Linux Printer

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Mint 18.1....

 

OK, so I ran into some ruts.

 

Canon has Linux drivers, SWEET!!! A year down the road, it's not finding the printer. Sometimes it finds it, but then looses it.

 

OK...

 

Brother has Linux drivers, cool. I could never get the wireless going on it. When connected by USB, computer doesn't find it. My Dad got it working, but this was from an old source. Around the time of Mint 17...

 

Also...

 

My Mom has a Lexmark printer. I searched high and low, there is NO printer support for Linux, even from 3rd party software. I'm moving her over to Linux. 2020 is coming up quick, and she'll be a potential target after that.

 

What I need... A printer that WILL work with Linux. I heard HP is good. Has that HP driver inside Mint.

 

It must be a laser printer. The money my Mom spends on cartridges, o god... Monochrome, too, she never prints color crap.

 

I've always loved HP Printers, not so much their desktops or laptops or monitors.

 

Retail, Refurbed, even used (as long as it works), IDC, just find me the best bang for the buck. Around $100.

[Circaflex]

Hmmm i do know canon and brother work fine under linux, rather than troubleshoot you just want to replace? You might end up with the same problems over time. Do your parents really need to run linux? From some of your previous threads, is linux the right option for them? Anyways, onto your printer questions. Weve established the following: needs to be laser, prefer b/w. Does it need to be ethernet or wireless? All in one? Or just a printer?

 

 

edit if you share the model numbers i am sure we can help find proper drivers, brother is really easy as is canon. Lexmark should be as well but need the model number. 

Edited December 26, 2017 by Circaflex

[Jim K Global Moderator]

^ and a new printer will be around the cost of a Windows 10 license.

[adrynalyne]

21 minutes ago, Jim K said:

^ and a new printer will be around the cost of a Windows 10 license.

Ironic lol. 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Well, I need Ethernet, but if wireless, always a plus.

 

I downloaded the drivers from both Canon and Brother's website. So I don't see how this would be relevant, but...

 

Canon imageCLASS MF227DW (ICMF227DW)

Brother HL-L2320D (I believe)

 

Edit: Lexmark is X4650

Edited December 26, 2017 by Mindovermaster

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Oh, forgot to add. I just need a printer, not an all-in-one.

[Circaflex]

The trick with brother printers is to use the driver tool rather than download the files individually. 

 

http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hll2320d_us_as&os=128

 

ill look at the others when i have a moment, in the middle of regripping my golf clubs and took a little break. 

[Unobscured Vision]

I never could get my Canon going wirelessly. Always had to use USB and then it would work fine ... once I followed some rather oddball installation steps. (Why couldn't Canon just make an installer ...?)

 

I'd give the Brother thing a try. Maybe you'll have better luck.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

I don't think that Brother thing will work, but eh, what do I have to lose, eh? I'll try this later tonight.

[DevTech]

On 12/26/2017 at 4:11 PM, Jim K said:

^ and a new printer will be around the cost of a Windows 10 license.

 

On 12/26/2017 at 4:33 PM, adrynalyne said:

Ironic lol. 

I wonder, given the amazing efficiency of Hyper-V, if he installed Windows 10 Pro as the host O/S to get universally broad driver support and then ran his day-to-day stuff in Linux which is his preference, then the pass-through or emulated driver support in the Hypervisor to the Guest O/S should give him whatever he needs for device support without needing to hunt down obscure/flaky drivers and/or purchase specific hardware.

 

Because it's a hypervisor, there would be no slow down in using Linux as the main interface.

 

Interestingly, I just recently found out that all Ubuntu distro downloads include the required device package inside the Ubuntu image to seamlessly install inside Windows 10 Hyper-V without needing to install the typical add-on package that VM's need to be efficient. Somehow Ubuntu is communicating with the Windows 10 while being installed as a guest O/S. Gotta use the word Groovy here!

 

Everything is increasingly interconnected...

 

 

 

 

[adrynalyne]

2 minutes ago, DevTech said:

 

I wonder, given the amazing efficiency of Hyper-V, if he installed Windows 10 Pro as the host O/S to get universally broad driver support and then ran his day-to-day stuff in Linux which is his preference, then the pass-through or emulated driver support in the Hypervisor to the Guest O/S should give him whatever he needs for device support without needing to hunt down obscure/flaky drivers and/or purchase specific hardware.

