Printers and printing

[mauroj]

All - I am soliciting help with printing. There are two questions I have.
The first has to do with a specific issue where printing stops working.
The second (potentially easy) is a broad solicitation of "hey all - what
printer do you use on your Ubuntu desktop that is rock solid - has been
working problem free for a long time"? The motivation for the second question
is we're willing to make the investment and buy a new printer if there's
enough feedback on something that works really well.

The current problem is with a Brother printer (3070CW), USB connected
to the Ubuntu desktop. Periodically (every couple months), printing no longer
works - print jobs sit in the queue, the printer is on and ready, but the jobs
never get sent down. Gyrations with System Settings->Printer, etc, do
not help. The only thing that helps is removing the printer from Ubuntu,
then adding it back. After that, it works again for a while. So it sounds like
a flakey driver that just periodically needs the kick a remove/add sequence generates.

Has anyone had similar experience with Brother printers?
Again, tell me about you "rock solid" printer experience!

FYI - latest Unbuntu release and all updates done.

Thanks
Jim

[pdc]

Jim: I wonder what printer driver you are using with your HL-3070CW?

If you click on this link, http://localhost:631/printers/ it opens CUPS, printer admin, on your system: look in column 4, Make & Model, and can you copy and paste what is says for your Brother.........and if more than one entry, please tell us

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you could tell us what drivers are installed by copying this command into a terminal

dpkg -l | grep Brother

and then copying the result.............and pasting it back here please .......

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My suggestion after all that would be it might ....................be best to delete the current icon for your printer in the PRINTERS section; and then run the install script that Brother provides; and it will do the work of installing printer drivers; and creating an entry for you in lpadmin

if I leave the link for the Brother Install Tool here http://support.brother.com/g/b/downl...ng=4&type3=625
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I think all the printers from ...........HP, Brother, Canon, Epson work well when they have the correct connections installed ........... it is the connections that can be a bit tricky sometimes..................

This is a usb connection?

[Sef]

The second (potentially easy) is a broad solicitation of "hey all - what
printer do you use on your Ubuntu desktop that is rock solid - has been
working problem free for a long time"?

I like HP printers; to see what printers are supported, click here.

[efflandt]

The best printers for Linux are network printers that support postscript or HP PCL printer languages. *nix has been using postscript for printing since the dawn of time. Then even if you need to swap a printer for some reason it will probably just work, at least temporarily, without even having to change drivers. When our main HP laser printer at our office broke down, which prints both locally and remotely via VPN from our factory order entry computer, I picked up a Lexmark x204n do everything laser for $150US to fill in temporarily. It is the same 1200 dpi and understands HP PCL (and postscript), so all I had to do was assign it the IP address of our main printer and it just worked without changing any drivers (except that it could not duplex, which we would only sometimes do locally). So that got us through until we got a new main HP printer.

I used an HP LaserJet 4L at home for many, many years in Linux. When that finally thought there was a paper jam that wasn't and I was fed up with little used ink jets drying up, I got a Lexmark C543n which is network color laser that does duplex (postscript or HP PCL). At the time Ubuntu did not have a driver for it, so I used the Lexmark C534 driver which simply worked. I later got a C543n for our office, which can subsitute for our main HP printer when it wears out (including duplex). Ubuntu now supports the C543n which Lexmark has discontinued for a newer model.

The point is that if a network printer understands common printing control languages like postscript or HP PCL it should be able to work in Linux even if there is not a specific driver for it. And most network printers or printer servers support HP JetDirect besides lpr/lpd printing protocols even if they do not say so due to trademark.

[maco2]

Thanks efflandt. Very useful guidance. Am new to ubuntu. Got 12.04 LTS 64 bit and having serious trouble (due to being a thicko) getting my Canon MP 560 to work. All the convoluted workarounds I have read leave me cold. Much too complicated for this 80 year old fart. Even got to the point of considering buying a new all-in-one printer that was guaranteed to work out of the box, plug and play. But finding a current compatible model from HP is another challenge.

Anyong got ideas? Maco

[pfeiffep]

All - <snip>
Again, tell me about you "rock solid" printer experience!
<snip>
Thanks
Jim

We use an HP phoosmart c6280 which has a network connection. We are able to print wirelessly from a Mac Book Pro (Mac OS), Dell Studio laptop (both Windows and Ubuntu), Dell Inspiron Laptop (Ubuntu) ... th printer is connected via usb to an HP desktop (both Windows and Ubuntu).

