[SOLVED] Lexmark x342n - Getting this printer to work?

[asdinnie]

Hi All

I have just received the above printer and have connected it using an USB cable.

Tried using the Printer Configuration utility in System settings but get no joy. There is no USB port listed there under "New Network Printers". There is no parallel printer port on the system I gather so I cannot test that. It has a 10/100 RJ45 connector though which I have not tried yet.

Looked up the Lexmark Download site and it says that they support the following models :

Lexmark X342n (AIX, HP-UX, Sun Solaris, SUSE Linux, Red Hat, Red Flag).

No Debian or anything that I can use. Odd that it misses Debian and has all the others (other Lexmark printers have Debian listed in the same area).

Does anyone have any ideas, except to give the printer away (its a new one!)?
I am a bit stuck at the moment.

Many thanks

Andy
Perth, WA

[GreyGeek]

Re: Lexmark x342n - Getting this printer to work?

You can unzip the *.gz file (Ark with 7-unzip) into two rpm files. Then apply "alien" to them. You can use "man alien" to learn how to use it. It is in the repository if you can't find it on your system.

There is no guarantee that alien will give you a workable set of *.deb packages. Good luck!

[asdinnie]

Re: Lexmark x342n - Getting this printer to work?

Thanks GreyGeek for your prompt & helpful answer.

I'm downloading the driver (MarkVision Pro) from the Lexmark site.
Will let you know how it goes (my distant memory tells me that I have used Alien before). Its in tar.bz format so hopefully I can get something useful out of these rpms.

The other option was to find and set up an old box as a print server. The driver option should be more elegant if it works!

Best wishes

Andy

[asdinnie]

Re: Lexmark x342n - MarkVision Professional.

Hi GreyGeek

Have tried to get the Lexmark printer software to work (MarkVisionPro). However no joy here.
I am presuming that it is the right package that I need for the purpose of using this printer. However it seems like hitting an ant with a sledgehammer...

1. Got the deb files ok out of the rpm files. There was an issue with alien processing the server package. It gave the error "error: incorrect format: unknown tag". May relate to the error below?

2. Read the documentation when I found it online (pretty eclectic).

3. Tried to install the Server package (appears that it requires a Client & Server package to run/configure?).

4. Got through most of the Server install script, except for some errors when it tried to set up symlinks for running the server at boot time.

The current issues are:
a) When the install script starts the server the script does not continue processing and the CPU hits about 50% utilisation for the server program. I have tried to start the server manually and the same thing happens.
b) When I try to install the client package on the same PC it produces an error message, saying that there is a duplicate folder that it needs to overwrite. So the client install falls over.


Its getting a little messy and frustrating. I've set up firewalls and other minor LAN stuff before under Windows in years past but this is testing my patience.
I am thinking whether it is better to find/setup an old Windows XP box somewhere and just use it as a print server (and possible retro game machine!). If so, I presume that I can just set up a Samba share to point to this box/printer and then KDE et al will be able to use it as a simple network printer. It might be better than spending days trying to make this sucker work, especially if its going to eat up the CPU on my normal (and aging) PC. Make sense?

Your feedback (or anyone else who has set up a Lexmark printer using this software!) would be welcomed.

Cheers

Andy

[asdinnie]

[SOLVED] Re: Lexmark x342n - Markvision Pro?

Hi GreyGeek

I have good news.

I had an inkling that I should be able to print direct to the USB port without this mucking around. So I reattached the old printer to the parallel port (had to print some stuff out in a hurry) and tried a few options.

Whilst looking around on the web I found a reference to printing via USB ports, using the lsusb command to check the USB device code. Tried it and got no result for my USB printer. Thought that a bit odd and so reconnected the printer to another USB port on the same computer. Computer locked itself up 100%, so I rebooted (muttering language that would make a sailor's parrot blush).

After the reboot, the PC not only found the printer on the USB port but also recognised it as a scanner (using lsusb)! Looked up the KDE Printer Config and, lo and behold, the Lexmark printer is now there, despite Lexmark saying it is not supported. I might have tried "Add a Network Printer" but I cannot recall.

So, in short, it seems that KDE can recognise these Lexmark USB printers if you attach it to the right USB port and have another printer connected as well (?).
Might not be able to use the fax/scan functions direct from the PC to the printer but that's of no interest to me.

Hope this saves someone else these dramas and they can then use their Lexmark printer with Kubuntu/KDE.

Cheers

Andy