First off, this is Mdk 10.1 Official. I have MDK 9.2 installed and ( sort of ) working with my Lexmark 4039 model 10R postscript printer. I have spent a lot of time trying to get this printer to work with 10.1, but it still does not print, even test page. It is a parallel port printer, and is plugged in to the only parallel port on my Compaq Deskpro.

Now I said "sort of" under 9.2. Let me explain. Linuxprinting.org says 4039 Plus is fully supported and works perfectly. I do not know the differences between a 4039 Plus and the 4039 10R I own. To get the 10R working under 9.2, I used Cups printer admin graphical tool to configure. It will not work if I configure it as a Lexmark 4039 Plus. I tried different PPD files and discovered it would work reasonably well if I used the HP Laser printer PPD file.

This does not work under 10.1 for what ever reason I don't know.

I went to the Lexmark site and downloaded the "correct" ppd file for the 10R, that did not work for me either.

I tried to configure the printer using printerdrake, and that is a complete disaster. I can point it at the PPD file, but it will not use it complaining the file is not "standard format" what ever that means. I gave up on printerdrake.

I also tried Webmin --> Hardware --> Edit Printer. This gives some more problems. I do have a PPD file at /etc/cups/ppd/4039.ppd If I try to change a parameter such as paper size from A3 to Letter, the probram returns the following :

Failed to save printer : '/etc/cups/ppd/4039.ppd' does not exist

So, at this point I'm lost, and more than a little frustrated.

Any thoughts on how I can get this printer going under 10.1?

I would also appreciate any input on how to convince 9.2 this thing is a 10R, not a HP Laser printer. If it matters, It works fine under W98 on the same system.

Further info, lsmod shows I do have the following parallel port support loaded :

lp 9548 2
parport_pc 30976 1
parport 33896 2 lp,parport_pc

First, the
"Failed to save printer : '/etc/cups/ppd/4039.ppd' does not exist"
looks familiar to me, try it as root! It may be a permission problem.
Second, when using cups, you should have foomaticdb-engine installed, and probably also foomatic-db (this is very important, my printer doesn't work without it!) Now, it will probably already be installed by MDK.
You can see if it's installed with
Then, goto
http://linuxprinting.org/ppd-o-matic..._10plus&show=0
(This downloads the 4039-plus-ppd-file)
Save it as
/usr/share/cups/model/Lexmark-4039-plus or so.
Now, you can use the CUPS webinterface, and you should be able to configure the thing!
First try printing as root, then as a normal user.
Hope it'll work for you.

Well, I have spent way too much time trying to get this printer working, without success.

I have spent hours reading Linuxprinting.org. That has helped some, but not completely. I have tried several ppd files, including the one that came shipped with the 4039 on original diskettes. I have tred configuring the thing through the web interface. I finally spent the time and learned how to configure the thing through the command line.

Just for interest sake, here is the command I used. It adds the printer very nicley.

/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p lex4039p -E -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -m ibm4039.ppd

Note, the ibm4039.ppd file is the one that came with the printer on diskette. I also tried the one called lex4039p.ppd. The printing results are the same with both ppd files. If I print test page from the web tool, it prints a color wheel, ( in black and white) another image of 1 degree radial lines, a box around the outside of the 8 1/2 x 11 in sheet of paper, and the following error message at the bottom.

ERROR: undefined
on command : rectfill
Stack : 158.35 , 36.195 , 216.412 , 255.213 , 158.35 , end_of_stack.

I tried to print through Firefox. It gives a similar result. I was reading the Cups documentation. I did a ctrl + p from the web browser, selected the 4039 and asked for page 1. It printed a 6 inch high C with 1 inch high letters in the middle of the C. (Unix Printing System). I got a horizontal line 3/4 the way down the page, below the graphic. At the bottom I got;

ERROR : undefined
on command : undef
Stack : --dict-- , rowdata , end_of_stack.

Some other things I don't understand. If I try to change the ppd file settings, such as paper size from within Webmin, I get an error reporting the ppd file does not exist. It does, and the path is correct in Webmin. I have looked at the cups.conf file. From what I can see, I should be able to edit this file from my own machine. The default does not allow it from another network printer. You have to edit the file and add an allow + host IP address you want to allow from.
So where do I go from here? BTW I tried this as a regular user, and as root. Won't work either way.

The Lexmark 4039 10R is a postscript printer from what I can determine. It also supports PCL5. It will print under MDK9.2 if I tell cups it is a HP LaserJet. That doesn't seem to work on MDK 10.1 Official.

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.