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📦 Agent on QNAP

In 30 seconds

  • Beta. The QNAP agent is a new package and we're still learning from the first workshops that use it.
  • You download it from BolloPrint (Settings → Printers → Local agent → New agent → QNAP) and install it by hand in QTS's App Center.
  • You open it from App Center and press Link with BolloPrint. No codes, no templates and no ports to open.
  • To update it, you install the new package over the one you have.

How to run the local agent on a QNAP NAS without Docker, as just another App Center app. If you'd rather use Container Station (Docker), follow Agent on Docker: it works just as well.

🧪 This is a beta

We've tested it end to end on QTS 5.2 with an Intel processor. The packages for ARM processors are published, but we haven't seen them running on a real QNAP yet. If you have one, it helps us a lot to hear how it went, good or bad.

Before you start

  • A QNAP NAS with QTS 4.5 or later, always on and on the same network as the printers.
  • A QTS administrator account: you need it to install the app and to open the agent's page.
  • Being the owner of the workshop in BolloPrint. Only the owner can add agents.
  • Knowing which processor your QNAP has. You'll find it on your model's page on QNAP's website, or in QTS under Control Panel → System → System Status.
Your QNAP's processorDownload
Intel or AMD (most models)Intel or AMD (64-bit)
64-bit ARM (for example, the TS-x33, TS-x28A and TS-x32X series)ARM (64-bit)
32-bit ARM (for example, the TS-x31P and TS-x31X series)ARM (32-bit)

The agent is light: it doesn't need a powerful machine.

Downloading it

  1. In BolloPrint, go to Settings → Printers and open the Local agent tab.
  2. Press New agent and choose the QNAP card.
  3. Download the package for your QNAP's processor. It's a file ending in .qpkg.

The steps are summarised right there too. Nothing is created yet: the agent will appear in your list when you link it.

Installing it on the QNAP

Since the agent isn't in QNAP's store yet, you install it by hand. It takes five steps:

  1. Sign in to QTS with your administrator account and open App Center.
  2. Open its settings (the ⚙ icon at the top right) and turn on Allow installation of applications without a valid digital signature. Save.
  3. Press the manual install icon: a few boxes with a +, at the top right, just left of the ⚙. It has no text; hover over it to see its name. Choose the .qpkg file you downloaded and press Install.
  4. QTS warns you that the app has no digital signature. Accept it: that's expected while the agent isn't published in QNAP's store.
  5. When it finishes, BolloPrint Agent appears among your apps. Press Open.

💡 About the signature warning

QNAP signs the apps in its store. Ours is waiting to be published there, so for now it arrives without that signature and QTS warns you about it. You download the package from your BolloPrint account, which is the only place you should get it from.

If you'd rather not leave the option from step 2 turned on, you can turn it off as soon as the installation finishes. You'll need to turn it on again for the next update.

Linking it to your workshop

When you press Open, QTS takes you to the agent's page. Only a QTS administrator who is signed in can see that page; anyone else is asked to sign in to QTS.

  1. The page says the agent doesn't belong to any workshop yet and shows a short code. Press Link with BolloPrint.
  2. BolloPrint opens. If you weren't signed in, sign in with your account.
  3. If you own more than one workshop, choose which one to add it to. Only the workshops you own are listed.
  4. Check that the code BolloPrint shows is the same as the one on the agent's page and press Add to workshop.
  5. You're back on the agent's page, which now says Linked to and your workshop's name.

In under a minute you'll see it Online under Settings → Printers → Local agent, with QNAP's logo. From then on, everything works as with any agent: the printers on your network show up on their own for you to add, or you add them by IP. It's all in The local agent.

🔐 Only link what you've just installed

Only go ahead in BolloPrint if you've just pressed Link with BolloPrint on your own QNAP. If someone sends you a link to «link an agent», close it.

Updating it

You almost never have to do anything: the agent updates itself. When a new version comes out, it downloads it, checks that it's ours and restarts with it.

Only if BolloPrint tells you that your agent needs a manual update do you have to update it yourself, by installing the new package over the one you already have:

  1. Download the new version from Settings → Printers → Local agent → New agent → QNAP, the one for the same processor.
  2. In App Center, check that Allow installation of applications without a valid digital signature is still turned on.
  3. Press the manual install icon (the boxes with a +, next to the ⚙), choose the new file, press Install and accept the signature warning.

QTS replaces the program and leaves its data untouched: the agent stays linked to your workshop, with its printers and their history. You don't need to link it again. If after updating its page offered Link with BolloPrint again, link it and delete the old agent in BolloPrint, which will have gone offline.

Moving, reinstalling or removing it

Reinstalling it or moving it to another NAS means linking a new one: install it on the new device and link it as you did the first time. It will be a new agent in your list. The printers move to it, with their whole history, as soon as you add them. Then delete the old one from its row's ⋮ menu.

To remove it completely:

  1. In BolloPrint, delete the agent from its row's ⋮ menu under Settings → Printers → Local agent. It stops connecting immediately, and the printers that were only reachable through it disappear from the list (if you add them again, they come back with their history).
  2. In QTS's App Center, open BolloPrint Agent and press Remove. It's deleted along with its data.

If you only do step 1, the agent stays installed without a workshop: within a few seconds its page offers Link with BolloPrint again.

When something isn't working

SymptomWhat to check
QTS won't install the fileIs Allow installation of applications without a valid digital signature turned on? If it says the package isn't compatible, you downloaded the one for another processor: download the right one. If your QTS is older than 4.5, update it first.
Pressing Open asks you to sign in to QTSThe agent's page only opens for an administrator. Sign in to QTS with an administrator account and press Open again from App Center.
Open gives an error or a blank pageCheck in App Center that BolloPrint Agent is running and, if not, start it. If nothing changes, look at QTS's system log (in QTS 5, QuLog Center) and search for «BolloPrint Agent»: if it says its port is in use, another app is using both 8257 and 8364. Write to us and we'll help you change it.
Linking says it couldn't reach BolloPrintThe QNAP needs internet access. Check its connection and DNS under Control Panel → Network.
BolloPrint says you don't own any workshopOnly the workshop's owner can add agents. Ask them to link it.
The agent doesn't show OnlineWait a minute. If it doesn't appear, check in App Center that it's running and that the QNAP can reach the internet.
It doesn't find any printersAre the QNAP and the printers on the same network? If they aren't (VLAN, guest network), add them by hand by IP and they'll work just the same. If they are on the same network and still don't show up, add them by IP and tell us: it helps us improve the beta.

You don't need to open any ports on the router or on the QNAP's firewall: the connection to BolloPrint goes out from your network, and the agent's page goes through QTS itself.