to buy a multifunction printer for gentoo

speedyx · n00b Joined: 13 Jan 2011 Posts: 17 Location: Italy

I ask now for some hint for my shopping.
I wish to buy a new multifunction laser printer (printer + scanner) for home and a little printer, best if laser, to take with me in my weekly travel for work.

Now I have a multifunction Xerox WorkCentre PE114e that is supported by the Samsung Unified Linux Driver, but it doesn't work with gentoo, maybe because it doesn't recognize /dev/mfp0 or some other reason that I don't know. I tried the calculate overlay too without success. For this reason I use an home server with debian to print, but I have Sabayon on family laptops. I have a Canon ip90 too, very portable, but with a bad print quality: it is 6 years old.

I WANT to use everywhere gentoo.
What is your advise?
What can you say about colour laser?
What can you say about wireless or bluetooth printer?
Thank you in advance for your kind answers.
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BradN · Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 7:16 pm Post subject:

In my experience, it's not too hard to get most printers working with CUPS, but trying to get multifunction scanners working can be a bit worse.

I recommend looking for compatibility lists, there are some out there and it will help you find stuff that won't make you tear your hair out.

speedyx · n00b Joined: 13 Jan 2011 Posts: 17 Location: Italy

This solution works only for the printer part but not for the scanner. VERY HAPPY!!

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Samsung_SCX4200
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rh1 · Guru Joined: 10 Apr 2010 Posts: 501

I've had the most luck with HP printers,scanners, ect. They seem to have the most support for linux.

micmac · l33t Joined: 28 Nov 2003 Posts: 996

SlashBeast · Retired Dev Joined: 23 May 2006 Posts: 2922

Brother have cheap printers etc but horrible support, took me to make brother's driver to work, brother-dcp-j315w-drivers is in foo-overlay if anyone want to check it.

speedyx · n00b Joined: 13 Jan 2011 Posts: 17 Location: Italy

Veldrin · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:04 pm Post subject:

Another vote for HP.

I recently bought a Lexmark X264dn (at half prie) - works flawlessly with linux. just grab the ppd from linux printing, and be happy with it.
From what I've read, Lexmarks seems to have also a good linux support.

About you other questions:
I don't need a color printer - but this is up to you habits. If you are printing Photos, then an ink jet might be a better choice.

If you intend to use the printer from multiple computers, then for sure that a networked model.
I personally hate wireless. it is good for an auxiliary connection, and for mobile devices (smartphone, tables, notebooks) but I would not use it a backbone for my home network. OTOH if you cannot setup a wired network (for whatever reason) then wireless is a valid alternative.
Bluetooth is for small bandwidth connection - I not sure if I wanted to print over that. Or if it is supported in Linux.

V.
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BradN · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 3:20 pm Post subject:

I've had good luck using cheap brother b&w laser printers with cups, but again it all depends on the particular model. Check compatibility before you buy and life's a lot easier.

kingc · n00b Joined: 11 Feb 2008 Posts: 21

Personally, I use a Canon MP610 which is fully supported by cups+gutenprint and sane - no issues at all. They don't sell this model in my country any more, but it may be worth checking if one of the newer models will work for you.

Ant P. · Watchman Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920

Do NOT buy Kodak. They are trash, use proprietary protocols, and do not produce drivers for any OS besides Windows/OS X.

s_bernstein · Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 5:53 am Post subject:

I'm using a Lexmark x543 and am very happy with it. Only thing is, that I can't get the sane driver to work (compiled for RedHat, so there might be a dependency problem) and the ill written java program is not useful at all. But, who cares? You can setup scanning presets with the management interface and store the files directly on an ftp server or send by email to you. So, you just select the appropiate profile on the printer, press scan and of ou go. No need for xsane.

speedyx · n00b Joined: 13 Jan 2011 Posts: 17 Location: Italy

I appreciate all your replies! Very usefull!
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