How to get Pentax Pocketjet II printer to work? - SOLVED
How to get Pentax Pocketjet II printer to work? - SOLVED
Hi all
perhaps somebody could hint out to me, what I'm not getting! Followed the instructions:
Started cups wizard
downloaded Pentax-PocketJet_II-pentaxpj.ppd
(said "works perfectly) from www.linuxfoundation.org
Copied it to usr/share/cups/model
ran the installer again and selected my printer from the drop down menu
Correctly at LPT1 too (parallel printer)
Said all fine and if I wanted to print a test page?
Sure I did but that's where nothing happened. Printer doesn't show it's receiving data and that's that.
Bit puzzled why the CUPS install page says something about:
"/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip failed"
Printer Driver: Pentax PocketJet II Foomatic/pentaxpj (recommended)
Printer State: idle, accepting jobs, published.
Device URI: parallel:/dev/lp0
Sorry probably thick but I'm absolutely lost!
perhaps somebody could hint out to me, what I'm not getting! Followed the instructions:
Started cups wizard
downloaded Pentax-PocketJet_II-pentaxpj.ppd
(said "works perfectly) from www.linuxfoundation.org
Copied it to usr/share/cups/model
ran the installer again and selected my printer from the drop down menu
Correctly at LPT1 too (parallel printer)
Said all fine and if I wanted to print a test page?
Sure I did but that's where nothing happened. Printer doesn't show it's receiving data and that's that.
Bit puzzled why the CUPS install page says something about:
"/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip failed"
Printer Driver: Pentax PocketJet II Foomatic/pentaxpj (recommended)
Printer State: idle, accepting jobs, published.
Device URI: parallel:/dev/lp0
Sorry probably thick but I'm absolutely lost!
Last edited by tide on Thu 23 Sep 2010, 16:22, edited 1 time in total.
Contrary to popular belief, a PPD file alone is not enough to install a printer. You almost always need some additional driver software. The PPD is just a configuration file that sets up the print job.
If you follow the links at openprinting.org, you end up here with the source code for a Pentax driver.
I'll see if it can be compiled in Puppy 4.2.1.
If you follow the links at openprinting.org, you end up here with the source code for a Pentax driver.
I'll see if it can be compiled in Puppy 4.2.1.
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Tue 21 Sep 2010, 18:54, edited 1 time in total.
Here is a PET for your Pentax Pocketjet II. It installs both the driver program and the PPD file.
It runs correctly under simulation so hopefully it will work with the actual printer.
[Edit] Attachment deleted. Continue reading!
It runs correctly under simulation so hopefully it will work with the actual printer.
[Edit] Attachment deleted. Continue reading!
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Sat 25 Sep 2010, 20:34, edited 2 times in total.
Cheers for trying, really appreciate it! And what a shame, the pocketjet is just so useful as it's by far the smallest printer I know. Sort of fixed a 486-Laptop by unsoldering and replacing the damn CMOS battery.
Printer runs fine with anything from Win 3.x to XP, maybe even Win 7.
Seems to me that one always needs at least one windows machine for all the stuff that Linux won't do. Wishing it wasn't so!
Printer runs fine with anything from Win 3.x to XP, maybe even Win 7.
Seems to me that one always needs at least one windows machine for all the stuff that Linux won't do. Wishing it wasn't so!
Wow, thanks again! Do I feel embarrassed now
Must admit I struggle to understand what CUPS actually IS.
I mean I know what a driver is and I take it the PDD is more
of a printer definition file. Coming mainly from a Windows
background I'm feeling slightly lost at the moment.
Getting on fairly well with Puppy and certainly enjoying it but
when a PET doesn't work for whatever reason or say the
command line pops up I always feel a bit less at home!
Must admit I struggle to understand what CUPS actually IS.
I mean I know what a driver is and I take it the PDD is more
of a printer definition file. Coming mainly from a Windows
background I'm feeling slightly lost at the moment.
Getting on fairly well with Puppy and certainly enjoying it but
when a PET doesn't work for whatever reason or say the
command line pops up I always feel a bit less at home!
Courtesy of the pentaxpj driver's author here, we may have a solution. This method does not involve installing a CUPS printer - printing will be done from the command line.
1. Install the PET below. Unlike the previous PET, it does not change CUPS.
2. When you want to print from an application, look for an option called "Print to File". This setting has different names, depending on the application. You want Postscript format. Name the file something like "output.ps"
3. The file will be created in /root. To test it, click on the file and open it in the PDF viewer program.
4. Open a terminal window in /root by pressing the back-tick key above the Tab key. Type:
5. With any luck, this will send the print job directly to your parallel port.
1. Install the PET below. Unlike the previous PET, it does not change CUPS.
2. When you want to print from an application, look for an option called "Print to File". This setting has different names, depending on the application. You want Postscript format. Name the file something like "output.ps"
3. The file will be created in /root. To test it, click on the file and open it in the PDF viewer program.
4. Open a terminal window in /root by pressing the back-tick key above the Tab key. Type:
Code: Select all
pentax output.ps
- Attachments
-
- pentaxpj-1.0.pet
- (25.86 KiB) Downloaded 609 times
That's great news! Just tried it with a simple text file and it works.
Entered the terminal, typed "pentax etc.ps" and that's it. It's probably not the most convenient way but suits me fine. No problem at all with printing to file first as long as I ultimately get things to the printer. This really is quite a leap forward for me in Puppy usability. A million thanks!
One last question though: the back tick thingy doesn't work on my keyboard, takes
Shift to do a back tick but that doesn't seem to cut the mustard with puppy. Easy enough to right click an select it from the drop down menu but a lot of keyboard shortcuts don't seem to work.
Anyways: great to have the printer working!
Entered the terminal, typed "pentax etc.ps" and that's it. It's probably not the most convenient way but suits me fine. No problem at all with printing to file first as long as I ultimately get things to the printer. This really is quite a leap forward for me in Puppy usability. A million thanks!
One last question though: the back tick thingy doesn't work on my keyboard, takes
Shift to do a back tick but that doesn't seem to cut the mustard with puppy. Easy enough to right click an select it from the drop down menu but a lot of keyboard shortcuts don't seem to work.
Anyways: great to have the printer working!
If you haven't already figured this out, the printer settings are controlled by the script /usr/bin/pentax. It contains the line:
The "-d 7" argument sets the print density. Try changing it to "-d 10".
You can see the complete list of options by typing the command:
Code: Select all
/usr/local/pentaxpj/pentaxpj_sh -s letter -g 2550x3300 -d 7 -f 1 -a 300 -t 0 -p /dev/lp0 $1
You can see the complete list of options by typing the command:
Code: Select all
/usr/local/pentaxpj/pentaxpj_sh -h
Here's a little trick to save you from going to the command line when you want to print.
Open the folder /usr/bin and locate the file "pentax"
In another window, right-click on one of your PS files and select Open With > Customize > OK.
Control + Shift + Drag a link from the /usr/bin/pentax file into the SendTo window.
Now to print a file, you can just right-click on it and select your Pentax program.
Open the folder /usr/bin and locate the file "pentax"
In another window, right-click on one of your PS files and select Open With > Customize > OK.
Control + Shift + Drag a link from the /usr/bin/pentax file into the SendTo window.
Now to print a file, you can just right-click on it and select your Pentax program.