Setting Up a Printer in Tails

Because Tails is supposed to be as amnesiac as possible, you want to shield your Tails stick from any extra inputs from, and outputs to, a potentially untrusted network. This is why we strongly recommend using a printer that does not have WiFi or Bluetooth, and connecting to it using a regular USB cable to print.

Finding a printer that works with Tails can be challenging because Tails is based on the Linux operating system, which often has second-class hardware support in comparison to operating systems such as Windows or macOS.

We maintain a list of printers that we have personally tested and gotten to work with Tails, in the Hardware guide; if possible, we recommend using one of those printers. The Linux Foundation also maintains the OpenPrinting database, which documents the compatibility, or lack thereof, of numerous printers from almost every manufacturer.

Note

The latest generations of printers might or might not be represented by the OpenPrinting database; also, the database does not document whether or not a printer is wireless, so this will involve manually checking models of interest, if you wish to use this resource as a guide for purchasing a non-wireless printer suitable for use with SecureDrop.

With that in mind, this database is arguably the best resource for researching the compatibility of printers with Linux. As a tip for narrowing down your search, look for printers that are compatible with Debian, or Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu, since Tails itself is also Debian-based. This might increase the chances for a seamless installation experience in Tails.

In any case, this document outlines the usual set of steps that we follow when attempting to use a new printer with Tails.

Installing and Printing via the Tails GUI

Let’s look at the flow in Tails 4 for installing a USB-connected printer. On the Tails welcome screen, unlock your persistent volume, and set an admin password. This ensures that you won’t have to reinstall the printer each time you start Tails.

Connect the printer to your Tails-booted computer via USB, then turn the printer on.

Now, you’ll want to single-click your way through Applications ▸ System Tools ▸ Settings, then select Printers.

If this is the first time you’ve tried to install a printer, the “Printers” section will look like this:

Click Add a Printer. After a brief period during which Tails searches for printers, you should see a list of printers that Tails has auto-detected:

In this example we’ve connected a virtual printer, but the process for adding a real printer is identical. Clicking on the name of your printer in the list will select it for installation. The installation can take a few seconds, during which it looks like nothing is happening.

Assuming you receive no errors in this process, you will then see a screen like the following one, which indicates that the printer is ready for printing.

Printing from the Command Line

After you have configured your printer, you can also easily print from the command line using the lp command. If you haven’t already set your installed printer as default in the GUI, you can quickly do so by adding this line to your ~/.bashrc file, or entering this directly into the terminal:

export PRINTER=Printer-Name-Here

If you need to find the name of the printer, you can use lpstat to get a list of installed printers, as such:

lpstat -a

Once you’ve set your default printer, you can easily print from the terminal by using the following syntax:

lp filename.extension

While printing from the GUI is much easier, once you’ve got everything set up, it’s equally straightforward from the command line, if you prefer that environment.