Laser Printer compatible with Trisquel or totally free distributions ?
Hello, everybody,
On the website ThinkPenguin.Com I see that the only laser printer is a priori not compatible with Trisquel.
Do you know some laser printers (with ou without color) that are compatible with Triquel or with one of these recommended distributions ?
Just another little question : with a color laser printer, have we four ? If yes, can I print black-white when the yellow cartridge is empty ?
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I don't know, but perhaps h-node has information on this: http://h-node.org/printers/catalogue/en -- although I have not found any "ink/laser" filter in that page.
Thank you for your answer. I found these laser printers :
- 01 : Brother Industries, Ltd DCP-7020 (B-partial compatibility),
- 02 : Lexmark E332n (A-Full compatibility),
- 03 : Lexmark E260d (A-Full compatibility),
- 04 : Canon imageRUNNER 2530i (B-partial compatibility),
- 05 : HP LaserJet P2015 (B-partial compatibility),
- 06 : SAMSUNG SCX-4200 (A-Full compatibility),
- 07 : Samsung ML-2510 Series (B-partial compatibility),
- 08 : Samsung CLP-320 Series (B-partial compatibility),
- 09 : HP LaserJet 1100 (A-Full compatibility),
- 10 : ML-2010P Mono Laser Printer (A-Full compatibility),
- 11 : Samsung ML-1640 (A-Full compatibility),
- 12 : Lexmark E120 (A-Full compatibility).
But I don't find them in List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots. Difficult to know whether they track you or not. Or is there a way to learn which ones don't track you ?
[Why must they install tracking dots ?"]
They are spying on us (nearly) everywhere. What a strange need !
name at domain wrote:
> On the website ThinkPenguin.Com I see that the only laser printer is a
> priori not compatible with Trisquel.
I'd imagine any printer that can understand PostScript or PCL can work
with CUPS (which is what I believe most GNU/Linux distributions use,
including Trisquel). Is this not the case?
The printer might not work via USB but would it be okay if the printer
worked via network connection? Network hubs and switches are fairly
inexpensive.
As for avoiding tracking dots, DRMed toner cartridges, and proprietary
firmware on the printer:
- tracking dots: it looks like you already know about this issue.
- DRMed toner cartridges: I recall Lexmark using DRMed ink cartridges in
their ink printers, but I don't know if they do the same for laser
toner. Then again, would it worth giving any business to an organization
that treats anyone this way?
- Proprietary firmware in the printer: is very hard to avoid, in my
experience, as I don't know of any modern laser printer without
proprietary firmware. I will try and find a reference for a problem I
recently saw with one modern laser printer (a Samsung, if I recall).
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I think people are confused because the color laser printer in our catalog doesn't have Trisquel listed. It's not that Trisquel is not supported, but rather it is that Trisquel 6 is not supported by the HP driver out of the box, but it is supported 'out of the box' to some degree (at least for the core functioning of the device) by the standard postscript driver in Trisquel 6.
That basically means you will have to run the printer setup wizard and follow a set of directions on our support page (ie select the postscript driver) if you want to use it with Trisquel 6.
Trisquel 7 has not been officially released and the product page has not been updated to reflect support for Trisquel 7 yet (I actually just updated it, as Trisquel 7 is basically done, and just has yet to be announced). Trisquel 7 fully supports the printer with a modified HP driver included in Trisquel 7. Trisquel 7 also supports the printer 'out of the box'.
The support list is pretty much only going to have distribution and version listed if the device will 1. 'work out of the box' with at least the most recent release and 2. is fully supported. If it isn't fully supported, or its not 'supported out of the box' we'll frequently have notes about what is required in order to get the device working if its at all possible. Sometimes no notes/info is listed on the product page and a device will still potentially work, but you are advised to contact support for more specific information in that situation.
