I need Red Hat driver for Dell 689 (or 698?) WiFi Network Printer
 

Title says it all.

I also want to know if there's a large Linux/Red Hat driver download source for various devices. All I've found so far are sites that make you pay and then they'll let you do a driver search.

968 is not listed as being Linux compatible..

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...C35&l=en&s=gen

and the open printing database says the 960, 962, and the 964 are all Paperweights and have no functionality whatsoever in Linux

Not looking too good for a lot of the Dell printers on Linux. Most of the models that work have number similar to Samsung and Brother printers which have probably been re-branded for Dell

Thanks for the assist, farslayer.

Ya know, I don't need specific driver support for this I don't think. This is a Network-attached printer, and all the computers in the house print to it without a specific driver being installed (unless it's automatically installed behind the scenes), and that means XP, Vista, Win2K, and MacOS 8 (yes 8!) all print to it seemingly transparently.

So I figure all I really need is a driver for a typical inkjet, since my Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop systems finds the printer on the network just fine.

Any tips there?

I am very much a Linux/Unix newbie, but I'm an experienced programmer and I've been able to adapt to some of the weirdest proprietary OSes out there, such as MAX-IV and MPX-32, so this shouldn't be too tough -- except there's so MUCH open source stuff for Linux out there it's awfully intimidating for we newbies to figure out what the hell is what! I watched Red Hat install and things went flying by like Gnome and K(stuff) and all this creatively named whatits till my eyes glazed over. You know, at least the proprietary OSes had the benefit of being well-contained and consistent. But such is "progress", eh?

Well the majority of Laser printers will all work with the HP LJ4 standard PCL Driver. Inkjets don't always use a standard PCL driver some require screwy proprietary protocols. regardless if you are directly connected over a cable or network, if the printer speaks some foreign printer protocol (Anything other than ASCII, PCL or Postscript) without a drier you may be lost..

Since Dell now sells Linux systems you could call them and ask about what driver to use, or possibly check the Dell Linux forums for more assistance..

If you do find an answer please come back and post it here in case someone else is having the same problem..

Thanks. I apologize for the tardiness of my reply, but I've had a highly improbable series of unbootable systems recently.

I've learned that the Dell 968 NAP is just a rebranding of the Lexmark X9350 NAP. While both Lexmark and Dell say they probably won't ever offer a Linux driver for this thing, I figure there's now a better chance of finding a Linux-compatible driver for it than there was for same thing with the Dell brand.

Recall, though, that this can be used as just another inkjet color printer, albeit one that connects via an Ethernet port or router or switch (rather than directly), which has always been Linux's strong suit (yes?)

Again I still say if they are NOT using one of the standard printing protocols it really doesn't matter how it's connected.. Serial, parallel, USB, or Network, that's just the physical media portion of the equation. I can still print ASCII, PCL or postscript over any of those connections.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/...protocols.html

For example:
HP has a proprietary printing protocol called PPA
Although HP uses a proprietary printing protocol for many of their printers, I believe they have provided support for it in Linux with their HPLIP driver.

Best of luck in your search.
Might also want to give the forums at openprinting.org a shot for info on your printer..