Naive questions about printing

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of printers
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gerry
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Joined: Thu 26 Jul 2007, 21:49
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Naive questions about printing

#1 Post by gerry »

There is no Linux driver for my Canon i965 printer. I installed the free version of Turboprint, and it works fine, but only in draft mode. My Linux budget will not stretch to buy the licence from Turboprint - I told my better half that Linux is free! Now for the naive questions:
Can't Wine (or something like that) handle the Windows printer driver? Or is the driver not an application?
Could one write software that would interface between Linux and ALL Windows drivers? Isn't the driver interface to Windows a constant? That is, isn't one end of the driver always connected to the same bit of windows, and only the printer side of the driver different from printer to printer?
What does a printer driver DO?

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SirDuncan
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#2 Post by SirDuncan »

Well Gerry, I found some information on a driver for the Japanese equivalent of your printer. I converted the RPMs to DotPets. You need 2 files according to what I read. Since I don't own one of these printers, I cannot say whether the drivers will work or not.

Good luck.
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bjfiltercups-2.2.pet
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Be brave that God may help thee, speak the truth even if it leads to death, and safeguard the helpless. - A knight's oath

gerry
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Joined: Thu 26 Jul 2007, 21:49
Location: England

#3 Post by gerry »

Thank you Sir! I the installer reported that it had installed the files, but listed a load of dependencies that are missing, so I can't get it to work (yet).

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SirDuncan
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#4 Post by SirDuncan »

They always get you with the dependencies. I hope you are able to sort them all out. Search the forum for Gslapt, it may help you get all the dependencies you need. Just make sure you test it out on a clean live-CD session before you install a bunch of stuff to your save file (or HD depending on your install method) to prevent any accidental data destruction.
Be brave that God may help thee, speak the truth even if it leads to death, and safeguard the helpless. - A knight's oath

muggins
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#5 Post by muggins »

you might also get complaints about missing canon printer libraries, where you just need to symlink the ones you've extracted. e.g. making up an imaginary example, you might have extracted:

/usr/lib/libcanon.xxx.so.3, & you may get a complaint about a missing library /usr/lib/libcanon.xxx.so , which is resolved by symlinking.

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