Dell A940 printer problems
 

I have a Dell A940 all-in-one printer, which is really a Lexmark 5150 in disguise. I cannot get it to print. I'm running Mandrake 9.2. I have gone to both Dell and Lexmark and it appears they have no drivers for Linux. Is there some generic version I can use? Or do I have to get a printer compatible for both systems? I run WinXP on a separate drive. And Linux on another. I use Trios II to boot up the system I want to use on it's particular drive.

How do you have the printer connected? USB, parallel?

By drivers for the printer... you may be too Windoze centric..
Printers come in about 2-3 flabors they run a language/protocol
like PCL, Postscript, Epson ...
Cups on linux will likely have a close match to the printer you have.
and will likely work.
First make sure you can communicate with it, not sure how
you do that though :(

USB connection. Mandrake recognized the A940 as an unknown device?? Oh, I get your point about drivers; guess I'm definitely a newbie. When I try and configure the printer it comes up as generic and 'raw driver' at which point I am supposed to guess at a printer that is close to mine. I've tried a few in the Lexmark choice list, without success. I did get some noise out of my printer when trying to run a couple of test pages, but nothing printed. Should I just go down the list of Lexmarks guessing away until hopefully something prints??

If the lexmark you chose was "close" it should work better than just noise.

Are you using cups as the printer configurator?
I have had good luck with it.

Dell A940
 

Thanks for the response. I'm using CUPS and having no luck. I went to www.linuxprinting.com and they say stay away from Dell and Lexmark -- lucky me. I think I have a friend who uses Windows and Mac who wants to buy this one, which works fine for both of them. I am looking into an Epson or HP that will work with both my systems.
I can only get noise from the ones I've found in CUPS so far, so I am abandoning this effort.

Does anyone know how to do it? I bought one over the summer and am now trying to get it hooked up to Fedora Core 2 with no luck so far, but I don't know anything about printers...so if anyone knows even what type of printer this is, I would appreciate the help

I'm in the same boat. Bought the 5150 during the summer, before I really started to use Linux, now I'm stuck booting into windows to print. Although, is it possible to install a printer driver through Wine, or does Wine not emulate that much of windows?

Dell A940 ahhhhh!
 

I should have known when I find a good deal on computer hardware,
something creeps up and bites!

Well I guess I'll just throw it out the Window (s)

If anyone has found anything on this I would be very interested in hearing about it,

It would seem Lexmark is Linux friendly and would have a driver for their X5150????

but no luck so far

help would be nice

I have this same printer. I'd hate to have to buy another printer just to use it in Linux. I just formatted over Windows for the last time, I hope. If this has been solved in another thread can someone get me a link. I'll link this thread if I find a solution.

I'd use any version of Linux that can work with this printer. I want to use Slackware or Gentoo but for now Im running Kubuntu until I get a bit less noobish.

thanks

edit

Tried this thread
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ight=Dell+A940

He had some progress on there but the result was the same. The only solution is use Windows. I'll keep looking

This looks hopeful but I can't try it until I get home
http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_pr...m=Lexmark-X125 recommended instructions for installing a similar printer http://members.cox.net/twsnnva/Linux.html

A linux Dell driver forum... I'll check this out later too
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...rd.id=sw_linux

...

ON this forum http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor....id=1262#M4043 the guy posted that he found a solution and that his A940 prints perfectly in Linux. Based on the instructions it seems he is using a Windows print server... not a solution for me. His solution is at this link
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/heretr...100/psemu.html

It's a sad sad day.

I have been forced to reinstall windows. I am sure that satan is having a snowball fight down stairs right now.

If you have this printer please give up hope. All is lost.

Oh... the humanity

bc

PS If you are buying a printer get an Epson or HP. If you see Lexmark and Dell... head for the hills. If you plan on printing from windows it doesn't matter but for linux no Lexmark or Dell