How can I read the Mac part of a Win/Mac CD?

tredegar · 10-20-2007, 10:39 AM

My problem:
My ISP has given me a (free) lexmark Z1420 printer. I'd like to make it work.
There's no linux driver for it, but I think there may be a ppd file for it on the CD that came with it. I'd like to extract that file.
The cd is marked "For Mac & Windows", but when I look at it from linux, all I see are the windows files, nothing about Mac, these files seem to be hidden somehow.
mount tells me it is mounted like this: /dev/hdb on /media/cdrom0 type iso9660 (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,user=tred)
I tried unmounting it and then remounting it like this:

Code:

root@vaio:/home/tred# mount -t hfsplus /dev/hdb /home/tred/Mac
mount: block device /dev/hdb is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

There was no useful info from dmesg
I tried this:

Code:

root@vaio:/home/tred# fdisk -l /dev/hdb
Note: sector size is 2048 (not 512)

Disk /dev/hdb: 474 MB, 474433536 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 2048 = 32901120 bytes
root@vaio:~# file /dev/hdb
/dev/hda: block special (3/64)

But this doesn't help me.

Then I downloaded the Mac installer for this printer, it's called 1400_Series_Web_Installer.dmg
Something (somewhere) said I could read a dmg file like this:

Code:

root@vaio:/home/tred# mount -t hfsplus -o loop 1400_Series_Web_Installer.dmg /home/tred/Mac
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so
root@vaio:/home/tred# dmesg | tail
[17192466.440000] HFS+-fs: unable to find HFS+ superblock

So that didn't work either.
One last try:

Code:

root@vaio:/home/tred# file 1400_Series_Web_Installer.dmg
1400_Series_Web_Installer.dmg: VAX COFF executable not stripped

"VAX COFF executable" WTF??

Any suggestions as to how I can find this printer's ppd file? It is nowhere in the Windows bit of the CD.

Junior Hacker · 10-20-2007, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

Then I downloaded the Mac installer for this printer, it's called 1400_Series_Web_Installer.dmg
Something (somewhere) said I could read a dmg file like this:
[CODE]root@vaio:/home/tred# mount -t hfsplus -o loop 1400_Series_Web_Installer.dmg /home/tred/Mac

Normally the hfsplus module is not loaded to the kernel by default if there are no hfsplus drives/partitions during bootup, have you loaded the module, example:

Code:

modprobe hfsplus

tredegar · 10-20-2007, 12:50 PM

Thanks, but both modules hfs and hfsplus are already loaded ( lsmod | grep hfs returned both ). I tried mounting the CD with the -t hfs option, but that was no better, which led me to try a file 1400_Series_Web_Installer.dmg, the result you see above ( "VAX COFF .." weirdness). Grrrrr!

lintunen · 02-02-2008, 03:48 AM

Not very elegant, but instead of fiddling around with the driver CD that came with the printer, I just downloaded the mac image from Lexmark's website and burnt it to CD. I then loaded the modules (as described above) and this is how I mounted the CD:

Code:

sudo mount -t hfsplus /dev/cdrom /media/macdisk

(Assuming a location ‘macdisk’ exists and /dev/cdrom is the true path of the disk to be mounted.)

But I have bad news for those who are trying to find the PPD for the Lexmark Z1420 - it does not exist. According to Lexmark's support they did not release a PPD with this printer. After hunting around on the CD it appears they have some sort of binary implementation to interface with CUPS to essentially 'fake' it. This doesn't make me particularly happy because I was under the assumption work on mac = work on linux considering they have CUPS in common :-)

tredegar · 02-02-2008, 03:58 AM

Quote:

But I have bad news for those who are trying to find the PPD for the Lexmark Z1420 - it does not exist.

Thanks for the update, I had already come to the same conclusion

And welcome to LQ