** Description changed:
IPP-over-USB
ipp-usb is the second implementation of the IPP-over-USB standard. This
allows the PWG's Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) which is currently the
most common communication protocol for network printers also to be used
via USB, simply by a network printer being emulated on localhost.
Advantages are:
- IPP is a high-level bi-directional packet-based protocol for printing,
scanning, and fax
- Full device capabilities can be polled from the device, together with
using standardized
printing and scanning data format driverless printing and scanning is
possible
- Status, like loaded paper, toner levels, ... can get polled
- Printing and scanning can be performed simultaneously and independently
- The administration web interface can get accessed
ipp-usb detects supported devices automatically and advertises their
full functionality via DNS-SD on localhost, CUPS and the appropriate
SANE backends discover the device automatically then and it is
immediately available, no drivers needed, it just works.
This makes thousands of printers, scanners, and multi-function devices
work on USB, USB-only devices, like the scanner Canon Lide 400 get
working for the first time.
Why ipp-usb? There is ippusbxd already.
ippusbxd was the first implementation of IPP-over-USB, with the very
same intentions, but it has problems which were not easily to be solved
in C and so after a short discussion with me the author of the
driverless scanning SANE backend sane-airscan
(https://github.com/alexpevzner/sane-airscan) created a first draft of
ipp-usb in Go within a few hours, which solved these problems. The
project has matured with the time and seems to work perfectly.
See the original README for the rationale of ipp-usb:
https://github.com/OpenPrinting/ipp-usb
----------
Unfortunately, the naive implementation, which simply relays a TCP connection
to USB, does not work. It happens because closing the TCP connection on the
client side has a useful side effect of discarding all data sent to this
connection from the server side, but it does not happen with USB connections.
In the case of USB, all data not received by the client will remain in the USB
buffers, and the next time the client connects to the device, it will receive
unexpected data, left from the previous abnormally completed request.
Actually, it is an obvious flaw in the IPP-over-USB standard, but we
have to live with it.
So the implementation, once the HTTP request is sent, must read the
entire HTTP response, which means that the implementation must
understand the HTTP protocol, and effectively implement a HTTP reverse
proxy, backed by the IPP-over-USB connection to the device.
And this is what the ipp-usb program actually does.
----------
Many users reported this to work perfectly and I am using it since its
creation in January 2020 on a daily basis without problems.
[Availability]
ipp-usb got initially packaged in Debian and synced into Universe:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ipp-usb/0.9.10-2
It builds on all currently supported architectures.
[Rationale]
See introduction above. Replaces ippusbxd.
[Security]
No CVE on http://cve.mitre.org/cve/search_cve_list.html
No mention on https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/
Not listed on http://people.ubuntu.com/~ubuntu-
security/cve/universe.html
No SUID/SGID
It is a system daemon, running as root, triggered by plugging a
supported device (USB printing device with IPP protocol, 7/1/4) via UDEV
and systemd. In default configuration the daemon listens only on
localhost, port 60000 (and following ports if more than one device is
connected). So the device is not exposed to the network and
communication with it stays on the local machine.
[Quality assurance]
To use ipp-usb one simply installs it and plugs the device(s) to USB.
The devices get auto-detected by UDEV and the daemon automatically
started. It immediately advertises the device via DNS-SD only on
localhost where CUPS and SANE auto-discover it. So it immediately gets
available for the user, for both printing and scanning.
+ The package does not use debconf at all.
+
+ ipp-usb is maintained upstream very well and actively developed.
+
+ Upstream site:
+ https://github.com/OpenPrinting/ipp-usb
+
+ Recent commits:
+ https://github.com/OpenPrinting/ipp-usb/commits/master
+
+ Bugs:
+ https://github.com/OpenPrinting/ipp-usb/issues
+ (only closed ones currently)
+
+ The author, Alexander Pevzner, is very responsive, usually answers on
+ the same day. He is actively working on driverless scanning (will mentor
+ 2 students in LFMP on IPP Scan in Sep-Nov).
+
+ No known bugs in Debian and Ubuntu (Launchpad only lists this MIR).
+
+ Debian maintainer OdyX also very responsive.
+
+ No exotic hardware required, is for supporting the absolute standard
+ hardware, most modern printers and multi-function devices, even very
+ cheap ones. See introduction above.
+
+ No dependencies on obsolete stuff.
+
[Dependencies]
+
[Standards compliance]
[Maintenance]
[Background information]
** Also affects: golang-github-openprinting-goipp (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Changed in: golang-github-openprinting-goipp (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided => High
** Changed in: golang-github-openprinting-goipp (Ubuntu)
Milestone: None => ubuntu-20.10
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1891157
Title:
[MIR] ipp-usb
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