[pdc]

so maco2; welcome to the forums; and sorry to hear of your troubles with the MP560

It is a 5year old printer; and back in them days; linux was all 32bit ..........and perhaps surprisingly.............Canon matched that by producing 32bit drivers.

So Canon make a driver for your printer; that I could guide you to install; but you have leapt ahead and set up a 64bit system; which makes it harder.

________________

I have seen the workhorse Canon inkjet printers for about US$30 or equivalent in many places: increasingly, replacing the ink cartridges may cost you more .............

..........if you want guidance on the MP560 I can give you that; I see it as 3 steps:

1) set up some symbolic links: to tell the 2010 Canon drivers where to look to find what they need in your 64bit system; (sort of like .............where are my socks dear.........I can't seem to find them.........)
2) install libtiff4 as ubuntu leaves that out
3) install the Canon drivers

......details to follow if you ask for them .............

[maco2]

Thanks pdc for your prompt response. Perhaps I should add that I live in sunny (today) Surrey in the UK.

When I started to look at trying Ubuntu, I chose 12.04 because it was LTS and the 64 bit version because all the pundits seemed to say it was the future. I never imagined it would cause the problems it has with that most normal of partners, the humble printer!

I only need a fairly basic inkjet printer (print/copy/scan) hence my MP560. So, if I can get my Ubuntu to work easily and properly with my MP560, that is my obvious first choice.

I have 2 desk top PC's. One running Win 7 and the second more recent addition running Ubuntu. My wife has just got a Dell laptop (Win 7 also) which we hope to link to the printer.

The MP560 is wifi enabled (on) and I have added wireless LAN USB Adaptors 802.11N to the PCs.

I have tried to follow the advice on other posts regarding what is clearly a problem but stumble due to my lack of knowledge. For example, the screen I have up clearly does not match that used in the answer or I am asked to go somewhere else to I know not where to implement some other task.

If you are willing to treat me with patience, then please, I should be grateful for your help.

Best, Mac.

[pdc]

thanks Mac; the daffodils should be starting to appear in sunny Surrey? well, let's tackle the 3 steps:

1) set up some symbolic links:
2) install libtiff4 as ubuntu leaves that out
3) install the Canon drivers

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firstly, if we use the terminal to do the work: ............many ways to open it; I suggest holding 3 keys down: control and alt and t and that should open the terminal; ........if for some reason it doesn't work, https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal has other ideas

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we need to paste commands into a terminal; whereas in many programmes if one holds down 2 keys: control and v to paste .......... the terminal has a planned difference and it uses 3 keys: shift and control and v ............ or just use your mouse and the top line of terminal; Edit and then down to paste .......

I list the commands you need to paste below inside the code signs: after pasting each line, please hit the ENTER key to make it all happen ........

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1) symbolic links

sudo ln -s /usr/lib /usr/lib64

sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib /usr/local/lib64

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2) install libtiff4

if you click on this link ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/t/tiff3/ it is the very respected Debian repository and if you go 14 down the list, there is an amd64 version of libtiff4 (the first 13 you are see are libtiff-dev which you do NOT want);

so click on that 14th entry and your system should offer to save or open it .......... in the context of downloading, open should mean install and gladly accept the offer of doing that and see it installed ..............

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3) install drivers

having done the groundwork, one now installs the Canon drivers: if you go here, http://support-asia.canon-asia.com/c...100236502.html and click to download and this time SAVE the package please; that way it ends up in your Downloads folder and the following commands can find it .................. it comes down as cnijfilter-mp560series-3.20-1-i386-deb.tar.gz

......... so in the terminal if still open .....

cd Downloads

tar -zxvf cnijfilter-mp560series-3.20-1-i386-deb.tar.gz

cd cnijfilter-mp560series-3.20-1-i386-deb

./install.sh

so that last command is the install script: it should ..........do all the work ......... of both installing the drivers AND registering the printer on your system; if it baulks at you having 64bit; and it being 32bit; if you let me know and we can do some direct installing of the drivers; I have subscribed to this thread.............which one does from thread tools top-right........so I can try and keep in touch

good luck!

[maco2]

'Morning pdc.

Full of enthusiasm on receipt of your reply, I copy it across to my other PC and print it. On entering at the prompt the first line of the code I get :-

[sudo] password for mclean:


I try to enter my machine password but it refuses to accept any entry at the flashing cursor. Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ! ! !

Now what?