(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

rcrsn51 wrote:Changing Puppy versions will not solve your problem.

I thought I’d ask.

Read How to Install Your Printer in Puppy. It has some alternatives. It would involve connecting the printer as a local USB device and having the Puppy machine run a print server. This could either be through CUPS or through Samba.

I think that would mean the computer that acts as the print server would have to be on before I could print with any of the other computers. I would prefer to have the capability to turn on one computer and the printer to print.

[Edit] Or you can use the technique of adding an entry to your /etc/hosts file that associates the network printer's IP address with a name. Then you only need to change the hosts file instead of re-installing the printer in CUPS.

That’s a problem. It doesn’t have a static IP to associate with a printer name. Assigning a static IP address to the printer is more hassle than I care to deal with.

The simplest solution for me is to use a long USB printer cable and plug into the USB port on the computer I want to scan or print with in puppy. I may even buy a USB switch and several USB printer cables so all my computers can be connected at the same time.

Just commenting but Windows deals with my setup and my way of using my equipment without any intervention on my part. Too bad puppy doesn't have this capability.

fuelish wrote:I think that would mean the computer that acts as the print server would have to be on before I could print with any of the other computers.

Correct.

That’s a problem. It doesn’t have a static IP to associate with a printer name.

No. See the instructions I posted above.

Just commenting but Windows deals with my setup and my way of using my equipment without any intervention on my part. Too bad puppy doesn't have this capability.

This is not a Puppy issue. It is a Linux issue. Your Windows driver has other ways of locating the printer.

Since you already have the Epson Windows driver installed on a machine, why not look in it for how to set a static IP address? It might not be that hard.

Here’s something else I failed to explain properly. I don’t reinstall the printer driver every time I want to print in puppy. What I’ve been doing to get my printer to work in puppy is in CUPS administration I select Modify Printer, and check Discovered Network Printers: EPSON XP-300 Series. Click OK a few times and then I can print.

Assigning a static IP to my printer in puppy, Windows 7 and Windows 8 when I buy a new computer in the near future is way more hassle than I care to deal with. Using a printer cable is quick, effective and I don’t risk breaking networking in Windows. Which would cause me no end of grief to fix. I don’t even want to think about what I’d have to do to assign a fixed IP in Windows 8. Bottom line is my printer/scanner works in Windows now so my thinking is don’t fix what ain’t broken.

On puppy’s behalf I should have said that puppy can do many things for free that would cost money to do in Windows so I’m not knocking it. To say nothing about the fact that puppy is way smaller.

Thank you again. You really went all out to help me and I do appreciate it.

For the benefit of other readers, let me clarify some things.

1. Setting a static IP address for the printer is a ONE-TIME procedure done from a single Windows machine. The printer remembers its permanent address. You don't need to change the printer setups on the individual Windows machines - they appear to use the device's MAC address instead of the IP address.

With Epson, this involves downloading and running their separate network config utility.

2. I understand the procedure you have been using since 2013 to reinstall the CUPS printer each time. I was just suggesting that doing it through the hosts file would be quicker.

I have PeasyScan v.2.6. How do I make it work with my networked Brother MFC-470DW Printer / Scanner / Copier / Fax / Pizza Oven?

I tried setting up a config file by copying and editing config-sample.cfg but PeasyScan didn't like the URI

starhawk: How to Install Brother Printers and Scanners has a section for network scanning setup.

Do you have it working as a local USB scanner?

I do not have it hooked up via USB. As that would involve carrying it across the room after making a place for it, I'd like to avoid that...

I do recall the scanner setup bit. I did that, IIRC -- downloaded and installed debbi, installed the requisite *.deb file (brscan4-0.4.2-1.i386.deb) -- which IIRC did not produce any errors at all -- and then did the brscan4 setup bit so that it would do something with SANE that I didn't really understand but sounded important. I don't recall there being further steps to that, but if I missed something I'll be glad to be corrected.

