How to use a printer when running Slacko from CD?

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of printers
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blafarm
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How to use a printer when running Slacko from CD?

#1 Post by blafarm »

Sorry in advance for the n00b question.

I've searched for (but not found) any information regarding possible printer support in Puppy Linux running off a Live CD.

My goal is to download and run Slacko from a CD on an older computer to allow users to do very basic printing (only) to a cheap USB-connected inkjet or laser printer (the model does not matter to me -- I'll buy what ever I have to).

Is there any printer support when running from a Live CD that does not require installing printer drivers?

Thanks

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tallboy
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#2 Post by tallboy »

Welcome to the forum, and to Puppyland! Don't apologize for asking questions, you'll soon find out that that's what we are here for! :D
Our users have posted a total of 979506 articles. We have 38682 registered users. There have been 33801 users online since yesterday...
In the menu, usually in the SETUP section, you'll find CUPS - printer wizard. You should read the overview of CUPS, and take a look at the process of setting up a printer. It is not famous for being user friendly, but I personally like it. Many drivers are included in CUPS, but you should definitely ask here in the forum before you buy a printer. Please always state details of the make and model of you hardware and software, there are most likely members here that have the same setup, and can guide you.
BTW, if you burn Slacko to a multisession CD, you can save your settings and configs to the same CD after setting up the Slacko. I guess Slacko users will be able to guide you. We (I) have a going thread on the subject right now: Which is the latest 32-bit Puppy that can save to a live CD? Have fun!
True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

blafarm
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#3 Post by blafarm »

Thanks tallboy.

Unfortunately, this particular application cannot use any writeable media -- so no multisession CD.

I plan on using several old Dell Latitude C640 Laptops, each with a Pentium 4 2.0GHz processor and 1GB RAM. There will be no hard drive in any of the Laptops.

The application is not designed for mainstream computing or heaving web browsing, just some computers for users to print a couple of webpages when necessary.

It would be most helpful to learn what inexpensive Inkjet or Laser printers will work 'out-of-the-box' with a Puppy Live CD. Although I am leaning towards Slacko, I would be fine with any version that had Firefox.

Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help.

watchdog
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#4 Post by watchdog »

An official live cd of puppy does not come with any printer installed. You have to install your printer (the gutenprint included in all puppies has many common easy-to-install drivers) and then remaster your puppy. Then use the remastered live cd.

blafarm
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#5 Post by blafarm »

Thank you watchdog. I was afraid of that.
I'll start searching on how to remaster a Puppy iso.

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bigpup
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#6 Post by bigpup »

How to Install Your Printer/Scanner in Puppy
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=59015

Each printer is going to require it's own setup and driver.
I guess you could download and put on the CD, several different drivers that are shown in the above topic.
If they are already on the CD, it should be easy to use them as needed.
Download the drivers and put them in a printer driver directory. Burn that directory to the CD when you do the Puppy iso image burn.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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blafarm
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#7 Post by blafarm »

Thank you bigpup.

Admittedly, I am new to Linux and using the command line.

I'd like end users to be able to 'Restart' the laptops at any time, and have the printer drivers already loaded when the LiveCD installs into RAM (which I believe is how Puppy works).

Accordingly, does it make sense for me to maybe:

1. Make a bootable Puppy USB stick (using Rufus, UNetbootin, or others)
2. Install the desired printer driver
3. Remaster the LiveCD from the USB stick

And regarding #3 above, is there possibly a GUI-based application I could use to remaster the LiveCD by running said application on another computer (Windows, Ubuntu) and 'pointing it' to the USB stick?

And here's a stupid question: Is it possible for me to use a Windows-based app like ImgBrn, which can create ISO files of directories -- or would doing so create a LiveCD that would not necessarily boot?

Thanks to everyone for your assitance.

watchdog
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#8 Post by watchdog »

I would suggest to use a regular install of slacko with a savefile slackosave-xxx.2fs on a partition of the hd. You can boot it by the CD. Remastering puppy is not so easy for newbies. Boot the CD and install the printer: at shutdown you can save this in the savefile slackosave-xxx.2fs (for example) on a partition of the hd which you can backup just copying it adding the suffix -bk at its name (example slackosave-xxx-bk.2fs). At boot of the CD choose to load the main savefile slackosave-xxx.2fs: when you want a more clean install just copy the backup over the main savefile. From a live session without loading any savefile:

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/sdax
rm slackosave-xxx.2fs
cp slackosave-xxx-bk.2fs slackosave-xxx.2fs

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rcrsn51
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#9 Post by rcrsn51 »

watchdog wrote:I would suggest to use a regular install of slacko with a savefile slackosave-xxx.2fs on a partition of the hd.
There will be no hard drive in any of the Laptops.

