Add CUPS / Print Support to Desktop

[Diesel]

The desktop mode does not currently ship with an ability to print. Since the file system is immutable we can't easily / permanently install a CUPS service to allow a user to easily connect to a printer. Valve, please add the CUPS service or some other way for us to add a printer.

[xoagray]

Just chiming in here that I'd also love to see printing support on the Steam Deck. I was just using it as my PC the other day (super handy) and was really surprised that just trying to print a recipe I looked up wasn't possible.

[McFly50]

Same here

[Rowan]

As an on again off again user of linux, I was expecting this to be an included service. When I realized it was missing, I went to the storefront to try installing it. This was in September. I fully expected it to be rectified by now (because I had not seen this topic), and when I found this topic, it really had me bothered.

I can understand wanting to streamline gaming and all that. But Not even providing the option to install cups, which I have to do with most distros anyway, really is shortsighted. One would think that by now the number of people posting videos and such of non-gaming related tasks they can do on the Steam Deck would have pushed the ball along.

That being said, it might not even be Valve's fault. It could be that the cups devs have no interest in supporting the Steam Deck, which is a sad thing to consider. As such, I am off to see if it's been brought up on their end, which I'm fairly certain it has been by now

[teh_inquirerer]

Glad to see others are asking for this...

As someone who loves uses the docked Deck as a daily driver, it seems like a silly extra step. Oh well. For now, I'll just transfer the files to my phone and print from there.

+1 for print-manager / CUPS

[Liamness]

Maybe a way around this would be to use Distrobox (it apparently works well[www.phoronix.com] on the Steam Deck) to install and run a more traditionally full featured OS. I expect the desktop mode is always going to have some pain points for general computing use, they need to strike a balance between keeping it being useful but also being lightweight and gaming focused. If I ever try to use the Deck for work I expect the read-only system files to be a huge pain. I don't think I'd ever bother trying to install all the stuff I need in Steam OS, I would just go straight to trying to do it all inside a container!

[L66GLN]

I'd also love the option to be able to Print in Desktop Mode using the Steam Deck.

Just adding a bit more weight to this as it seems logical for people to want to replace their main computers with an 'all-in-one solution', of which the Steam Deck is already 99% there!

Personally, I have a Windows gaming PC, but for people that use the Steam Deck as their main gaming solution (Portable and Docked) AND for every day computer related tasks, this is an absolute requirement.

Not everyone is in the position to be able afford multiple computers or devices, so I think advertising the Steam Deck as having a full-blown Desktop experience could definitely be a little bit misleading.

Considering how the Steam Deck has been received as such a game-changing (pardon the pun) device and has such incredible features, I'd be amazed if this issue wasn't resolved in a future update.

It literally makes zero sense to have such a great device that is capable of so much, to not be able to do something as simple as being able to print things.

[sunspark]

This device can handle having CUPS support for printing included. Valve!

[ghanadaur]

i'm also disappointed in lack of printer support. it's very mature and no reason for it to be left out. I mean it's default in every Linux distro, so they had to strip it out specifically from Arch.

[Minneyar]

Originally posted by L66GLN:

I think advertising the Steam Deck as having a full-blown Desktop experience could definitely be a little bit misleading.

I don't believe it's ever been advertised as that. It's always been marketed primarily as a portable gaming device.

It'd be neat if there was an optional way to install CUPS on the Deck, but the vast majority of users will never use it, so it and all of its dependencies would just be a waste of valuable space, which is especially costly on the 64 GB model.

[ghanadaur]

Originally posted by Minneyar:

It'd be neat if there was an optional way to install CUPS on the Deck, but the vast majority of users will never use it, so it and all of its dependencies would just be a waste of valuable space, which is especially costly on the 64 GB model.

The required cups packages/deps would only be a few megabytes in size. Trivially small IMO. This should not have been stripped from base system.

[dlegrow]

For those who want to utilize the deck as their desktop as well as a gaming platform, printing is essential. Should be a fairly simple add. A bud found a workaround for me, but native support would be great.

[ghanadaur]

As a work around i had to install gnome boxes and download the Ubuntu ISO to run in a VM. Amazing this worked and allowed me to use Ubuntu in a VM and configure printing but absurd i had to do this in the first place. So its powerful enough for a VM host but we don't get native printing? Face palm.

[LittleJawa]

You don't need to do it from a VM - you can install the required components directly.
It's a little tricky, but doable. And it is wiped out everytime the OS is updated. But I made myself a little script that I can run after each update to re-enable it.

Here is what I run:

# Before launching this, you need to set a password for the "deck" user
# run "passwd" from the commandline
# then run the following commands with "sudo"

# disable readonly
steamos-readonly disable

# initialize and populate pacman PGP keys
pacman-key --init
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"

pacman -Sy $PACKAGES

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

# re-lock the filesystem
steamos-readonly enable

# Now, to add a printer: use the GUI from settings, or from your internet browser with http://localhost:631/admin

I definitely think it would be better to have it part of the default OS - but maybe this will help you.

[ghanadaur]

No. I should NOT need to change the immutable fs.

[LittleJawa]

Fine :) Just offering another workaround.

And I agree with your earlier statement: I did not expect that I would have to do any of it. Printing just work in any distribution I used. SteamOS should not be different.
At the very least, I would like an option somewhere to install it, like other non-default software.