Debian 2.4.27: Need help finding a driver to install Lexmark Z25 Printer

CandyCane · 03-20-2006, 03:52 PM

I'm new to linux because my boyfriend hates windows and was fed up with trying to fix my computer and just installed Debian. Now that's cleared up, I need help. I can't find a driver online to install my Lexmark Z25 printer to work with Debian. I can find one for Red Hat, Suse, and something else, but not Debian. I can assume that I can't use one of those for my system. If anyone can help me with directions that a child can follow, it would be greatly appreciated. If not, I can get a dicitionary to help. Thank you.

P.S. I can't afford to buy a new printer right now.

JimBass · 03-20-2006, 10:06 PM

You will have a bit of a challenge ahead of you. A large part of the problem is as you have already found out, Lexmark only releases drivers for Red Hat, Mandrake, and Suse. Normally those versions of linux use the rpm package to install, and there is a debian tool called alien which allows you to install (or at least attempt to) install from those file types. The problem with these drivers is that they are not rpm, but just shell scripts, which can be installed on any linux system. That sounds good, except after about 100 lines of shell script, it goes to some binary junk, leaving us with no idea what it is trying to do.

Looking here at the linuxquestions.org Hardware Compatibility List, I can see that nobody has had a good experience with installing the drivers for this printer. Even worse, the CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) has no drivers for that printer. So the only source you have is the lexmark driver, and the ability of that to work is questionable at best.

You can download the newest version of the driver from lexmark,
To install it, you need to untar and then install. You can download the file to a new directory in your home directory. I would do it with these steps:

Code:

cd 
mkdir printer-driver
(now download the driver to this directory)
cd printer-driver
tar zxvf CJLZ35LE-CUPS-2.0-1.TAR.GZ
(that will extract the contents of the tar file)
su 
(will ask you for the root password)
./lexmarkz35-CUPS-2.0-1.gz.sh

That should install it, but I doubt it will work. The OSes that lexmark lists as working with this driver are ancient, it is like finding drivers for Windows 98 for your XP box. They might work, but I wouldn't count on it. Give it a shot, and let us know if you can get it working.

Peace,
JimBass