Plug and play laser printer ?

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adam65

Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by adam65 »

I was delighted when I started using Peppermint and recently I installed Mint16 on some laptops at home.
Everything is great on Mint until I try to print something, no matter HP or Canon laser printers-nothing-it sucks like hell !
I am no IT person, I do not have time to try and try and try...
My choice really is to go to shop and buy home laser printer that really works "plug and play" on Mint 16 or to go to shop and buy...Windows 7 !
I really prefer first option above and so I hope that there is some home use laser printer that works 100% instantly after plugged with USB to laptop with Mint 16 ?
Thank you in advance
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Neil Edmond
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Re: Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by Neil Edmond »

I've probably set up half a dozen HP and Brother laser printers to work on Mint, and it has been trivial with all of them. But none have literally been plug-n-play, as in just plug it in and it's ready to print.

Never had that happen with Windows either though. There are always drivers to install at the very least in Windows, and likely some additional software to access printer features.

At least with Linux, there is usually nothing to install, just configure CUPS, and print.
adam65

Re: Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by adam65 »

And so I tried CUPS (first time in my life) with three printers: Epson WF 7520 (inkjet, no Linux drivers available), Canon Laser Shot LBP1120 (no printing no matter what I tried on CUPS) and HP Laser Jet P1006 (CUPS reports "Test Page Printing Completed" or similar but nothing has been actually printed).
Epson is reasonably modern and advanced machine but Seiko Epson doesn't support with driver for Linux.
Two other (laser) printers are pretty old but they both work well with Windows so I do not want to get rid of them (new toners on both).

So which home use laser printer should I go and buy to be 100% sure it will work with Linux Mint 16 ?
Neil Edmond
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Re: Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by Neil Edmond »

try
http://www.openprinting.org/printers
http://www.openprinting.org/drivers

or from your computer
http://localhost:631/

click administration then add printer
and look on the list on the second page

"HP" and "Brother" are probably the best (but certainly not the only) choice to go with if you want a driver waiting for you when you get home with the printer and set it up.
adam65

Re: Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by adam65 »

Thanks Neil but I tried all that before, to no result.
Habitual

Re: Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by Habitual »

adam65 wrote:I hope that there is some home use laser printer that works 100% instantly after plugged with USB to laptop with Mint 16 ?
No such beast. All printers will have to be configured regardless of manufacturer.
Neil Edmond
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Re: Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by Neil Edmond »

Just for giggles, I just now connected my Brother HL-2040 laser printer to a laptop running LMDE that had never before had a printer configured on, or even connected to it. Opened the "Print Settings" dialog from "Control Panel", entered my root password, and Mint recognized the printer as soon as I plugged the USB cable in. Entered root password again to confirm selection of the printer, and up pops a dialog asking if I want to print a test page. I clicked OK, and out popped the "Printer Test Page". Could not be easier.

@ adam65 - Only further suggestion I can offer is try a different USB port, or cable. Can you confirm that you don't have a hardware issue with your ports and/or cable?
adam65

Re: Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by adam65 »

Same USB cable has been used on other laptop-printer and no problems. HP P1006 works perfectly on Win7 64.
Also, I just installed Mint16 on next Lenovo (T60p, SSD+500GB Hitachi) and no any difference - could not get Canon and HP working.
Just dropped in Office Works, heaps of home laser printers available, starting $30 but...which one to buy ?!
I need WiFi laser printer that will work with Mint16 :(
jadek
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Re: Plug and play laser printer ?

Post by jadek »

The wifi capable laser I've been using fine with LM 16 is the Brother HL-2270DW, but personally I have yet to try the wifi with it. I do regularly print via wifi at home with an inkjet, a Canon MG-5300.
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