[sf-lug] SF-LUG meeting notes for Monday 21 January 2019

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

>     Wednesday night I re-installed everything I could find to do
> with CUPS, probably too much stuff but that is of little consequence.

But you don't know whether you installed the Gutenprint drivers RPM or not?

By the way, I don't think it's good tactics to just install (or
reinstall) everything you can find in some area of functionality.  You
really should install software only for a specific reason.  Just
throwing software at a problem isn't usually useful and creates the risk
of introducing new variables.

>     Well now the driver can be found using the PCLOS drak tools inherited
> from Mandrake.  

What does 'the driver' mean?  It's very difficult to help users who do
not provide meaningful detail.

> But the printer does not respond,

You don't say what driver you picked or where that came from, and you
don't say what you did and what you tried, or what happened when you did
that.  You don't even say what the printer doesn't respond _to_.

Do you have at least a printer object defined in
http://localhost:631/printers/ ?  If so, is the 'Status' field displayed
as 'Idle'?


>     I have started searching for another printer but the prices are very
> high and I have not yet started looking for a used printer of the sort
> I would prefer.  As you suggested I started looking for a laser
> printer.

Well, new retail prices, especially for decent laser printers,  are 
_of course_ a bit high.  They've never not been.  Obviously, you have
incentive to shop around the used market.

> >Do you have the gutenprint package installed, or not?
> 
>     It shows up but the printer is not reacting to it.

I have absolutely no idea what 'It shows up' means.  I'm sorry, but
are you unclear on how to determine whether you have the Gutenprint
package installed or not?  

To list out the names of all installed RPM packages whose names have the
string 'gutenprint' in them:

  $ rpm -qa | grep -i gutenprint

To list out the names of all installed RPM packages whose names have the
string 'foomatic' in them:

  $ rpm -qa | grep -i foomatic

As I mentioned, I don't know PCLinuxOS well enough to know the exact
name of the package(s) required.  You should determine that, you being
the PCLinuxOS user.


> See above.  

You didn't actually answer my question about whether you have the
Gutenprint package installed or not.  If you don't care to do so, that's
fine; you're under no obligation.  But that sort of thing makes it
difficult to help you -- as I asked for a good reason.


> PCLinux is a variant or fork that started with Mandrake, later took
> images from Mandriva and became my distribution of choice after
> Mandriva 2011 could not be run on my computer.  

Bobbie, I know what PCLinuxOS is.


> Oh Rick I always look at Craig's List but have not had time to get
> there yet on this matter.  Half of my computers have come via that
> site.

OK, glad to hear it.  You never know when something very decent might
show up for free on Freecycle, too, so you might want to check that
occasionally.  I got a truly elegant futon with a like-new pad off
Freecycle a couple of years ago, and all I had to do was pick it up from
a nice couple's garage in Presidio Heights (and borrow my friend Duncan
with his station wagon w/roof rack).

> Yes I know about the economies of scale but to live in San
> Francisco I have to
> use economy of volume and have lived in the same studio apartment since
> 1974 when a SO suicided.  Meaning I have very little floor space
> left and doubt
> I could find room for the big older printers if someone was giving
> them away.

Well, consider one of those HP LaserJet 4M units from the 1990s.
Footprint was 16.4" wide by 18.4" deep (including how far out the paper
cassette sticks.  Do you have space for a 16" x 18" printer?  If not,
I'm not sure you have room for hardly any printer.

Say, if you want another inkjet, this business in Daly City ('One $
Only, 6400 Mission @ John Daly Blvd) is selling a bunch of them dirt
cheap:
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sys/d/daly-city-new-and-like-new-hp-printers/6800510717.html

_Better_, this person in the Outer Richmond wants $15 for a Samsung
ML-1865w B&W laser printer.  It does PCL5e-type printing and 1200x100
dpi resolution, which is good.  Connectivity is USB or wireless.  No
ethernet, but one can't be too picky for $15.  Footprint is 13.4" wide
by 7.2" deep.  Weighs 9.2 lb.
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sys/d/san-francisco-samsung-ml-1865w-printer/6802988723.html

Openprinting page
(http://www.openprinting.org/printer/Samsung/Samsung-ML-1865W) claims
Samsung's special-snowflake driver is best, but frankly a generic PCL5e
driver would doubtless be fine.  (I suspect the weird driver from
Samsung is something required for wireless printing, but one can avoid
that annoyance by just doing USB, instead.)