[H-GEN] Colour printer with LInux

[Robert Brockway]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004, David Jericho wrote:

> > I've tried looking for a colour printer at linuxprinting.org. It's
> > difficult to find a good printer that is currently available in
> > Brisbane that has a linux driver that works "perfectly".
> > I want a colour deskjet, HP preferrably, though I will buy Epsom. My
> > price range, $150 to (I'm getting desperate) $400.
> > Anyone got any ideas on this?
>
>
> I am using a USB connected HP DeskJet 5550 flawlessly under Fedora Core
> 2. I never came across a problem. IIRC, the printer cost me a whole $149
> at Harvey Norman.

I've been wondering at the definition of "works perfectly" used in the
original post.

I'm using a Lexmark Z25 printer[1].  I can't see any problems with it
under CUPS.  I rarely use colour but IIRC that also worked fine.

The biggest problem I had was unwrapping the package to install the
driver.  Lexmark supplied the driver in an rpm package which was uuencoded
and wrapped in a shell script that _absolutely_ assumed the presence of a
Redhat system.  I managed to get the rpm out of this mess and then used
alien to convert it to a deb for installation on Debian.  Worked
flawlessly[2].

[1] This is a low end printrt.  Here in Canada this cost CDN50 or so
(which is about AUD53.59 right now[3].  My wife and I print a few
pages a week and I realised a few days ago that OpenTrend Solutions has
achieved the status of a paperless office.  I've had this printer for over
a year so do feel comfortable in saying it works fine.

[2] I sent an email to Lexmark asking them why they had gone out of their
way to be difficult and suggested they stop making assumptions about the
systems their software will be installed on.  Maybe lots of others
contacted them too as the 2nd version of the driver was much easier to get
at IIRC.  I anyone wants the version 1 or 2 drivers in deb format I'll
supply it.

[3] www.xe.com

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: 416-669-3073, Email: rbrockway at opentrend.net, http://www.opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.