 

Because it's a hypervisor, there would be no slow down in using Linux as the main interface.

 

Interestingly, I just recently found out that all Ubuntu distro downloads include the required device package inside the Ubuntu image to seamlessly install inside Windows 10 Hyper-V without needing to install the typical add-on package that VM's need to be efficient. Somehow Ubuntu is communicating with the Windows 10 while being installed as a guest O/S. Gotta use the word Groovy here!

 

Everything is increasingly interconnected...

 

 

 

 

Are you talking about Guest additions which should you give you a hardware accelerate cursor and what not? I use Hyper-V daily and have not run into such a creature. Do you have a link for more info about it?

[Circaflex]

That is exactly what popped into my head as I read that, guest additions.

[DevTech]

23 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

Are you talking about Guest additions which should you give you a hardware accelerate cursor and what not? I use Hyper-V daily and have not run into such a creature. Do you have a link for more info about it?

The Microsoft term for this is Linux Integration Services (LIS)

 

I have been using Cent OS for which this download applies:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=55106

 

For Ubuntu, the docs are here:

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/supported-ubuntu-virtual-machines-on-hyper-v

 

LIS are included as part of this Linux distribution. The Microsoft-provided LIS download package doesn't work for this distribution, so don't install it. The kernel module version numbers for the built in LIS (as shown by lsmod, for example) are different from the version number on the Microsoft-provided LIS download package. A mismatch doesn't indicate that the built in LIS is out of date.

 

 

[adrynalyne]

38 minutes ago, DevTech said:

The Microsoft term for this is Linux Integration Services (LIS)

 

I have been using Cent OS for which this download applies:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=55106

 

For Ubuntu, the docs are here:

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/supported-ubuntu-virtual-machines-on-hyper-v

 

LIS are included as part of this Linux distribution. The Microsoft-provided LIS download package doesn't work for this distribution, so don't install it. The kernel module version numbers for the built in LIS (as shown by lsmod, for example) are different from the version number on the Microsoft-provided LIS download package. A mismatch doesn't indicate that the built in LIS is out of date.

 

 

I'm off to try it out.

Edit: All those features and not a single one to accelerate the GUI.

 

Lame-oooooooo.

Edited December 29, 2017 by adrynalyne

[DevTech]

31 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

I'm off to try it out.

Edit: All those features and not a single one to accelerate the GUI.

 

Lame-oooooooo.

I think GPU virtualization has always been a separate special case for most VMs so perhaps it is worth looking into

 

Another interesting tidbit I recently discovered is that Hyper-V supports Nested Hypervisors so that the Guest can run a Hypervisor which in turn....

 

For Linux, the nesting feature is turned off by default so you have to enable it with the usual arcane cmd line stuff for the built-in Hypervisor that is part of every Linux kernel.

 

 

[Unobscured Vision]

That explains why I couldn't get stuff working in Win 10's Hypervisor, then. Bleh.  I wanted to do the very thing listed above a couple months ago ... tired of my games and such not working. Now I just dual-boot.

[adrynalyne]

12 minutes ago, DevTech said:

I think GPU virtualization has always been a separate special case for most VMs so perhaps it is worth looking into

 

Another interesting tidbit I recently discovered is that Hyper-V supports Nested Hypervisors so that the Guest can run a Hypervisor which in turn....

 

For Linux, the nesting feature is turned off by default so you have to enable it with the usual arcane cmd line stuff for the built-in Hypervisor that is part of every Linux kernel.

 

 

Nah, Windows has full hardware acceleration, even with 3D support. Linux has full hardware acceleration in VMware and virtual box. This is just a shortcoming of hyper-v. 

 

Also—max resolution of 1080p. *sigh*

[Unobscured Vision]

Canonical/Ubuntu have supposed to been working with Microsoft to get this stuff sorted out for years, now, to prevent this crap from happening. Hyper-V was supposed to be built-in and fully supported at all levels, especially at the display manager/acceleration levels where things appeared to be/felt slowest to the user.

 

Ugh. This is one more thing on the "list of things" that keeps people from widely adopting/using Linux. And I'm a 'nix user. Hrmph.

 

You'd think in (almost) 2018 things would be way, way past this point by now?!

