Lexmark E238 & FC5

EcoR1 · 08-08-2006, 05:10 PM

Hey guys,

I normally hate writing posts for help, but Im almost out of resources here. Im running Fedora Core 5. Here is my situation. I bought a lexmark e238 laser printer which I wanted to install on linux. Fortunatly it came with lexmark drivers on the CD, so I thought it would be a breeze.. Well let me tell you that aint the case.

First of all I tried making the printer work without the lexmark drivers through generic drivers etc. Which seemed like it worked, but printed nothing but garbage. So I decided to install the Lexmark E238 attached drivers. I installed the rpm and all went well. I went into the supplied Lexmark Queue (lexprint) Manager installed my Printer to /dev/usb/lp0. Everything looked great and all setup until I tried to print.

No test page no nothing printing at all. I mean it wasnt even reaching the damn printer. So what next? Try printing directly to the device using the cat etc.doc >> /dev/usb/lp0 ? Yep and guess what? No problems. Again it prints all screwed up but at least a signal is getting to the printer. Now all I want to do is get the damn appropriate drivers working, I mean I would love to setup the printer via the gnome printer configuration tool, however my printer isnt listed. Is there a way to point to a specific driver in the setup? Maybe that will help? Im not sure.. All I know is I send Lexmark a email this morning and have heard nothing.

Any ideas guys? Im dying here..

EcoR1

jschiwal · 08-08-2006, 06:08 PM

Is the printer a postscript printer? A generic postscript driver might work in that case.

I found part of your instructions using Google.

Quote:

Installing from the Internet
1 Read Before installing.
2 Download the Lexmark Print Drivers package from the Lexmark Web site at
http://www.lexmark.com/drivers: lexmark-print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86.rpm.gz
3 Save the downloaded package in the /tmp directory.
4 Uncompress the package file:
# gunzip /tmp/lexmark-print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86.rpm.gz
5 Install the package file:
# rpm -ivh /tmp/lexmark-print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86.rpm
6 Run the following setup script to complete the installation:
# /usr/local/lexmark/setup.lexprint

Did you perform step 6?

I found this PDF document on the net. Maybe you already have it.
http://www.lexmark.com/publications/...vers/en/ug.pdf

You can look at the contents of the rpm package with the command:
rpm -ql lexmark-print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86

Or if it isn't installed yet:
rpm -qlp <path/to/rpm/file>/lexmark-print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86.rpm
Look for a .ppd file. You might try using cups to install the printer:
http://localhost:631

On Fedora 5, you can use the root username/password when cups asks.

Another idea is to check the selinux policies. Here is a very recent selinux-policy update that might help:
http://fedoranews.org/cms/node/1413/print

I just installed FC 5 on my desktop last weekend, because I had a drive going bad so it was a good time to perform a fresh install and experiment with another distro. I have an HP Office Laserjet using a network connection. I had to uninstall the FC 5 version of hplip and reinstall from source to get the ppd files that I needed. Also the older version had things installed in different versions and so a conflict arose. By looking at the package file list, do you see anything that you already have installed but somewhere else, E.G. the same command in /usr/local/bin and /usr/bin for example.

I'm too new to FC 5 to give you advice on how to check and fix any problems due to SELinux policies, other than temporarily disabling them and uninstall/reinstall the Lexmark software. If that is successful, you may need to see if a Lexmark program or cups can't access one of the Lexmark files.

EcoR1 · 08-08-2006, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

Is the printer a postscript printer? A generic postscript driver might work in that case.

I found part of your instructions using Google.

Did you perform step 6?

I found this PDF document on the net. Maybe you already have it.

You can look at the contents of the rpm package with the command:
rpm -ql lexmark-print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86

Or if it isn't installed yet:
rpm -qlp <path/to/rpm/file>/lexmark-print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86.rpm
Look for a .ppd file. You might try using cups to install the printer:

On Fedora 5, you can use the root username/password when cups asks.