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8Geee
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#10 Post by 8Geee »

And the CD drive is NOT rewritable. CD-R only.

MHO is to start your puppy of choice
then find a USB stick you can blank and use for storage.
In puppy there is GParted that will erase and format the USB stick. Format the USB stick as ext3. Then close GParted. Leave the stick installed. (In fact don't remove it at all)

Since you are running puppy off the cd, you can then add the printer driivers and get CUPS working to allow printing.

When thats done you can shutdown the puppy. The options available will let you make a pupsave file on the USB stick. This is what you want. The pupsave file is ext3 and make it 512Mb size. If that gets full you can expand that file (the app is in the menu).

All of the changes you made to allow printing should move to that pupsave file... saves headaches loading that stuff every time. Every time you boot puppy the pupsave file is ready.

EDIT*** You can configure Puppy Event Manager (its in the menu) to never save until you shutdown. On old machines this is important. In the POWER tab you can configure puppy to shutdown if left unattended for a period of time (the range is 10 to 999 minutes). The default is either zero or 30, you need to check! ***

8Geee
Last edited by 8Geee on Sat 12 May 2018, 21:27, edited 1 time in total.
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blafarm
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#11 Post by blafarm »

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
I think there are some fundamental flaws in my use case.
I clearly need to dedicate different laptops to this application.
And, I have just experimented with a LiveCD of Ubuntu that does the trick.
Thank you all for lending a hand -- it is much appreciated.
Great forum, one which I hope to contribute to one day.

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rcrsn51
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#12 Post by rcrsn51 »

Just out of curiosity, how does a Ubuntu Live CD solve the printer problem?

You would still need to run the printer setup at each boot, assuming that Ubuntu has the correct driver.

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8Geee
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#13 Post by 8Geee »

Really... and pupsave does the trick for saving that.
Linux user #498913 "Some people need to reimagine their thinking."
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tallboy
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#14 Post by tallboy »

watchdog wrote:An official live cd of puppy does not come with any printer installed.
Are you sure of that? I had no problem finding several drivers for my HP Lazerwriter 4050N in CUPS. (running a live Lucid 5.2.8.7)
True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

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rcrsn51
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#15 Post by rcrsn51 »

tallboy wrote:
watchdog wrote:An official live cd of puppy does not come with any printer installed.
Are you sure of that?
It comes with printer drivers installed, namely Gutenprint, but not an actual CUPS printer.

Unless you want to count CUPS-PDF.

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tallboy
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#16 Post by tallboy »

Aha, OK, I see the difference. Thank you, rcrsn51. :D
True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

blafarm
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#17 Post by blafarm »

rcrsn51 wrote:Just out of curiosity, how does a Ubuntu Live CD solve the printer problem?

You would still need to run the printer setup at each boot, assuming that Ubuntu has the correct driver.
Yes, I need to manually 'Add Printer' upon each reboot (the printer is automatically detected via its USB connection) -- but the driver is built into Ubuntu 18.04 LTS so no internet connection is required.

Of course, running Ubuntu necessitates using a much more robust laptop than I originally planned, but this turns out to be an easy decision as Slacko is incredibly sluggish on the Dell Latitude C640 Pentium 4 2.2GHz 1GB RAM laptops I had originally earmarked for this task. Not sure of the reason for this. I tried various optimizing measures, but I'm fighting an uphill battle.

Makes more sense to just throw more hardware at this problem and dedicate the old laptop to a less demanding application.

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rcrsn51
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#18 Post by rcrsn51 »

blafarm wrote:but the driver is built into Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
What printer model do you have? This won't be true for all printers.

blafarm
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#19 Post by blafarm »

rcrsn51 wrote:
blafarm wrote:but the driver is built into Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
What printer model do you have? This won't be true for all printers.
I've already tested it against my printer and it works fine. And I am able to load the driver without an internet connection.

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bigpup
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#20 Post by bigpup »

You know, we ask a specific question, to get a specific answer, for a good reason.

What printer model do you have?

If nothing else, the answer may help to improve Puppy printer support.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

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