is the Printer Driver obsolete (it should be)

mike acker · 05-26-2019, 07:09 AM

once again this morning my Debian 9 dropped its CUPS printer: "not reachable" -- even though the printer showed active in the router table -- and worked from the guest computer.
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we need printers that print .pdf files

that way we can feed 'em with thumb drives when the net is spacing out for unknown reasons
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a Chromebook expects the use to print via "Google Print Services" -- i.e. you send your print request to a queue managed by Google and they send it to your print. use it from anyplace -- yea? let Google review your work -- ?
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let's just put and end to this madness, finally. make printers print .pdf documents; get rid of print drivers.
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</rant>

syg00 · 05-26-2019, 07:15 AM

Make computers run programs - get rid of operating systems.

Hmmmm ....

teckk · 05-26-2019, 08:31 AM

You don't have to use CUPS if you don't like it. You can use lpr or just send a doc to the printer port once you have it formatted in the language that the printer understands. What printer language does your printer speak?

Quote:

we need printers that print .pdf files

Then get one that understands pdf language. Or if you have a postscript printer, make a postscript document out of the pdf first.
https://linux.die.net/man/1/pdf2ps
Then send it to the printer port.

Code:

su -c "/dev/usb/lp1 < psfile"
su -c "cat psfile.ps > /dev/usb/lp1"

If you have a PCL printer then convert the doc to PCL first

Code:

dev=laserjet
outfile=MyFile.pcl
infile=MyFile.ps
gs -q -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=$dev -sOutputFile=$outfile $infile -c quit

Or network printer

Code:

netcat 192.168.1.20 9100 < $outfile"

If you have a cheep windows GDI printer, that only speaks windows, then that's what you are stuck with.
My hats off to the CUPS devs for making all of that work so well.

mike acker · 05-26-2019, 11:31 AM

thanks

generally CUPS works quite well

I should have tried to ping the printer when I found it listed as status: unreachable

power-cycling the router, and the printer and the client got things working again.

when we get a new printer I'll look for one that will print .pdf from a thumb drive. It just seems to me that if every printer has to have a special print-driver then those special print-drivers should be in the printers rather than installed in the clients.

this issue comes to a head when you need something quickly -- and the net doesn't connect. an alternate method is needed

business_kid · 05-26-2019, 01:32 PM

Seems to me that your problem is as much a dodgy network as a printer problem

mike acker · 05-28-2019, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Seems to me that your problem is as much a dodgy network as a printer problem

you may very well be right; i'll be looking at that

sevendogsbsd · 05-28-2019, 10:34 AM

Unfortunately, there is a trend among printer manufacturers to pull printer functionality from the printer (hardware) itself and put it all in a windows binary driver. Cheaper to manufacture this way but obviously less versatile. I personally only buy printers that can do postscript/PCL and avoid printers that do not have this support. That is getting more difficult these days.

business_kid · 05-29-2019, 08:14 AM

Connect the thing and get it going there.

I agree with sevendogsbsd. Look for laser printers, and spend what you can. If you don't you get ripped off on cartridges, or toner. I have a cheapo HP Laserjet 1102W, which has been the subject of more than 1 thread here. I ended up resorting to windows to sort it with an IP. From 2015 or so:

Code:

The solution finally proved to be
0. Remove Guest Access on my modem.
1. Do a master reset (Hold down both buttons, WiFi & 'X', power up and hold while noisy).
2. Boot M$ Vista and purge it of all instances & copies of the printer (which means cancelling all jobs on each.
3. Insert the driver cd, and run uninstall.exe (Absolute Last Resort).
4. Set up from scratch with HpSetup.exe (I was desperate). The windows cd sets up wifi over usb, and then prints a test page over wifi.
5. Examine the Modem, and see what IP the printer had
6. Back in linux, run 'sudo hp-setup <printer_ip>
7. Print a test page in linux, and a page of text to be sure.

And with that, you need to make sure on point 5 that your printer keeps getting the same IP

sevendogsbsd · 05-29-2019, 09:00 AM

I have had good luck with my Xerox printer: my Phaser 3260 was only $70 brand new and does PCL and postscript, sets up just fine in CUPS on both Linux and FreeBSD. I know I don't have to use CUPS but it's easy so...cartridges aren't bad, around $40 US I think. Brother printers are also great printers and the cartridges are cheap but you have to watch the models: some are paperweights in Linux and some work fine. They tend to do use a lot of functionality in the driver and not so much in the hardware though, but their Linux support isn't bad.

mike acker · 06-01-2019, 02:13 PM

thanks for all the help

i have to agree: for some reason my CUPS is losing the IP of the printer: possibly does to some conflict with the WiFi router. Power cycling the router and then the printer puts it back online but to me this is indicative of a problem in error recovery in one of the components

I'm thinking of taking the printer off DHCP and giving it a fixed address ( the one it's using now ) .

dugan · 06-01-2019, 02:41 PM

My Brother DCP-7060D has great Linux support. The manufacturer provides Linux drivers. They work.

mike acker · 06-01-2019, 03:38 PM

thanks
Brother makes good printers; I'll have to check 'em out
I'm just about needing a new one anyway

ChuangTzu · 06-01-2019, 03:52 PM

I second Brother printers with Linux, they are great. The HL-2270DW mono laser is my printing workhorse. Brother Toner/Drums last a long time, you can even find good quality third party versions of Toner/Drums on Amazon. I would post a direct link but don't want it to seem like an advert.... Hint subtract the first letter from blinkyo and search for it.

mike acker · 06-01-2019, 04:03 PM

thanks guys!
I'll definitely be reviewing Brother printers as I look into replacing the WF-4630

I need a 4:1 system; color. and I'd like it to be able to print .pdf from a thumb-stick

Shadow_7 · 06-06-2019, 10:47 AM

Back in the day there was a standard, postscript. You could literally cat a postscript file and direct it at the printers /dev/ name back in that day. There's an a2ps application that will convert most everything (anything 2 postscript / a2ps) to postscript, including PDF. I normally convert to postscript, then open that in gimp, convert it to gray-scale and print it.