we site since Intrepid. For now it only downloads PPD files and packages of PPD files, no packages of binary executables. To automatically download binary executable packages by default, as printer drivers from the printer's manufacturers for their non-Postscript models, it must be assured that these packages which do not come from Ubuntu do not break the user's system and do not introduce any malware.

This means at first that we need to provide proper, secure signing of the packages on the OpenPrinting server by the printer manufacturers who issued the drivers and distributions need to include the keys. In addition, the printer manufacturers who upload their drivers to OpenPrinting must take the responsability over their uploads. This responsability cannot be taken by OpenPrinting or the Linux Foundation.

This way we assure that the drivers are really from the respective manufacturers and that the Linux Foundation is not liable for any problem caused by the driver packages.

We will discuss here the requirements of Ubuntu to accept the binary driver packages from the printer manufacturers auto-downloaded from the OpenPrinting web site. There will be also participating Theodore Tso from the Linux Foundation and George Liu from Ricoh.

Rationale

Most printers need model-specific drivers. Under Windows and Mac OS the manufacturers provide driver packages on CDs which come with the printers and also on their own web sites. They usual;ly provide one driver package for Windows and one for Mac OS. There are also forms of having automatic download on these operating systems. We also want to have autommatic download on Linux, but it should be done in a securte way.

Use cases

• LaserStar Electronics in Japan wants to publish Linux/Unix printer drivers for their wide range of printers, beginning from 30-EUR-cheapo inkjets over 256-ink high-end photo-printers, up to 30-pages-per-second color laser office multi-function devices. They want to make it as easy as possible for their customers to get their drivers, independent which distribution they are using and whether their printer is newer than the distribution which they are using. It should be as easy as possible to get the driver. Simply plugging the printer in and doing some mouse clicks should be sufficient that the driver gets downloaded and installed. They want to be sure that really their driver package arrives on the cusomer's machine and no man-in-the-middle attack happens on the way.

Scope

All Linux distributions and perhaps all Posix-style operating systems.

Implementation

The client side code for automatic driver download is already implemented in Ubuntu, only a small configuration change has to be done so that Ubuntu also auto-downloads packages with binary executables.

Outstanding issues

• Binary printer driver packages to be auto-downloaded must come from the printer manufacturers and they must be signed by them.
• Responsability on driver packages must be taken by the printer manufacturers.

• Appropriate key to verify the packages downloaded from OpenPrinting needs to be included in the Ubuntu distribution.

BoF agenda and discussion

• Participants (at least): Till Kamppeter, Theodore Tso, George Liu, Martin Pitt
• Discussion of the Outstanding issues

Acknowledgments

We thank especially HP, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Canon, and Epson for the financial support of OpenPrinting.

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