getting a Samsung ML2510 laser printer working on an Etch RC1 i386 box...
Dear Debianists,
I bought myself a Samsung ML2510 monochrome laser printer. I want to use it
with a 1200MHz i386 box I have at work that runs Debian Etch RC1........
I had been using an Epson C86 printer but the heads dried and I couldn't
easily fix unblock them.
I needed a printer that you can leave for a month or two unused without
panicking about it drying it out and dying on me.
I chose the Samsung because it seems to be Linux friendly and it prints
relatively quickly.
You actually get a CD with it which contains Linux drivers and some kind of
linux installation routine that I fiddled a little bit with but did not seem
to work too well.
However if you ignore it and go into the Etch printer configuration tool
then it helps you choose the right driver for the printer - it tells you
that if you use the drivers from the CD that Samsung give you that this is
not a good idea because they don't work with all Linux distributions and so
it is better to use the drivers recommended by Etch or footmatic or
gutenprint or whoever it is that is recommending them.
Everyone except Samsung.
I chose the ML2510 standard driver etc added a new printer and made a
printer queue etc and then tried to use the printer.....
The computer sees the printer in the sense that if you send in a print job
from e.g. Openoffice you do see the light on the printer flash on and off.
But it only ever starts to wind up the drawbridge to suck in a piece of A4
(it makes enthusiastic whirring noises while doing this), it never actually
snaps it up. It then ignores further print commands......
If you try to print test pages from the foomatic window or other places it
never prints anything. You do get a job submitted to the queue but they
usually either die quickly or just stall and go nowhere.....
I wondered if the printer itself was malfunctioning. But I managed to get
to print its own self test image which came out quite cleanly and reliably.
I think the usb lead is OK because I used it for the old printer
successfully before the heads dried out. BUt I also have an old parallel
port lead that I could use instead or even a separate usb lead on my printer
at home if was paranoid about it.
I think most people seem to be able to get this printer to work OK......
But maybe some people do have problems with it.
I would appreciate any suggestions on getting it to work. I will be back at
this machine on Monday morning and any ideas people have I will test out on
it.
Suggestions welcome.
Regards
Michael Fothergill
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