Printing with Linux is very hit and miss
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| patrokov Aug 20, 2012 10:14 PM EDT |
I just upgraded my headless Archlinux box, and now Cups won't work anymore. The daemon won't start unless I tell it to listen only on the localhost. Changing to it Listen 192.168.100:631 or Port 631 results in the daemon not starting. (Edit: Figured that out. The new default cupsd.conf was missing some permission statements that allow nonlocal listening. Seems kind of redundant that you have to tell it to allow remote browsing in three different places.) When it works, it works so well, that I don't even think about it. Sometimes I think that I should never upgrade the Archbox. I also have the grave misfortune of having purchased an HP P1005. It doesn't have it's own firmware, so the firmware has to be uploaded to the printer any time the power is turned off. Bizarrely, the printer needs USBLP to install but then needs to have the module unloaded for Cups to recognize it. And then occasionally, nothing works right, and I have to recompile the driver. Sometimes that goes swimmingly well. Fifteen minutes and back in business. Other times it's several hours of doing the exact same thing with slight variations until the voodoo works. My only consolation is that the printer works even less well in Windows 7. I can't wait until that thing runs out of toner; I'm going to reenact the fax machine scene from Office Space. |
| notbob Aug 21, 2012 8:54 AM EDT |
> that I should never upgrade the Archbox. I don't trust upgrades. Never have. I'd rather put up with the hassle of doing a full config of a fresh install than try and figure out what went screwy with an upgrade. > I also have the grave misfortune of having purchased an HP P1005. Sorry to hear it. Next time, buy a Brother (I hear Samsung is very Linux compatible, too). I have an old Bro HL-1440 b/w laser. Not only does it seem to be bullet-proof, having survived cross-country moves, car wrecks, sub-zero storage/neglect, etc, but the last time I hooked it up to my latest Slack box, it configured itself! No kidding. I didn't do spit. It printed after merely plugging in the USB cord. This after originally moving, rev by rev, from laborious LPRng setups for this same printer. CUPS really has come a long way. |
| helios Aug 21, 2012 9:08 AM EDT |
Samsung absolutely rocks with Linux Support. From the little ML2510 sitting to the left of me to the largest commercial/huge-office print/copy/collators.....except for the most exotic functions, they work right out of the box with most distros I've tried. Surprisingly, at least to me, the best support for large office print and copy equipment has been with Mandriva.....to even the point of supporting Ricoh stuff. |
| shem Aug 21, 2012 10:06 AM EDT |
In Debian (Sid) there's some HPLIP (HP Linux Printing and Imaging System) packages and gui's. Works perfectly with my cheap HP Deskjet 1050 (print and scan). Maybe similar can be found in Arch-repositories or AUR?! |
| Bob_Robertson Aug 21, 2012 1:32 PM EDT |
Shem, a couple years ago something happened to the HPLIP printer driver, that has caused all graphics to be rather crappy printing on my HP. Oh well. Text prints fine. |
| Koriel Aug 21, 2012 2:17 PM EDT |
Canon Pixma M420 works great with Linux its even easier than Windows to install the driver. |
| helios Aug 21, 2012 5:33 PM EDT |
It wasn't that long ago that Canon Printers were worthless in Linux...... |
| DrGeoffrey Aug 21, 2012 6:36 PM EDT |
Quoting:It wasn't that long ago that Canon Printers were worthless in Linux...... "The times they are a change-in." (And this time for the good.) |
| Koriel Aug 21, 2012 7:55 PM EDT |
Yep, the times are a change-in, the Canon M420 also has good scanner integration with Gimp I can't praise this printer highly enough and its my first Canon I used to be an Epson guy but my last Epson was an awful experience. |
| caitlyn Aug 25, 2012 1:20 AM EDT |
I've had excellent results with both Epson (what I use now) and HP. I did have one HP which required the firmware to be reloaded at boot so I put that in an rc (init) script and never had a problem again :) Generally, HP and Epson are what I recommend because of their excellent Linux support. |
| tuxchick Aug 25, 2012 11:29 AM EDT |
This is a five-year old article. |
| caitlyn Aug 25, 2012 12:45 PM EDT |
So it is.... why was this revived now? |
| tuxchick Aug 25, 2012 3:03 PM EDT |
Because of its timeless wonderfulness, Caitlyn? :) And, in five years it doesn't seem to have changed much, even with the mighty Apple in control of CUPS now. |
| helios Aug 25, 2012 3:09 PM EDT |
Actually Carla, things have changed a bunch, at least on the Canon front. What used to be a worthless piece of junk plastic is now a working piece of junk plastic....of course, most of them are made like disposable appliances now but so many of them work now, that did not 5 years ago. Haven't bothered with revisiting Lexmark. They define worthless pieces of junk plastic. |
| tuxchick Aug 25, 2012 3:20 PM EDT |
Ken, do please enjoy my friend David North's wonderful "Cracking The Lexmark Code" http://www.timocharis.com/doodles/lexmark/ |
| Steven_Rosenber Aug 25, 2012 3:52 PM EDT |
In the upgrade from Debian Squeeze to Wheezy, I had to reinstall my printers -- they were still there; they just didn't work. Since the upgrade, I've had to reinstall a couple again, but they now all work. It's all HP, by the way -- at home and work. |
| caitlyn Aug 25, 2012 4:01 PM EDT |
With SalisOS, ROSA Linux, Pardus and even my development project the printing has all "just worked" for at least three years now. No reinstalls, no weird driver issues, no problems at all. That wasn't true five years ago. |
| Steven_Rosenber Aug 25, 2012 4:44 PM EDT |
In my case, the upgrade process scuttled printing. Fresh installs should be no problem, as I was able to get printing back by reinstalling each printer. |
| helios Aug 25, 2012 7:43 PM EDT |
thanks Carla, sharing with G+ and FacePlant now. |
| Fettoosh Aug 26, 2012 1:27 PM EDT |