Some other notes:
1. All modern printers have or utilize some non-free software. Some require you to run it on your machine (proprietary driver), some require a free or proprietary driver, but that then it downloads a non-free component and uploads it to the printer and executes on the printer (some HP models), and some just have the non-free firmware on a chip already that is built into the printer. This has been accounted for and no such non-free software is required at the OS level or needs to be uploaded to the device. The device still has non-free firmware obviously, but is contained solely in the device itself (it is probably always the case that this non-free firmware that is contained solely in the device on a chip can technically be flashed regardless of manufacturers providing updates or not, but given it is proprietary nobody other than the manufacturer can provide said updates).
2. There are no known tracking dots on any of the inkjet printers and as far as I can tell there are no tracking dots on the color laser printer either. That said there may be other tracking technology that we don't know about.
3. I'm unfortunately not as aware of the digital restrictions issues with printers as I'd like to be. I know they do exist on some or all models and I know that other tactics have also been used to curtail refilling. One such example is the reduction of quality such that the cartridges won't last beyond one use. Beyond this what I can tell you from having talked to experts in this department is that HP cartridges are the easiest to refill. We refill our HP laser cartridges in the office and have never had a problem doing so.
For example, if I buy, on ThinkPenguin.Com :
- this computer (with Trisquel 6 / 7 / ...) and
- this printer,
will it (be possible to make them) work together ?
The idea is to use one computer with Trisquel (without any proprietary software) and any peripheral (printer, mouse, external hard discs, usb keys, etc.).
If I buy this printer, can I print only black-white when the yellow toner is empty ?
The printer will not work in Trisquel 6 (at least out of the box) because it requires a newer hplip version than what coms with Trisquel 6.
Ah !?! isn't there a way to make them (laser printer and trisquel) work together ? I don't want to come back to inkjet printers.
Like Chris said, it will work at a basic level out-of-the-box, just not with all of its features. To get full support, you can either wait for Trisquel 7 to be released (and use the basic support in the meantime), or update to the Trisquel 7 pre-release.
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Let me make a small correction about support in Trisquel 6 for this printer. The printer itself will work 'out of the box' in some sense of the meaning. While Trisquel's printing wizard won't auto-detect the right driver the stock postscript driver included in Trisquel 6 will work with it, and as such there is nothing to install. Simply manually selecting the right postscript driver should be all there is to it. I'm pretty sure we've added documentation on this for Trisquel 6 to the support section of our web site. If not send us an email and we'll add it and/or link you to the documentation.
* If I said otherwise somewhere let this be a correction. I probably did imply Trisquel 6 wasn't supported, but that would be at least in part wrong. It isn't fully supported out of the box is what I should have said.
Okay, I will just use link the printer and the computer together.
Then, I especially print black-white pdf (texts ; maybe with LaTex mathematics symbols, music sheets).
I rarely print pictures.
I rarely print in colours.
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You can set the printer to black and white only. You will still need to have a set of color cartridges, but they won't be used unless you print in color.
To configure for b/w only printing just open up the printer settings after adding the printer, double click the specific printer you'd like to make print in b/w only, go down to job options, and then to other options (advanced) and change print-color-mode to monochrome.
Thank you for your answer. I will buy them soon (just time to save money).
I opened a wiki page for the info that you guys are posting
Thanks ! good job ! then new comers have the possibility to choose more appropriate (free) printers. ^^
I have a Samsung ML-1610 (monochrome) - it's worked perfectly with every distro since the day I acquired it, about 10 years ago. Samsung used to provide Linux drivers (they still might), but it works 'out of the box' these days.
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I'm not a fan of Samsung. They do stuff like advertise "Linux" support on the box, but then don't provide working drivers. Then those drivers are proprietary and only 'work' on very specific releases of ancient versions of Redhat Linux (yea, and I'm not even talking about Redhat Enterprise Linux here either). Take this with a grain of salt, but it pretty well sums up Samsung's support policy for GNU/Linux. While you might find your Samsung printer works it is more by coincidence than design.
Most laser printers have traditionally supported postscript such that you don't need a proprietary driver. However that is less and less true. Particularly with low end HP, Samsung, and similar laser printers.