Hello!
It seems like the term "network printer" often refers to printers which are connected to a computer, which then shares that printer out to the network. There are tomes and tomes of arcane configuration manuals for getting this sort of printing to work. However, there are also printers with ethernet ports, and I would like to know if anyone has experience getting one of these kinds of printers to work on Linux. Do you just plug the printer in to your network, turn it on, and see it appear in print dialogs on your computer, or is the process more involved than that?
On Sun, Aug 16, 2020, at 8:40 AM, Matti Pulkkinen wrote:
Hello!
It seems like the term "network printer" often refers to printers which are connected to a computer, which then shares that printer out to the network. There are tomes and tomes of arcane configuration manuals for getting this sort of printing to work. However, there are also printers with ethernet ports, and I would like to know if anyone has experience getting one of these kinds of printers to work on Linux. Do you just plug the printer in to your network, turn it on, and see it appear in print dialogs on your computer, or is the process more involved than that?
Depends on the printer. What make/model?
For my Brother printer I downloaded a script directly from Brother and told it what model. It found the printer, downloaded the rpm files for both print and scan and installed them. All functions work very well. This is a DCP-L2550DW.
Doug H. kirjoitti 16.8.2020 klo 19.00:
Depends on the printer. What make/model?
None yet. I haven't decided whether I'll buy one yet. I don't want one that'll only work on one computer at a time, but at the same time I don't want to set up a printing server, or really anything where I have to connect the printer to a computer at all. I just want the printer to have a power cord and an ethernet cable connected to it, and ideally I want it to Just Work™. I'm trying to figure out if this is even possible at this time.
For my Brother printer I downloaded a script directly from Brother and told it what model. It found the printer, downloaded the rpm files for both print and scan and installed them. All functions work very well. This is a DCP-L2550DW.
Is this over the network, or connected to a PC over USB?
any printer that supports "IPP Everywhere"
https://www.pwg.org/ipp/everywhere.html
should be plug-n-play, for USB &/or network connected.
list of supported printers:
numerous printing clients support it.
CUPS, available just about everywhere, forever, does nicely.
Here's an example:
PGNet Dev kirjoitti 16.8.2020 klo 20.58:
any printer that supports "IPP Everywhere"
https://www.pwg.org/ipp/everywhere.html
should be plug-n-play, for USB &/or network connected.
list of supported printers:
Thanks, this sounds like a really useful resource. Unfortunately it looks like the laser printers that are a) on the list and b) sold where I live are all a bit too upscale for me. Probably meant for businesses.
There's an HP printer I found a good deal on that actually advertises Linux support, which took me by surprise. In a customer review someone said Linux Mint picked it up over the network automatically, which sounds promising. If I can manage to find contact info for HP, I might ask them if the printer actually supports IPP Everywhere, and the list is just out of date. Can't hurt.
On 2020-08-17 06:12, Matti Pulkkinen wrote:
PGNet Dev kirjoitti 16.8.2020 klo 20.58:
any printer that supports "IPP Everywhere"
https://www.pwg.org/ipp/everywhere.html
should be plug-n-play, for USB &/or network connected.
list of supported printers:
Thanks, this sounds like a really useful resource. Unfortunately it looks like the laser printers that are a) on the list and b) sold where I live are all a bit too upscale for me. Probably meant for businesses.
There's an HP printer I found a good deal on that actually advertises Linux support, which took me by surprise. In a customer review someone said Linux Mint picked it up over the network automatically, which sounds promising. If I can manage to find contact info for HP, I might ask them if the printer actually supports IPP Everywhere, and the list is just out of date. Can't hurt.
For HP printers one would simply configure it using the hplip tools supplied with Fedora.
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/supported_devices/in...
Give a list of supported printers.
I've had zero problems to configure HP printers. The biggest issue I had was, since I bought the printer here in Taiwan, was getting the LCD panel on the printer switched from Chinese to English. :-)
For my Brother printer I downloaded a script directly from Brother and told it what model. It found the printer, downloaded the rpm files for both print and scan and installed them. All functions work very well. This is a DCP-L2550DW.
Is this over the network, or connected to a PC over USB?
I connected the printer to the WiFi network but Ethernet would work the same.
All devices on the network share it.
On 8/16/20 1:34 PM, Matti Pulkkinen wrote:
Doug H. kirjoitti 16.8.2020 klo 19.00:
Depends on the printer. What make/model?
None yet. I haven't decided whether I'll buy one yet. I don't want one that'll only work on one computer at a time, but at the same time I don't want to set up a printing server, or really anything where I have to connect the printer to a computer at all. I just want the printer to have a power cord and an ethernet cable connected to it, and ideally I want it to Just Work™. I'm trying to figure out if this is even possible at this time.
