Topic: SME 5.6, How to get an usb printer to work

[molski]

I'm trying to get an Lexmark usb printer working on SME 5.6, but with no luck. Does somebody maybe know, how to get it working, or are there some other problems. On another (dutch) forum, I have read that some usb printers are installed easily and some printers gave big problems.

Molski

[Michiel]

Depends on which model you've got. Lexmark released Linux drivers for a number of their printers. See http://www.lexmark.be/uk/products/community/linux/linux.html.

There are a few other drivers from the Open Source community, but apparently Lexmark has made it very tough to write them. Have also a look at http://f23.parsimony.net/forum51677/

Michiel

[rick]

There are no tricks to getting the printer to work as long as you are referring to the e-smith box acting as a print server and accessing it from windows clients. If this is what you are reffering to then have a look at the manual re the configuration, if you still can't work it out ask some more specific questions regarding your issue. If this is what you are after then you don't need any linux drivers for your printer, unless of course you have a linux client that you want to print from.

[molski]

I am using a Lexmark Z34 printer, that uses the same drivers as a Lexmark Z35.
I attached the printer to my first (of 2 ports) USB port and added the printer through the server-manager. After that I installed the printer on a WinXP desktop and a WinME laptop, but no luck  I get an access denied, unable to connect error. Don't know how to solve this problem and get the printer to work. I also have an "pdf printer" (for creating pdf files) and a "fax" printer (for Hylafax) and those two work perfect. Now I only want to get my Lexmark Z34 working and I'm a happy man, but without any help I don't think I will succeed.

My Regards,

Molski

[molski]

By the way, on the Lexmark site I only see drivers for the Z34/35 for Redhat 7.1 , so there aren't any drivers for my system Bad luck. Hope I will get things working without the drivers from Lexmark.

Molski

[rick]

Your problem sounds like a permissions issue or your setup is incorrect, it should have nothing to do with drivers, given that you are wanting to print from windows pc's. Make sure that when you are adding the printer in windows that you add it as a local printer, not a network printer and that you configure the local port as the mapped address of your printer. You will only need Linux drivers for your printer if you have a Linux client that you want to connect to your network and print from also. Your e-smith box is only acting as a print server, no drivers are required for this, just correct mapping of the port and user permission levels. If you are still unclear on this let me know and I can give you some more specific examples of how to do this.

[molski]

I always tried to add it as a network printer and that kind of setup failed. Tonight I will add it as a local printer and try to get things working. But what do you mean with the port configuration ? That part isn't so clear for me to understand, I never before tried to print through the network, only local.

My regards,

Molski

[Rick]

set it up as a local printer, not a network printer, follow the printer install as you normally would but don't worry about printing a test page. once complete go to printer properties and edit the port settings to the local address of your printer, an example of this on my server which uses the default settings during setup and has a printer named laser, my port details are \e-smith\laser for the printer port, some versions of windows allow you to enter this during the printer install, whilst other versions may not and you can just accept Ltp1 as the printer location and you can edit or add the port after the install. If you get stuck on this let me know and I can email you some screen shots of the settings etc

[molski]

That would be great, but now I know what you mean (we use the same method of installing printers at my work ). In a few hours I will be at home and 1st thing I will do, is installing it.

Thanks for your help and quick reply's,

Molski

[molski]

I tried installing it, it seems like everything is going just fine on the (windows) workstation, but still no printing, so I searched for the problem and I think I have found it:

May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hub
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 15:25:44 Jun 10 2002
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xef80, IRQ 10
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hid
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x43d/0x57) is not claimed by any active driver.
May  1 19:56:06 brain /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: ... no modules for USB product 43d/57/100
May  1 19:56:06 brain /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: ... no modules for USB product 0/0/0
May  1 19:56:47 brain lpd: Warning - lexmark: cannot open lp device '/dev/usb/lp1' - No such device
May  1 19:57:30 brain e-smith[2304]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/local/S10module-load-usb-printer
May  1 19:57:31 brain e-smith[2304]: modprobe: Can't locate module usb-controller
May  1 19:57:31 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usblp
May  1 19:57:31 brain kernel: printer.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x043D pid 0x0057
May  1 19:57:31 brain e-smith[2304]: S10module-load-usb-printer=action|Event|local|Action|S10module-load-usb-printer|Start|1051811850 637001|End|1051811851 931629|Elapsed|1.294628


It doesn't matter if I install the printer on the 1st or 2nd usb port of the server, I still get this message. Maybe some problems in the bios ? Or maybe some (usb) problem with the e-smith software (module usb controller) ?

ThanX in advance,

Molski

[molski]

Looks like the error message is not set to the correct times, they look a bit messy, this is how it should look like:

May  1 19:56:06 brain /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: ... no modules for USB product 43d/57/100
May  1 19:56:06 brain /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: ... no modules for USB product 0/0/0
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hub
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 15:25:44 Jun 10 2002
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xef80, IRQ 10
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hid
May  1 19:56:18 brain kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x43d/0x57) is not claimed by any active driver.
May  1 19:57:30 brain e-smith[2304]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/local/S10module-load-usb-printer
May  1 19:57:31 brain e-smith[2304]: modprobe: Can't locate module usb-controller
May  1 19:57:31 brain kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usblp
May  1 19:57:31 brain kernel: printer.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x043D pid 0x0057
May  1 19:57:31 brain e-smith[2304]: S10module-load-usb-printer=action|Event|local|Action|S10module-load-usb-printer|Start|1051811850 637001|End|1051811851 931629|Elapsed|1.294628
May  1 19:56:47 brain lpd: Warning - lexmark: cannot open lp device '/dev/usb/lp1' - No such device


Molski

[rick]

I have looked through my log files and I don't see anything like this, not sure where you go from here on this. I've done many of these systems and have never had a problem getting printers of any variety working. Do you have a Parallel printer of any type that you can install on LPT1 just to confirm that your settings are right.

[molski]

I can test it with a HP 930C (with empty cartridges ), but don't know how this lexmark usb printer could cause this errors. Maybe someone else know...
Or maybe is it something in the settings of my bios, I don't know, but I'm going to find out what cause these error.

Thanx,

Molski

[Rick]

not suggesting that the usb printer would cause a problem, but if you use a parallel printer you can at least eliminate usb, bios issues etc, LPT1 setup is fairly straight forward and at least then you could confirm that you are setting your printer up correctly in the windows enviroment.

[molski]

I will test that setup this weekend. If that works, I'm sure it has to do with that error (I think ).

My regards,

Molski