I've been trying for an age to get a Kyocera FS-1350DN to work with Mint but I get nowhere. I've asked on various forums to no avail. Kyocera themselves seem to have no answers. So it's time for a new printer.

The consensus seems to be that HP is best, I'm a low volume user and don't want anything fancy.

Monochrome. Laser. Duplex.
Simple hardwire connection to laptop (although wireless for later might be useful).

But above all, it must work straight out the box. I don't have the time, enough knowledge or inclination to tinker, so recommendations would be much appreciated.

So far I've looked at the Laserjet Pro M404dn and the slightly cheaper Laserjet Pro 203dw.

I don't see these two in the hplip listing at https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-i.../release_notes even though a search seems to say that they are there. I may have missed them.

Ideally, it'll work with both my laptops:

Laptop (1) has Mint 18.1 Cinnamon 3.2.7
Laptop (2) has Mint 20.1 Cinnamon 4.8.6

According to your other thread:

Laptop 2 hplip 3.20.11
Laptop 1 hplip 3.16.3

According to the hplip website the min version required for the m203dw is 3.16.11 so laptop 2 is good but you will need to upgrade laptop 1 to the latest version. I agree that HP probably has the best support.

Probably almost any HP laser printer will be supported since mint includes the hplip packages by default. The only thing I find I need to add has been the hplip-gui package from the distro, and then to run "sudo hp-plugin" to install the proprietary plugin needed for scanner support.

I would suggest that whatever printer you get, consider an inexpensive MFP color laserjet, since there is very little difference in price and the MFP will handle everything most people need. I bought an HP MFP M277 color laserjet about 4 years ago for a song and it has worked flawlessly. You can configure it to print grayscale so it only uses the black toner if you choose, but have color available when you need it.

I understand your mind is set to get another printer, but there seems to be a Linux driver for your Kyocera FS-1350DN at us.driverscollection.com, allegedly even supporting "extended features", whatever these might be. Released Nov 2019, should work with current distros.

I have a HP Laser Jet Pro M203dw, it works well. I have it connected ( usb2 ) to a Raspberry Pi-3 running Slackware current. Works like a Pro, no problems what so ever.

HPLIP, the version I have installed id hplip-3.20.5-arm-1.
CUPS - cups-2.3.3-arm-4

Don't worry about mine being on an ARM device, the packages versions are all that matters. As stated above, you may have to update the HPLIP version if the driver is not listed.

I have had several HP printers over the years. Each one has worked and played nicely with every distro I've thrown at it, including Mint, both on bare metal and in VMs.

Another option for Kyocera, with driverless printing you just print!

Same works for my HP, but some of the features are not usable and definitely not the scanner.

Thanks to all for replies.

Update: Kyocera still hopeless, Have downloaded and installed what appears to be the latest driver at driverscollection. It worked once (badly), and the next time I switched on, not at all.

As Hplip is installed as default and can easily be updated, that seems to be the way to go.

HP has probably the best Linux support of any printer manufacturer.

You can check for compatibility of specific models at the HPLIP web page.

This model appears to be quite old as it is certified for Windows Vista and uses DDR2 RAM. It was available on Amazon on June 20, 2012 but is no longer on sale.

The IPP Everywhere standard was not even published until 2013. Printers supporting that standard didn't come out until much later.

https://www.cnet.com/products/kyocer...-laser-series/

In order to use "driverless printing" a printer must be new enough to support DNS-SD and the IPP Everywhere standard which was only published in 2013.

As stated certification of this standard didn't exist until 2016.

HP and Epson are good with Linux supported goodies. All I ever chose.
To rescue the Kiawatha(whatever) see if simple scan or xsane will run the scanner and try printing from gimp or Libre Office

What scanner are you talking about ? The Kyocera is just a monochrome workgroup high end laser printer.

Kyocera is short for Kyoto Ceramics.

What is "Kiawatha" ? Hiawatha was a Native American leader.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha

Update:

Tried absolutely everything. Still hopeless. Kyocera printer for the bin. Couldn't even give it away. Simple HP bought and installed.

The one laptops HPLIP was actually too new - the printer was no longer listed. But like cars, they change the bodywork and say it's a'new model', but it's still the same under the bonnet. So it suggested a different driver and away it went. Essentially worked straight out the box. The other laptop needed a more recent HPLIP than the one it had. Other than that, plain sailing.

For the future, if it's not on HPLIP, I'm not having it.