I think that the fellow with the Brother printer was very lucky. I have two (actually three, but one not often used) printers, one HP and one Epson, and OpenSuse Tumbleweed, and so far I cannot get them working. Previously I used these printers on a different Linux system, and a kind soul told me how to get them to work: it was complicated. However, I would guess that in most cases, HP would be the least problem to make work. --doug
For my Brother printer I downloaded a script directly from Brother and told it what model. It found the printer, downloaded the rpm files for both print and scan and installed them. All functions work very well. This is a DCP-L2550DW.
Is this over the network, or connected to a PC over USB?
On Sun, Aug 16, 2020 at 06:40:39PM +0300, Matti Pulkkinen wrote:
Hello!
It seems like the term "network printer" often refers to printers which are connected to a computer, which then shares that printer out to the network. There are tomes and tomes of arcane configuration manuals for getting this sort of printing to work. However, there are also printers with ethernet ports, and I would like to know if anyone has experience getting one of these kinds of printers to work on Linux. Do you just plug the printer in to your network, turn it on, and see it appear in print dialogs on your computer, or is the process more involved than that?
It is the only type I'll buy. I add in to that specification PostScript capability. Though I think HP's printer language would work also.
In setting them up on their own config procedure I assign a static IP address that is within my subnet. Early on, for my home network I reserved a small block of addresses specifically for printers, X.Y.Z.6[0-9].
For Linux, the CUPS printing system has a pretty good "network discovery" ability. In Days Of Old I sometimes had to locate the ".ppd" file (PS Printer Description?) from the manufacturer, the net, or another OS. They are text files and not OS specific.
My experience with Windows is limited to my wife's computers and a VM on linux. But this has been trivial network discovery also. Sometimes helped with manufacturers "driver" software.
My current phone and tablet (both Android) can also print to my current printer. The manufacturer had an app for that.
Jon
Matti Pulkkinen writes:
Hello!
It seems like the term "network printer" often refers to printers which are connected to a computer, which then shares that printer out to the network. There are tomes and tomes of arcane configuration manuals for getting this sort of printing to work. However, there are also printers with ethernet ports, and I would like to know if anyone has experience getting one of these kinds of printers to work on Linux. Do you just plug the printer in to your network, turn it on, and see it appear in print dialogs on your computer, or is the process more involved than that?
For my HP printer, that was pretty much it. hplip detected it, and set it up, and that was that.
This varies printer by printer, I suppose. But for HP printers, these days, it's fairly straightforward. The only thing you have to do is some due diligence, and verify that the particular HP model is supported by hplip.
The only other thing I had to do is grab the printer's MAC address, and have my DHCP server give it a static assignment, and add a DNS entry for it. This way I can load the printer's admin panel in my browser.
Sam Varshavchik kirjoitti 16.8.2020 klo 21.18:
This varies printer by printer, I suppose. But for HP printers, these days, it's fairly straightforward. The only thing you have to do is some due diligence, and verify that the particular HP model is supported by hplip.
My expectation based on a previous bad experience with a Samsung printer (and various horror stories I've heard online) was that Linux support in printers would range from abysmal to just plain terrible, but it seems there are actually a fair few models from HP which even advertise Linux support. Maybe I'm still living in a past age. Either way it's nice to be pleasantly surprised.
On 8/16/20 3:18 PM, Matti Pulkkinen wrote:
Sam Varshavchik kirjoitti 16.8.2020 klo 21.18:
This varies printer by printer, I suppose. But for HP printers, these days, it's fairly straightforward. The only thing you have to do is some due diligence, and verify that the particular HP model is supported by hplip.
My expectation based on a previous bad experience with a Samsung printer (and various horror stories I've heard online) was that Linux support in printers would range from abysmal to just plain terrible, but it seems there are actually a fair few models from HP which even advertise Linux support. Maybe I'm still living in a past age. Either way it's nice to be pleasantly surprised.
For many years I haven't had any serious issues with network printers. I've used EPSON, HP, Canon, and Brother printers. Also a big Konica one at a school which was more difficult but that was mostly because of getting user tracking to work.
On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 01:18:36AM +0300, Matti Pulkkinen wrote:
Sam Varshavchik kirjoitti 16.8.2020 klo 21.18:
This varies printer by printer, I suppose. But for HP printers, these days, it's fairly straightforward. The only thing you have to do is some due diligence, and verify that the particular HP model is supported by hplip.
My expectation based on a previous bad experience with a Samsung printer (and various horror stories I've heard online) was that Linux support in printers would range from abysmal to just plain terrible, but it seems there are actually a fair few models from HP which even advertise Linux support. Maybe I'm still living in a past age. Either way it's nice to be pleasantly surprised.
