and, from within system tools, I can “see” the printer as an option (plugged in by printer cable) but there is not a driver; that is, the response is “unable to locate recommended drivers.” When click to choose a driver, nothing in the list of drivers returned looks anything like the c1765nfw.
From this post
I installed system-config-printers 1.5.18-4 but it appears that I didn’t review the required dependencies closely enough (or just don’t understand what is supposed to be installed) because, rather than installing 8.5 MB, a little over 547 MB were installed and it appears that qt5 was installed. I think it was 75 items. I did not attempt to stop the install because I didn’t want to damage the system. Fortunately, the computer booted again on restart. I think this was a real idiot mistake on my part because in KDE it is print-manager not system-config-printers; and I already had print-manager installed.
However, nothing changed in regards to the printer.
I came across this post and have the exact same printer as the OP but the question doesn’t indicate what the answer (post 4) is really doing nor whether or not the OP ever got it to work. Thus, I have not yet attempted this suggested solution.
This is well over my head in knowledge of Linux or any OS and I’d rather not print at all than mess up my system. (Too much work to do to have those problems now. I’ve been trying this, first, on an older laptop and not the desktop from which I work.)
My questions are:
What did I do to my system in installing the system-config-printer? Did I just re-install qt5 and 73 other items that may have been uninstalled in the recent move to qt6? And, what to do about that, if so?
Is it possible to print to this Dell printer from Manjaro and, if so, could you point me to where I can learn how?
Thank you for any guidance you may be able to provide.
I almost always stick with only the Manjaro official repositories, as it is often stated “Use the AUR at your own risk!”
Nonetheless, I don’t see an AUR package that includes the word Dell that has anything close to c1765nfw in the description, not even anything that starts with a ‘c’. The closest I see is a B1165nfw.
I don’t know what a foo2zjs-nightly is or how one is to know it is associated with a Dell print driver. It just isn’t worth the risk to me to play around with that sort of thing. I’d rather purchase a printer that supports a linux driver and know it’ll work. It appears that this Dell model stopped a Windows 10.
Either learn - or use a different OS or a different Linux distribution.
Perhaps you’re correct and another distribution would be a better choice. It is something to consider.
The Dell C1765nf/nfw is apparently supported by the foo2hbpl2 open software printer driver. See Dell C1765.
This printer is installable via the CUPS system. Familiarise yourself with that before doing much else. During installation you should be able to select the respective PPD (much like an instruction file) for your printer from a dropdown list (usually sorted by manufacturer). Your printer is listed in the database.
There is a foo2zjs-nightly package in the AUR, however I’d recommend using the CUPS route before trying that. If you already tried the AUR package, please *remove it completely along with dependencies it installed before attempting to use CUPS.
Edit:- Adding to this to address:
foo2zjs-nightly seems to support: foo2hp, foo2hbpl, foo2oak, foo2xqx, foo2qpdl, foo2slx, foo2hiperc and foo2lava drivers – the package is from 2020, and last updated in 2021 – it looks like the 1st version of your driver is supported (the driver through CUPS is foo2hbpl2).
What that distinction (version 2) means specifically in terms of functionality, I can’t say, but logically something needed the version bump.
Thank you. I came across this link Driver: foo2hbpl2 | OpenPrinting - The Linux Foundation a couple hours ago before reading your post and didn’t realize the driver could be retrieved using CUPS and got it through Snap, that is, the ghostscript-printer-app from Snap. At this point, I don’t know the difference between the two, except, as I’m sure you know, the instructions for ghostscript-printer-app use local port 8000 and CUPS uses 631.
I was able to print with that driver but not duplex; although the selection for duplex was present, it was disabled. I printed using the printer cable but the file was on a USB stick; and it was failry slow in pausing between each page.
I will try uninstalling it and setting it up through CUPS and, perhaps, duplex will be an option.
Thanks again for the information and links; they’re very helpful.
Keep in mind that most printers are meant for the Windows market. The vast majority of printers (sooner or later) are installable via CUPS, but often one might need to sacrifice some features (boasted in a Windows environment) for the sake of having a printer work at a basic level in Linux.
Differing Linux distributions can also add their uniqueness to the mix, which often compounds the issue. While this might seem like a segue to promoting containerised application frameforks such as snap, flatpak or appimage, it’s not.
You mentioned using the snap option – if you perform an Internet search for snap security issues (or similar) you will soon understand why I (and others) don’t recommend it – flatpak or appimage would be the better choice, where a native driver (or CUPS option) isn’t available.
Thank you. I’m a bit confused. I removed the ghostscript-printer-app that I installed from snap. Then from a browser I went to localhost:631/admin/ and my printer is in the list when I select Add Printer. The driver is not in the list but includes only those that appear in System Settings.
When I tried CUPS before uninstalling the other software, the driver appeared in the list but it would not add the printer.
Thus, without being able to download the driver from the Open Printing web site, it appears to be available only through the ghostscript-printer-app which is available only through snap.
Of course, I could be confused about that, too. I’ll just leave it uninstalled and find a printer that provides a proprietary driver.
We have an HP laser printer here also and we just got it working using hplip and it was quite simple. Even the network WIFI conection was immediately located and the exact driver found in a few moments and then we could print. All throughy system settings only.
Once installed, you have to enable it, then restart the PC. Then your printers on your network should be detected and installed. Most printers made in the last 10 years or so, should just work.
Thanks. I tried it again and it appears to be active and responds to a ping. At localhost:631/admin/ the printer is located but still end up at the screen where a driver must be selected and there is not a matching driver there.
Perhaps, I’m still not understanding but it ends up at the same point as going through system settings and shows the same drivers. If I can’t download one that is not there now, I don’t understand what is being gained; for there is still no driver.
The links to the drivers at Open Printing (that is, the ones I tried) state the server cannot be found.
Am I misunderstanding what is to take place?
sudo systemctl status cups-browsed
● cups-browsed.service - Make remote CUPS printers available locally
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cups-browsed.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2024-06-21 23:05:14 EDT; 3min 59s ago
Main PID: 941 (cups-browsed)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 4559)
Memory: 10.7M ()
CPU: 90ms
CGroup: /system.slice/cups-browsed.service
└─941 /usr/bin/cups-browsed
Jun 21 23:05:14hpg71notebookpc systemd[1]: Started Make remote CUPS printers available locally.
ping 10.0.0.66
PING 10.0.0.66 (10.0.0.66) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.0.66: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=12.7 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.66: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=14.0 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.66: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=13.7 ms