Ignorance is blintz

[kinzel]

Or paperweights the size of a desk....


We have, for various strange and wondrous reasons, come into possession of a color laser printer. Said laser printer says:

System Requirements Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Apple MacOS 9.0 or later, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000, Apple MacOS X 10.2 or later, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit Itanium, Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Apple MacOS X on Intel 10.4.4 or later

We have looked for drivers for linux... no PPD for this oki cs5800dn and no sign, other than the fact that the thing runs on MAC OS derived from Free BSD derived form Unix .. that it ought to run Linux. But more and more of our work is being done on Linux... And we moved Sharon's room all around, since this was to replace Sharon's now defunct Lexmark. Is it wrong of me to think that because it'll run on a Mac that there's hope for Linux?

Sigh.

Anyone out there write printer drivers?

Comments

[jack_calls_dances]

One possibility might be to find a print server (or an old 'puter that you could use as a server) that would take the UNIX files and then serve them out to the printer. It would also let you connect to multiple printers over network..... Just an idea.

[ferragus.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is what flavor of linux? RedHat, Debian, SUSE, CheWy-GoodNes?

(Ok I made the last one up, but really there could be just about anything out there.)

there's degrees of compatibilty between them, so that you can probably get a RH driver to run on Debian in a pinch.

But in the meanwhile, start here (http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/MainPage) and see what you can find, contact me directly if you like. (ferragus, gmail or sff net, both will get to me.)

Good luck!

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but been there:

Okidata C5800n
Color LED printer, max. 1200x600 dpi, this is a Paperweight

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Ooops... how many you want... in flavors, I mean?

Linspire
Freespire
Mandriva
Xandros
and an assortment of LiveCDs to choose from: Knoppix, Kubuntu...

Sharon's machine is running the beta Mandriva Corporate Desktop, I think ... but all the clues point to to "No way Jose"...

[elektra.livejournal.com]

Steve - you appear to have assessed the situation correctly. See http://www.linuxprinting.org/printer_list.cgi?make=Okidata for relevant details.