Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:34:00 -0800 From: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org> To: Andrew Gould <andrewlylegould@gmail.com> Cc: FreeBSD Questions Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: [OT] printing question Message-ID: <20081118203400.GA67232@icarus.home.lan> In-Reply-To: <d356c5630811181200l2803f976g814a5f8c780db5a@mail.gmail.com> References: <d356c5630811180849n527c6feex44de962885d9b724@mail.gmail.com> <20081118195327.GG4787@kokopelli.hydra> <d356c5630811181200l2803f976g814a5f8c780db5a@mail.gmail.com>
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On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 02:00:03PM -0600, Andrew Gould wrote: > On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 1:53 PM, Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> wrote: > > > Your best bet for printer compatibility is to ensure that it's available > > as a network device rather than having to connect to it directly, and > > that it's a Postscript printer. If you want to get a printer and connect > > it directly to your Mac, and you're sure it'll work with your Mac, then > > you should be able to share it with the rest of the network without > > problems -- as long as it's a Postscript printer. If it isn't, you may > > have to do some digging to determine whether other computers on the > > network will be able to use the shared printer at all, including FreeBSD > > systems. > > > > Alas, I know basically nothing about the Epson Artisan 800. I'm happy > > with my HP laser printer connected directly to the network. > > > > -- > > Chad Perrin [ content licensed PDL: http://pdl.apotheon.org ] > > Quoth Albert Camus: "An intellectual is someone whose mind watches > > itself." > > > > Thanks to all for the advice. > > So the bottom line is: "Get a postscript printer." They're rather > expensive. It may be worth the inconvenience of sharing drive space and > printing from the Mac via VNC window. ;-) > > Now, if I had money to waste.......... I just discovered that those really > cool, wide format printers used at many photo printing shops are postscript > printers!!!! Those are hit-or-miss as well. Our HP plotter at work, for example: when printing actual images (JPEG, GIF, etc.), you have to configure the printer driver to think that the printer is the exact size/resolution of the image you want to print, otherwise it prints half the image, then in mid-line starts looping back to the top of the image, and loses all concept of paper size. Awesome. > Imagine the font size you could use on a 20"x30" memo. I can tell you that my Brother MFC-5860CN printer, despite being a AIO network printer, does not work with FreeBSD -- even lpd does not work with it. The behaviour is repeatable: sending data to either the LPD port or the JetDirect emulation port results in the printer showing "Receiving data" (or something like that) on the LCD, then the printer just locks up. Supposedly the network data stream has to be encoded in some way. Brother offers numerous Linux packages, and Linux binaries, which take care of this for you, but nothing for FreeBSD. In fact, their FAQ/KB even answers "Do you support FreeBSD?" with something that resembles "No, we do not, and we will not, go away". You can find tons of web pages on this printer, and other Brother printers; tons of Linux success stories, otherwise nothing but tears. This printer does work very well in Windows, but not so well with OS X (unless its hooked up to the USB port, where supposedly it works fine). I have no interest in CUPS (bloated and overcomplex), and no interest in Linux emulation (lolcat style: DO NOT WANT), so I stick with printing under Windows. Prior to the Brother, I had an HP DeskJet AIO, and I literally threw it in the trash due to Windows drivers bloat galore. There's a famous problem with their drivers where every time you print, it launches an EXE, but then never kills the EXE off. Print 10 times, you've got 10 EXEs lingering around in memory. Imagine this in a corp environment where there's a Windows print server involved -- totally unacceptable. I'm afraid to sell/dispose of my Brother and get an HP LaserJet because of their drivers. The point I'm trying to make: do not think that just because a printer has an Ethernet port that it will work with FreeBSD. The other part of the problem is that FreeBSD's USB stack isn't so great. I assume that just because a USB printer attaches as ulpt(4) doesn't mean it'll print properly (e.g. needs an I/O driver of some kind), but I could be wrong. I don't know what your budget is, but US$300-400 for an AIO printer that works with your setup, and in a multi-OS environment, is well worth it. If folks out there are using network or USB printers with FreeBSD RELENG_7 (without Linux emulation; CUPS is acceptable for others, just not me :-) )), compiling a list of compatible hardware would be beneficial. It seems that most HP LaserJet printers with network I/O work well, assuming the model supports some form of PostScript. -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
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