Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:58:16 +0200 From: Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl> To: Chabane HEMDANI <hemdani2009@gmail.com> Cc: Frank Shute <frank@shute.org.uk>, questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The nightmarish problem of installing a printer Message-ID: <20100917185816.GA20973@slackbox.erewhon.net> In-Reply-To: <20100917171056.GA72692@orange.esperance-linux.co.uk> References: <AANLkTim89g-u-S4D0q-a_BgiG7Oy57dB-BDznN74g29A@mail.gmail.com> <20100917171056.GA72692@orange.esperance-linux.co.uk>
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--gKMricLos+KVdGMg Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 06:10:56PM +0100, Frank Shute wrote: > On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 01:45:54AM +0100, Chabane HEMDANI wrote: > > > > I'm computer science teacher at university of Tizi-ouzou in Algeria. I= 'm > > using FreeBSD since 2007 when I "discover" it by chance when searching = in > > the Web something about Linux. > > Since that date, I always invited and recommended to my students to in= stall > > and use this "magical" and my favorite system. > >=20 > > However, all my students retort me that they have a problem of installi= ng > > their printers. I have so this problem, so I can't tell good-bye > > definitively to winosor and Linux. I always need them for printing. > >=20 > > I've search, read, learn, follow instructions about nearly all the > > web-documentation about installing a new printer to work under cups wit= hout > > any success. I've an HP Laser Jet 1018 printer and tools given by pack= age > > print/hplip don't work correctly. According to http://www.openprinting.org/printer/HP/HP-LaserJet_1018 it is best to use the foo2zjs driver: http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/ But it only works= in black and white. > > Please where is the problem? Printers these days are by-and-large built for MS windoze, without much thought for other operating systems. So they tend to use unpublished communications protocols or only work with the driver that works on windoze. When shopping for a printer, preferably look for one that understands the PostScript page description language. Those will work in FreeBSD and Linux without problems. These tend to be more high-end models, and may be more expensive when new. Secondhand they are probably more affordable, especially for students! If that is not an option, try for a printer that is supported by ghostscript (the print/ghostscript8 port) You can see the printers it supports by runni= ng 'make config' in /usr/ports/print/ghostscript8. Printers that use the PCL (= HP) or ESC/P (epson) printing protocols should work without problems. Alternatively look for a printer that is supported by the "gutenprint" driv= er; http://www.openprinting.org/driver/gutenprint/ When you are thinking about buying a certain model of printer, _always_ che= ck the openprinting database to see if it will work _before_ buying it: http://www.openprinting.org/printers > Postscript (and I believe HP Laserjets can) then this can be a fairly Some do, particularly high-end models. Most consumer-oriented stuff does no= t. Hope this helps! Roland --=20 R.F.Smith http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/ [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725) --gKMricLos+KVdGMg Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkyTukgACgkQEnfvsMMhpyWpqwCgniEdiyp45zg8BmEzFvT+qsEJ PMYAoJoxJztBN0rDuwePgqxc/zafDP/i =K9xg -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --gKMricLos+KVdGMg--
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