Looking for a new printer

[bachcole]

I am looking for a new printer, and I am sick and tired of the HPs. I think Epson would be a better choice; ya' know, the guy that has to work real hard to succeed Where do I find a compatibility chart. I am looking at the Epson XP-330. My budget (and usage) is less than $100. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

[jimallyn]

http://www.openprinting.org/printers

Also check the manufacturers website for drivers. I know lots of people like Brother printers, and they are apparently well supported in Linux.

I always use HP because HP provides drivers for just about every printer they ever made, and those drivers come pre-installed in many Linux distros, including Mint. And if the distro doesn't provide a recent enough version of the HPLIP drivers for your printer, it's easy to install a new HPLIP from their website.

[bachcole]

So, I just buy the HP of my choice and I plug it in and everything will be hunky dory? I got this funny feeling that it won't be that easy. Could you help me out here? I see it as dreadfully not plug-and-play, but I get the feeling that that is what you are saying. I do not know what I do not know; but I do know that in the past it has been very discouraging.

[JeremyB]

If you have a wireless network an HP with wireless capabilities should work. I use an HP officejet 4622 over wireless and it works with LM17 and Ubuntu 16.04

[jimallyn]

So, I just buy the HP of my choice and I plug it in and everything will be hunky dory?

Yes, that's pretty much what I'm saying. If the printer you want is newer than Mint, you'll need to install a newer version of HPLIP, which you can get from:

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

What I usually do is go down to the local office supplies store, make a list of what they have in stock, then go back home and go to the HPLIP website and make sure it's supported. If it's not supported in the version of HPLIP currently installed by default in Mint, then you'll need to install the latest HPLIP. I've never used it myself, but they apparently have a very easy to use install wizard, which you can find out more about here:

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/in ... index.html

You will find that many Linux users use HP printers, because they just work with Linux.

[bachcole]

I have a Comcast modem sitting right in front of me that I used wirelessly for my Roku/TV, game box, other Roku/TV, cellphone wifi, Ipad. But my computer is hardwired. I have a little itty bitty USB plug-in that I used to use for wi-fi. Do either of those qualify as me being ready for a wireless connection with my printer?

[kyphi]

There are many printers that are supported by their manufacturers to work in Linux. Only HP provides drivers installed by default in the Linux operating system. So, plug it in is all you need to do and as pointed out by jimallyn, if you need a later driver you can easily download it from HP. Hp has made driver installation in Linux very easy.

To use the Epson range of printers you will have to download and install the appropriate drivers readily available from the Epson Download Centre. These are easy to install.

Canon was one of the last manufacturers to acknowledge Linux and provide drivers.

[jimallyn]

Canon was one of the last manufacturers to acknowledge Linux and provide drivers.

I like to say that Canon printers come in 3 styles: paperweight, doorstop, and boat anchor. I guess they do have drivers for some of their printers now, but their Linux support has sucked for years.

[drydenp]

My Canon printer has a new default driver installed in Linux, but the printer doesn't work very well anymore in it .

I was surprised though to see that the driver was installed automatically (it was a IP110).

[bachcole]

jimallyn, I tried downloading HPLIP without buying a new computer because I thought that perhaps all that you said would be helpful with my old HP Deskjet 2540. The response was that I was already up-to-date with my HPLIP but go ahead and see if a more recent version worked. So I saved the HPLIP download. And my printer is still crap. It just shot out a page without any printing. Usually it does the standard print-out test. If I keep working at it for 30 minutes, I may get what it is that I wanted to print. It seems that it is also low on ink. I suppose that that might be a problem. But why would it print test pages and finally print my desired page after struggling with it for 1/2 an hour?

[jimallyn]

So I saved the HPLIP download.

And then what did you do? Did you install the HPLIP download? By what method?

[bachcole]

"Did you install the HPLIP download?"

How do I do that?

[jimallyn]

What is the full name of the file you downloaded?

[Lucap]

Can you use the Manufacture Linux drivers without CUPS ?

[bachcole]

jimallyn: hplip-3.16.5.run

Lucap: "Can you use the Manufacture Linux drivers without CUPS?" Are you talking to me; if so, I don't know what you are talking about.

[Lucap]

Sorry bachcole it was a general question to the thread.

I all so need a new printer and i've noticed people only talk about if they work with CUPS and i just wondered if manufacture linux drivers can run independently of it.

I wasn't trying to sidetrack your thread , i thought it might be of interest to you as well.

[drydenp]

Everything requires cups as far as I know.

[jimallyn]

From the HPLIP website:


To use the Automatic Installer, follow these steps:

Download the file to a convenient location (e.g., home directory or desktop, etc).
Open a console/terminal and cd to the location where the installer was downloaded. (e.g., cd ~/Desktop)
Type in and run this command: 'sh hplip-3.16.5.run'

Note: Do not run the Automatic Installer as root/superuser. However, you will need to have root/superuser access to complete the install.


Note that I have never had to install a newer version of HPLIP, so I don't have any personal experience with their installer.

[daveinuk]

I'd also second Canon, I found support to be good and based my last purchase printer on the fact of them having support for Linux and the install process for drivers was easy enough, I know a lot of people recommend HP's and Brother's so after weighing up ink cartridge costs between them all you shouldn't be stuck for choice.

[bachcole]

I have HPLIP functioning now with the little "hp" logo in the lower right corner. But I get three error messages: Device communication error, Printer is rejecting jobs, Printer queue stopped. I turn the printer on and it prints out two test sheets (weak on the ink) when I asked for zero test sheets. I tried a diagnostic and it says that it cannot detect the device, even thought to prints out the sheet and I know that it is hardwired. Basically, it is a POS.