HOWTO: Lexmark Printers

[BLTicklemonster]

What I think is funny is how lexmark has this:

http://www.lexmark.com/lexmark/seque...5_0_en,00.html

which makes it look like they have everything under control (to the casual observer), when in fact, their support is weak. Scanner support is basically nonexistant from what I've see.

My wifey-poo got me a nice scanner/printer for Christmas, and it's basically useless in linux. I can get it barely working to print, but the scanner (which loads right up in the other operating system, and does incredible scanning) support just isn't there at all.

One would think that the entire printer industry would stop and see the - oddness? - of making different drivers for just about every printer made. What's the point in that? I'm speaking of companies, not HP drivers supporting Lexmark, but one set of drivers for all of one company's printers. Sure, each scanner has different needs, but building the drivers on a core, and working out from there would be more efficient, wouldn't it?

[Lacrimstein]

I just reinstalled ubuntu today, and i'm trying to install my z515 printer again. Last time, i installed it using this tutorial, and it installed very smoothly.
but now, I cannot find the z600 in the models list even after rebooting. I think that it has something to do with the fact that ./z600 outputs

direct z600:/dev/usblp0 "Lexmark Lexmark Z600 Series" "Lexmark Printer"

instead of

direct z600:/dev/usb/lp0 "Lexmark Lexmark Z600 Series" "Lexmark Printer"

basically, the slash between usb and lp0 is missing. how can I change it? or is it something else?

[Mountaingod]

I've got a z708 and somebody else here said it worked for them so I tried it. I don't think it's working for me.

Everything went fine, except for a couple of warning messages half way through that went along the lines of "not executed as root, some of the permissions may not be right" - but I didn't change to doing those commands via sudo because I figured it was deliberate, being as how the instructions didn't omit sudo in other places.

When I was done, and went to System > Administration > Printing > Add printer, I now get two detected instead of the usual one:



The top one I always had, the bottom one is new. Whichever one I choose, when it comes to identifying the model in the next step, neither the z600 or z708 is an option.

Checking the printer backend (one of the last steps in the howto) prints out a message pretty much the same as what it should be.

If I can't fix this and get my printer working, my alternative question is:
how do I reverse whatever this howto has just done to my computer??

[Mountaingod]

Any suggestions? It appeared to be putting stuff all over my filesystem, and if it's stuff made with alien I'd rather it come back off again being as how it's not doing anything useful.

[spacetree]

just install xsane. it worked for me

[HardcoreLinux]

Excuse my lack of Linux-knowlege, but how do you "add" that line to /etc/fstab.

$ sudo nano -w /etc/fstab

Add that line to the file

[rahimveron]

Will this work in Lexmark X1185 in Gutsy Gibbon?
It is recognized as a generic X1100 series but it does not print. It remains idle.

[Nichtigkeit]

Confirming that this solution works for the X1155 printer-scanner. Perfectly!! Thanks so much for this workaround

[blank.bruno]

Under Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), my X1270 works perfectly for me (printing portion). I had one minor issue, in that I had to delete the existing entry from System->Administration->Printing, then perform the steps to add a printer, making sure to select the Z600 driver as instructed. Thank you so very much for the help with this.

[andrewdodd13]

I was about to post in here, asking how I could make this work over SAMBA - I have my Lexmark X1150 connected to my Windows PC and shared so I can print from my laptops (well one is my sisters). I'd followed the guide, and added the printer via Gnome administration, I pressed "Print Test"... and... nothing.

"Damned" I thought. So I thought... right... I have no idea how to debug this, so first thing I thought... maybe network printing needs the printer to be switched on, so I pressed the button, and since I couldn't hear the mechanical noises cause of the loud music I had on, I assumed it went on.

But it didn't. Long story short, it works fine over a network.

I'd just pulled the power cable out with my feet.

Accepting nominations for the Darwin award.