[Printing-architecture] Google Summer of Code 2014 - IPP-over-USB printer support - Joint project idea for OpenPrinting and the kernel

[Greg KH]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 01:42:00PM -0500, Michael Sweet wrote:
> Till,
> 
> Some comments inline...
> 
> On Feb 25, 2014, at 12:01 PM, Till Kamppeter <till.kamppeter at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > a new standard not yet supported under Linux but starting to penetrate
> > the market is IPP-over-USB (Internet Printing Protocol over USB).
> > ...
> > Fortunately, the PWG has added a standard to make it also go into USB
> > printers, IPP-over-USB. Problem is that there is no Linux support for that.
> 
> Actually, it was the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) that defined and published the IPP USB specification, not the PWG.
> 
> > First, I want to make a feature request to the kernel to add it.
> 
> I don't think the kernel is the right place for this.  IPP USB isn't
> like IP-over-USB, and you'll want the interface to provide arbitration
> and multiplexing of HTTP requests over the available IPP USB
> interfaces.

So you want to do this as a userspace library talking directly to the
USB device through usbfs/libusb?  Or should the kernel provide a basic
"pipe-like" functionality to the hardware to make it easier for things
to be queued up to the device?

Is there a pointer to the spec somewhere so that I can see what is
needed here?

> > Second,
> > I want to suggest this as a Google Summer of Code project, asking for
> > mentors on the kernel side. Mentoring Organization will be the Linux
> > Foundation, hosting projects for both OpenPrinting and the kernel.
> 
> This will make an excellent SoC project, but you'll need someone
> familiar with Avahi, libusb, HTTP, systemd, and general networking for
> this.  This isn't a kernel project.

That's a non-trivial set of experience to try to find, good luck :)

And why systemd?  What is needed from it for this?

thanks,

greg k-h