Another idea is to check the selinux policies. Here is a very recent selinux-policy update that might help:

I just installed FC 5 on my desktop last weekend, because I had a drive going bad so it was a good time to perform a fresh install and experiment with another distro.

Thanks for the reply man. Yea I performed all instructions including running the setup script. Ill try looking for a ppd file, however Im pretty sure doing a find -iname *.ppd yielding nothing, but Ill follow your advice on listing the rpm. I tried cups, the printer isnt supported. I could play with it I suppose but it would be nice to get these so-called fully functional drivers working.. And yes I will definatly check out selinux ..

Ill be back!

EcoR1 · 08-08-2006, 06:26 PM

and as expected no ppd file in the rpm

Im noticing however that the print job is going to the gnome print spooler (print notifier) however as soon as the job goes there, the job is marked as COMPLETED.

strange?

jschiwal · 08-09-2006, 03:24 AM

Look in /etc/printers/bin for PDD files.

The setup script may make some wrong assumptions, however I just read the first few lines:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

PKG="$PKG"
INSTDIR="$BINDIR"

PROGRAM_NAME="Lexmark Print Drivers"
INSTALL_DIR="/usr/lexprint"
APP=lexprint
APP_SPOOL=lexmark/unix_prt_drivers
SYS_SPOOL="/var/spool"
GROUP="bin"

PDD_DIR="/etc/printers/bin"

From "file:///home/jschiwal/firefox-downloads/lexmark/usr/local/lexmark/unix_prt_drivers/docs/ug/en/troubleshooting.html"

Quote:

The printer queue is empty but my document did not print

Make sure you are sending the proper data to the printer. If you send PCL or text data to a queue that only accepts PostScript data, the job leaves the queue but does not print. Try printing to another queue, or see a Print Driver administrator for other printing options.

The print job is probably in the buffer of the print server or printer. As soon as the printer is available, the job prints.

1. Make sure you are sending print jobs to the correct printer virtual device.
2. Verify the properties of the virtual device to make sure the printer job is going to the correct printer.
3. Make sure the printer is working properly.

It looks like this printer can print either PCL or Post Script. If all else fails, set it up in cups as a generic post script printer. There are other Lexmark Postscript printers in the list. Using a close one might work.
At least until you get it set up the Lexmark way.

----

Edit. Sorry, I mistook PDD for PPD.

rickh · 08-09-2006, 11:00 AM

My E232 printer uses pxlmono.ppd

Wont print graphics very well but does great on text.

psisquare · 08-09-2006, 11:42 AM

Have you tried the hpijs driver? It's recommended for Lexmark E232 by LinuxPrinting.org. Maybe you can also use the E232 PPD available at the same place.

EcoR1 · 08-09-2006, 06:33 PM

Basically I had to install it using the LaserJet 4 driver. Works like a fugging charm but now samba is beginning to piss me off but Ill do some research..

Thanks for the advice guys

hx129 · 09-17-2006, 10:42 AM

I tried the native driver provided by lexmark.
At first I can't get any test page either:S Therefore I take a look at cups's log at /var/log/cups/error_log, which instruct me to look at /etc/cups/interfaces/myqueue (myqueue is the name i set for the printer's queue).
Set "DEBUG=1" at line 25 of /etc/cups/interfaces/myqueue to see how it is executed. It invokes function run_first, which formats the data, then pipe through cat, and finally through "/usr/lexprint/send_parallel -d /dev/lp0".

In my case, /usr/lexprint/send_parallel fails. I can invoke it as root and get the test page. However, mysteriously, the myqueue script failed here and return 255. No idea why it happens...

I also tried to set the printer as a postscript printer(using ghostscript, since lexmark e238 supports PCL only). I use pxlmono.ppd comes with ghostscript package. However, only 1 page can be printed. Then the printer's yellow warning light(the last one at the bottom) shines. And the printer stops.