[adrynalyne]

39 minutes ago, Unobscured Vision said:

Canonical/Ubuntu have supposed to been working with Microsoft to get this stuff sorted out for years, now, to prevent this crap from happening. Hyper-V was supposed to be built-in and fully supported at all levels, especially at the display manager/acceleration levels where things appeared to be/felt slowest to the user.

 

Ugh. This is one more thing on the "list of things" that keeps people from widely adopting/using Linux. And I'm a 'nix user. Hrmph.

 

You'd think in (almost) 2018 things would be way, way past this point by now?!

It’s very annoying. I much rather virtualize than dual boot. But not with this performance. 

[Unobscured Vision]

And most of us prefer to not use Azure if at all possible. Yes, they're pre-configured VM's ... but it's not the same.

[DevTech]

2 hours ago, DevTech said:

I think GPU virtualization has always been a separate special case for most VMs so perhaps it is worth looking into

 

Another interesting tidbit I recently discovered is that Hyper-V supports Nested Hypervisors so that the Guest can run a Hypervisor which in turn....

 

For Linux, the nesting feature is turned off by default so you have to enable it with the usual arcane cmd line stuff for the built-in Hypervisor that is part of every Linux kernel.

 

 

 

Here is how to turn on Nested Hypervisors in your Linux Guest so the acceleration is passed through:

 

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_enable_nested_virtualization_in_KVM

 

 

I will investigate the GPU acceleration issue. I have not needed it since I only run clustered Docker containers for Machine Learning.

 

But I like the concept of making Linux as interesting as possible for people that are constrained to interact with it for whatever reason.  I'll see what I can dig up...

 

[DevTech]

1 hour ago, Unobscured Vision said:

And most of us prefer to not use Azure if at all possible. Yes, they're pre-configured VM's ... but it's not the same.

No idea what you mean and what Tribe you refer to by "most of us"

 

Azure is probably the most full featured Cloud Service right now and can configure custom VMs just like AWS. Google Cloud Platform and IBM BlueMix have far more restrictions than either Azure or AWS. Microsoft will add a Quantum Computer to Azure along with a Cray so there are some interesting exotic options coming as well.

 

There might be a trend starting toward direct hosted Containers available both on Azure and AWS which if it trends upward enough could be the magical commodity cloud offering that makes freakin cloud pricing finally do significant price drops.

 

[Unobscured Vision]

2 hours ago, DevTech said:

No idea what you mean and what Tribe you refer to by "most of us"

 

Azure is probably the most full featured Cloud Service right now and can configure custom VMs just like AWS. Google Cloud Platform and IBM BlueMix have far more restrictions than either Azure or AWS. Microsoft will add a Quantum Computer to Azure along with a Cray so there are some interesting exotic options coming as well.

 

There might be a trend starting toward direct hosted Containers available both on Azure and AWS which if it trends upward enough could be the magical commodity cloud offering that makes freakin cloud pricing finally do significant price drops.

 

I can't go into specifics beyond simply saying no. None of the above is appropriate (currently) for Academia and/or Protected Data that needs to stay on-site. Thank you for your expertise and suggestions, though.  

[DevTech]

6 minutes ago, Unobscured Vision said:

I can't go into specifics beyond simply saying no. None of the above is appropriate (currently) for Academia and/or Protected Data that needs to stay on-site. Thank you for your expertise and suggestions, though.  

You might want to suggest to your super-secret society/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that they re-write the glossary entry for "Cloud" in their Journal Of Secret Knowledge.

 

Unless of course by "on-site" they refer to their secret Data Center buried inside of the Amazon AWS Data Center which would be cloud and not-cloud at the same time and of course could not possibly work with Azure until the tunnel project to the Microsoft Data Center has been completed.

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I made no suggestions to be thankful for but should a question present itself, answer it, I could, maybe.

 

 

 

[Unobscured Vision]

No, no. ITAR Restrictions and University R&D that needs to stay on-site. Not some convoluted or make-believe fantasy land BS. Real-world concerns.

 

And there's no harm in thanking anyone for being civil or attempting to be helpful, is there? Or even having good manners? You're a respected member of the Community here, and certainly it's polite to thank someone for suggesting alternatives. Seriously, it's all good and I appreciate it.