I have or have had 3 brother printers here, of three widely diverse generations. they all worked fine on Linux. the oldest one, when I initially connected it up I used USB, and Linux (an old CentOS, probably 4.x, could I but remember) popped up a window saying such-and-such printer found, do you want it to be automatically configured? so I said yes and voila, a working printer!
the laer two, DCP-7065N and HL-L2360DW work fine with the Brother drivers. I read a review on the 2360 a while back that mentioned one of the "standard" drivers that comes with Linux also works with it, but don't recall which.
the 7065 is a multifunction, and using the Brother drivers, not only does it print, but the scanner works too.
Oh, all of them were connected via ethernet (even if the first started as USB, it wasn't long before I dragged a network cable over to it).
Fred
On Sun, 2020-08-16 at 18:55 -0400, Fred Smith wrote:
I have or have had 3 brother printers here, of three widely diverse generations. they all worked fine on Linux. the oldest one, when I initially connected it up I used USB, and Linux (an old CentOS, probably 4.x, could I but remember) popped up a window saying such-and-such printer found, do you want it to be automatically configured? so I said yes and voila, a working printer!
the laer two, DCP-7065N and HL-L2360DW work fine with the Brother drivers. I read a review on the 2360 a while back that mentioned one of the "standard" drivers that comes with Linux also works with it, but don't recall which.
the 7065 is a multifunction, and using the Brother drivers, not only does it print, but the scanner works too.
Oh, all of them were connected via ethernet (even if the first started as USB, it wasn't long before I dragged a network cable over to it).
I have a Brother HL-3170CDW that works with no configuration at all with Fedora. It was autodiscovered via mDNS and is using the built-in drivers included with Fedora. It's wifi-capable but being in my office near a switch anyway, I just hardwired it.
On 8/16/20 7:09 PM, Kevin Becker wrote:
I have a Brother HL-3170CDW that works with no configuration at all with Fedora. It was autodiscovered via mDNS and is using the built-in drivers included with Fedora. It's wifi-capable but being in my office near a switch anyway, I just hardwired it.
I think I have that same one or something very similar. I did need to install the drivers (rpm) in order to use the scanning function. But that's probably the same for most printers. Unfortunately, scanning is not yet standardized like IPP printing.
On Mon, 17 Aug 2020 01:18:36 +0300 Matti Pulkkinen mkjpul@utu.fi wrote:
My expectation based on a previous bad experience with a Samsung printer (and various horror stories I've heard online) was that Linux support in printers would range from abysmal to just plain terrible, but it seems there are actually a fair few models from HP which even advertise Linux support. Maybe I'm still living in a past age. Either way it's nice to be pleasantly surprised.
I used to look for Mac and PostScript support in years past. I never bothered with cheap WinPrinters---too many horror stories. Networked PS printers worked well once the appropriate PPD was installed.
These days I have a printer (HP CLJ MPF M477fdw) that supports AirPrint. Set up was a breeze for CentOS, Fedora, Mac OS, iOS and Amazon Fire. Everything auto-configued. I think I've even printed from a Windows VM.
Jim
On Sun, 2020-08-16 at 18:40 +0300, Matti Pulkkinen wrote:
It seems like the term "network printer" often refers to printers which are connected to a computer, which then shares that printer out to the network. There are tomes and tomes of arcane configuration manuals for getting this sort of printing to work. However, there are also printers with ethernet ports, and I would like to know if anyone has experience getting one of these kinds of printers to work on Linux. Do you just plug the printer in to your network, turn it on, and see it appear in print dialogs on your computer, or is the process more involved than that?
I've used (now old) printers that have ethernet ports in both ways (through a server, and direct). HP printers are probably one of the easiest to do that way, but I have a Canon Pixma working like that too. HP seem to be particularly good at supporting one or more common print languages (their own and PostScript) across most of their printers, and possibly due to their widespread office use bother to make them usable with Linux. Apple's takeover of CUPS probably helped persuade other printer manufacturers to stop being just windows-only devices.
Printers are one of those things where so many of them do not use any standard language, each one doing their own (often buggy) thing, so you need to access them (those individualistic ones) through a driver. Having that kind of printer running through a server, then having your other printers go through that server (instead of direct) minimises that problem, in that your print server is the only one you'd have to install drivers on.
A server can also help with auto-discovery, *not* *all* printers directly advertise themselves on a network (i.e. some *do*). Without that, each PC would need to be individually configured to use a printer. As opposed to the print server just appearing when you go to print a file.
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Doug H. -
Doug McGarrett -
Ed Greshko -
Fred Smith -
James Szinger -
Jon LaBadie -
Kevin Becker -
Matti Pulkkinen -
PGNet Dev -
Sam Varshavchik -
Samuel Sieb -
Tim