How to install hardware like printer and scanner

After installing Suse Linux 10.1 I went to the YaST Control Center and open the hardware folder and went through the configuration of scanner and printer.

In the case scanner the message was no scanner detected. as for the printer it says something like printer not supported.

My printer is Lexmark 730 series. the scanner is Intre-Scan 636p.

Both work with Windows XP. Both the CD's are available for the installation of drivers.

As I am new I don't know that these small home-use devices are not supported by SuSe Linux or that I have made some mistakes in the installation process.

There is an option to download a driver for Lexmark X73 which is currently not supported.

The trouble is that when I tried to download it, it lands on the desk-top. I don't know how to let it be used by Linux to configure the printer.

Advice or comments are appreciated.

Regards

Your scanner..hmm well if you use sane as your scanner's backend, you might want to read sane documetation (man sane) to get info on how it works. I myself have used an Agfa SnapScan 1212U scanner on Linux, and all it took from me was to install sane, then grab one driverfile (described by sane's documentation) from a Windows installation of the scanner's driver (yes, I did have to install the driver on windows first, then copy off one file) and give the path to that file on the sane's config file. But it was some years ago, things might have become easier by now, and especially as I have never used SuSE myself I can't guarantee; I've heard SuSE does stuff it's own way so..

And printer. Most desktops (but again, not sure about how SuSE works as a whole) have some kind of graphical printer adding tool, which has a button that enables you to use an external driver if there isn't one ready. But if you have downloaded the package to your desktop, open it and see if it has a README or INSTALL file inside - read (both of) those files to get to know how you use the package. The simplest method is that you just specify a path to the contents of the package in the graphical tool for adding a printer, but the harder way which can be the only way in some cases is that you'll need to compile the driver yourself. I have no idea in your case, since I've only used HP printers this far at home..but start off by checking out if there's a doc file of some kind in that package on your desktop.

By the way, what kind of file is it? If it's a .tar it's an archive or if it's .tar.gz or .tar.bz or so, it's a compressed archive (kind of like .zip files are) - if it's a .bin or .sh it's an executable file and so on..

Scanner

I browsed the site SANE and took a look at the list of scanners supported. My scanner Intre.Scan 636p is not listed.

Off hand I don't know what is the name of the Manufacturer or the brand name. Misled my documents.

I am unable to get their mailing list to inform them that my scanner is not in their list.

Printer

My printer: Lexmark 730 is not in the Suse Linux 10.1 list of supported printers. The nearest one is Lexmark X73 that is also not supported.

However a driver for this this last one can be downloaded from http://www.linuxprinting.org/

The downloaded file name is “Lexmark.X73-drv_z42.ppd” The content is plain text.

I can't make the installation access this file.

So, I am still stuck and don't know how to get my printer or scanner working in Suse Linux 10.1.

My wife suggests that I forget about my venture in Linux. ;-)

Regards.