Of note, I will be offline shortly tonight and tomorrow is quite busy, I will not be in the house for most of it -- perhaps a 48hr delay before deleting posts would be better than a 24hr delay? Just sayin'.

starhawk wrote:I do not have it hooked up via USB. As that would involve carrying it across the room after making a place for it, I'd like to avoid that...

You cannot troubleshoot a network connection until you have confirmed a USB connection.

I am confused.

I can print from it over a network. I have done that. There is no 'network' problem here.

I simply want to add scanning capability to what I can already do with it.

Apparently PeasyScan couldn't find the scanner because something got screwed up. I remember having to do a hard shutdown a few days ago, maybe it got nixed then.

Anyhow, I reinstalled the brscan4 DEB using Debbi, reentered the config information, and tried PeasyScan again.

Got further this time. It detected that there was a scanner, but upon attempting to start the scanner, it sat there for awhile before putting out the following error:
The only button I could click was 'OK' so that's what I used. It does this consistently.

Maybe I need to start the scan on the printer side of things? Dunno, this is my first Brother and my first network printer. I've plenty of experience with HPs and Canons... but they throw an error when you try to scan printer-side. At least, when connected via USB... usually something about "if you're not using our Windows software packages, you shouldn't use this button" -- to which I inevitably make the customary rude gesture

...aaaaaaaaaaaaaand now I know what caused that improper shutdown

Installing the brscan4 package does something pretty nasty to my system. Not sure what, but upon attempted shutdown, the monitor cuts out (turns off) and no keyboard input will restore it... it never quite gets to saving the session. This is on Carolina Vanguard ver.2...

Oh well.

At least I have my Epson DocuMate 410 still it'll do I guess. I don't want to risk any more hard shutdowns trying to troubleshoot this...

If you go to the last page of How to Install Brother Printers and Scanners, you will see two users who successfully installed network scanning using brsaneconfig4. There is nothing in the package that would cause shutdown problems.

Well, all I know is, I install brsane4, config it, and have shutdown issues. Maybe it's missing something and not telling me...

...although, this second time, it also messed up some extensions in Chromium. pdf.js wouldn't load PDFs, and Classic New Tab Page was giving me a blank white page...

I dunno. Hard to believe when that's the only thing I changed in the filesystem at all -- but I suppose anything's possible.

Deleted.

Peasyscan updated to v2.8. See the main post.

Pic2txt v1.3 is posted on the main page. See the Update note.

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rcrsn51 wrote:For the benefit of other readers, let me clarify some things.

1. Setting a static IP address for the printer is a ONE-TIME procedure done from a single Windows machine. The printer remembers its permanent address. You don't need to change the printer setups on the individual Windows machines - they appear to use the device's MAC address instead of the IP address.

With Epson, this involves downloading and running their separate network config utility.

Can I also suggest another alternative - If your printer is not currently set to "static IP" and is set instead to "Auto DHCP" it will get its IP address from your router and this address will be whatever the router decides to hand out on the day, depending on what other devices such as laptops and phones happen to come on line periodically. This can be a source of confusion for computers looking for a printer on a specific address.

In such cases you can tell the router to assign the same IP address to the printer each time.

This could alleviate the need to use an external utility such as the Epson one mentioned.

The way to do this is to get access to the address allocation tables in the router and highlight the printer as requiring a constant address. (your isp or google will help you get this done). Some people may find this easier than trying to change the setting in the printer.

Hi, I need to report a very minor issue with the latest peasyscan bundle in Fatdog64-702: the preview window unit label should be "mm" instead of "cm". Equivalently, the slider units should be divided by 10, i.e. decimal numbers instead of integers.
Version Cheers!

PeasyScan v2.9 is posted on the main page. See the Update note.

To translators: there is a new .pot file posted here. It is a complete rebuild.

Here is a 64bit build of PeasyScan v2.9. It should work with most 64bit Puppies and their derivatives.