Now this old thread has been revived, how about Dell's printers? Just yesterday, my niece bought a Dell A920 (something) from a estate sale. She uses Kubuntu 12.04 and the scanner was not a problem at all. XSane recognized and worked perfectly. Printing was a different story. It was recognized but as a generic text-only printer, which didn't work. I will researching it today. Any Ideas or experiences are appreciated. |
| helios Aug 26, 2012 2:36 PM EDT |
Yep, Dell printers are just rebranded Lexmarks. See Carla's linked solution above. |
| Fettoosh Aug 26, 2012 5:02 PM EDT |
Quoting:See Carla's linked solution above. That would be helpful, but is not mine to apply this solution. It is owned by fourteen years old who keeps teasing me by repeating "I hate Linux" because it doesn't have iTune and knows she has no chance of getting an Apple or run Windows on her computer. She does have an Epson printer already but this one was purchased as a scanner and thought would be a backup printer. |
| Fettoosh Aug 26, 2012 5:10 PM EDT |
Quoting:Replaced/Update old reference with better one Not sure if this works with latest Ubuntu 12.04 but I will give it a try when I get a chance. |
| jdixon Aug 26, 2012 9:05 PM EDT |
> Just yesterday, my niece bought a Dell A920 (something) from a estate sale. http://www.sane-project.org/man/sane-lexmark.5.html and http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man5/sane-lexmark.... indicate that it should now be supported as a Lexmark 1100/1200 device. You'll probably need to install sane and xsane to get it working, if they're not already installed. |
| patrokov Aug 26, 2012 10:23 PM EDT |
I commented on it, because LXer put it on the home page. Why LXer resurrected it, I have no idea. HPLIP works great on a real printer, but the P1005 is not a real printer as I noted in the OP. I've had terrible luck with Brother printers. They seem designed to expire. I had an inkjet Brother that said that brand new ink was expired. Then it used a yellow cartridge for exactly three days before declaring it expired. I will never buy another Brother. |
| Fettoosh Aug 26, 2012 10:37 PM EDT |
@JD, Thanks for the links, I will check them out. I already have xsane installed and device working as a scanner, what I am trying to do is getting working as a printer. |
| jdixon Aug 27, 2012 5:19 AM EDT |
> I already have xsane installed and device working as a scanner, Ah, I misunderstood. I thought you had it working as a printer, but not as a scanner. Well, all the links agree that it's apparently a relabeled Lexmark 1100/1200, and should use the Z600 drivers. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1698157 for the details of getting it working in 10.04. Hopefully they're still applicable. But I have to agree with others here that as a general rule Lexmark simply doesn't support Linux. |
| CFWhitman Aug 27, 2012 12:46 PM EDT |
Quoting:I've had terrible luck with Brother printers. They seem designed to expire. I had an inkjet Brother that said that brand new ink was expired. Then it used a yellow cartridge for exactly three days before declaring it expired. I will never buy another Brother. These probably have an expiration date coded into the cartridge. Some HP printers have that "feature." You can unseal a cartridge that has never been opened, but is past the expiration date (which is also printed on the outside of the box) and the printer just won't use it. I have gotten around this problem with an HP before by disabling two way communication; if the printer can't ask your computer what the date and time are, it doesn't know the cartridges have expired. That's not a great solution because two way communication can be useful, but it worked to get some use out of the cartridge. |
| helios Aug 27, 2012 1:00 PM EDT |
What chapped my a$$ about those Brother printers is that I could not do anything until I changed the yellow. Removed the ink, smashed the printer and recycled it with the next load going out. HP did this for a short time but got shouted down in the marketplace. Some people learn, others not so much. |
| penguinist Aug 27, 2012 11:56 PM EDT |
Sorry to hear negative reports on Brother printers. My experience with Brother on Linux has been outstanding. I'm using a Brother MFC-J825DW with a wifi connection from three Linux computers and I couldn't be more pleased. The Linux drivers supplied by Brother played well in both Fedora and Ubuntu, and the replacement ink cartridges at 70 cents each (from Amazon) has delighted my pocketbook. I don't know of any other printer with such inexpensive ink replacements. I've had none of the problems others have described, and I've been strongly recommending Brother printers to all my Linux friends. |
| helios Aug 28, 2012 3:02 AM EDT |
I had no problems with the drivers...it was the yellow ink being empty that held my work hostage until I bought and inserted another yellow cart. Couldn't even scan or copy b&w. Locked the whole device down until I replaced the cart. No workie for me. |
| Steven_Rosenber Aug 28, 2012 5:23 PM EDT |
That's why I don't use inkjets -- it's laser or nothing for me. |
| jdixon Aug 28, 2012 7:55 PM EDT |
> That's why I don't use inkjets -- it's laser or nothing for me. That's pretty much the case for me too. |
| caitlyn Aug 29, 2012 1:58 AM EDT |
Quoting:I had no problems with the drivers...it was the yellow ink being empty that held my work hostage until I bought and inserted another yellow cart. Couldn't even scan or copy b&w. Locked the whole device down until I replaced the cart. No workie for me. Quoting:That's why I don't use inkjets -- it's laser or nothing for me.Most all-in-one inkjet printers don't work that way. My Epson Stylus NX305 will happily scan with ink out. The cartridges are also the least expensive I've had in a printer in, well... maybe 15 years or more. It does a really nice job on color and photo printing and it was incredibly inexpensive. I'm completely happy with it. |
| gus3 Aug 29, 2012 5:21 PM EDT |
My Brother laser printer is still on its first toner cart, 7 years later. And yes, it does get used every once in a while. It works just fine with CUPS, although I did need to download a PPD for it. |
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