OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Hardware => Topic started by: andreas on February 04, 2025, 07:18:25 pm

Title: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: andreas on February 04, 2025, 07:18:25 pm
I need an new Laser-Printer, black/white, Postscript.
Any suggestions?
The HP Laserjet M234dw looks nice. Would it work with ARCAOS?
Title: Re: Printer
Post by: Pete2 on February 04, 2025, 10:09:41 pm
It needs HPLIP 3.212, so looks like it won't work with CUPS, unless you talk nicely to Paul. It might work with an older postscript driver, which might not give you access to all the features. AFAICT wireless printers generally work ok -the other Pete has experience of this. My printer is a cheapo USB-only HP all-in-one for which printing with CUPS has sometimes worked, and scanning has sometimes worked, but never both at once.
Pete
Title: Re: Printer
Post by: ivan on February 05, 2025, 01:33:01 am
Try looking at the Brother range of laser printers.  I have two, a HL-3170cdw and DCP-9020cdw, both have postscript emulation (BR-Script3), hence the use of the PSPRINT driver, do not require special drivers other than SLPR and both work over my local network.
Title: Re: Printer
Post by: Pete on February 05, 2025, 01:42:00 am
Hi andreas

Not sure if I am "the other Pete" but I second Pete2's suggestion of talking nicely to Paul to see if he has the time to look into porting hplip 3.212 - clicking the Donate button here
    https://os2ports.smedley.id.au/   
 may help :-)

Alternatively you would need to either add a "cleaned" PPD to psprint.drv for this printer if it uses postscript - the page here suggests not https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/product-specs/hp-laserjet-mfp-m232-m237-printer-series/model/30836604 - or possibly use PCL driver *if* that works with PCLmS.

I suspect your best option would be hplip, would make wireless connectivity easy ( famous last words etc  :-)


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Printer
Post by: Dave Yeo on February 05, 2025, 01:42:59 am
Rumor is that Brother printers have also gone downhill, so ideally an older model and do your research.
Title: Re: Printer
Post by: Dariusz Piatkowski on February 05, 2025, 04:56:59 am
Try looking at the Brother range of laser printers.  I have two, a HL-3170cdw and DCP-9020cdw, both have postscript emulation (BR-Script3), hence the use of the PSPRINT driver, do not require special drivers other than SLPR and both work over my local network.

I'll give Brother the vote as well. Running the HL-5470DW model here, duplex, quick and I even managed to tweak the published PPD file and import it to enable controls for MOST of the features. The one thing that failed was the ability for the PSCRIPT driver to run the HQ1200 (so High Quality emulated mode, just faster and obviously less sharp version of the full 1200dpi print option). No problem though b/c for some reason the PSPRINT drive actually handles that one very well. So for quick jobs I send to PSPRINT, for quality jobs I send to PSCRIPT drivers.
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on February 05, 2025, 03:28:28 pm
I've used HPLIP on an HP M252dw for many years. HP printers work OK. Toner costs are high. If HPLIP can be updated, then the HP is a reasonable choice.

The HP is easy to use to print from my phone.

I see some legacy operations where installing CUPS would not be appropriate. The HP is a good choice for printing with the original IBM Laserjet drivers.
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: andreas on February 06, 2025, 06:15:29 pm
what do you think about a Canon i-SENSYS MF655Cdw?
Looks also nice to me..
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: andreas on February 12, 2025, 04:00:37 pm
I bought the Canon printer Canon MF272dw. What driver should i install?
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Pete on February 12, 2025, 08:18:39 pm
Hi andreas

What printer language does it speak? - I tried looking at specs but seamonkey does not work with canon websites.


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on February 12, 2025, 09:09:24 pm
Checked Canon's web and it states;

Printer Languages
UFRII

PSCRIPT not mentioned anywhere so I think CUPS is the only way to make it work.
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: andreas on February 13, 2025, 05:20:23 pm
Yes, no postscript unfortunatelly. I coudln't find the printer in cups. Does it mean i cannot get it working with OS/2 at all?
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: ivan on February 13, 2025, 05:50:08 pm
I think that one is dead and before you buy it, unless you are using windows.  It looks as if it is designed for windows use only (the UFRII printer language tells you that).
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Pete on February 13, 2025, 11:55:06 pm
Hi andreas

Looks like a potential paperweight - unless our cups can do "IPP Everywhere" which, it seems, does not need vendor specific drivers see https://www.pwg.org/ipp/everywhere.html


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Martin Iturbide on February 14, 2025, 12:39:04 am
Hello

FYI: Just to share the specs.... I think it is this one:
- Canon i-SENSYS MF272dw Specifications  (https://www.canon-europe.com/business/products/office-printers/multifunction/black-and-white/i-sensys-mf270-series/specifications/mf272dw.html)
- Canon i-SENSYS MF272dw Support (https://www.canon-europe.com/support/consumer/products/printers/i-sensys/mf-series/i-sensys-mf272dw.html?type=drivers&language=EN)

It says it is supported under Windows, MacOS and Linux. But I can not find any reference to CUPS there.

Regards

 
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Martin Iturbide on February 14, 2025, 12:52:07 am
Hello

Silly questions here.
- Are the PPD files the ones that has the printer configuration in CUPS? are the one from linux compatible with our CUPS? or need to be done something else to work for OS/2 ?

The Canon i-SENSYS MF272dw Linux driver (linux-UFRII-drv-v600-m17n-06.tar.gz) has a file called "cnrdrvcups-ufr2-uk-6.00-1.06.i386.rpm" and inside it has some "CNRCUPSMF2***.ppd" files.
Will it be that easy to try those?

Regards
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Pete on February 14, 2025, 02:27:00 am
Hi Martin

The ppd files usually need "cleaning up" to get rid of lines not needed by our pscript driver. If I recall correctly that is now done when using the Install CUPS Printer, have to point the app to the needed ppd file.

So, a chance that the printer may work - as long as it does not need some sort "plugin" to work with the ppd files.


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: andreas on February 14, 2025, 02:36:02 am
how do i get that file out of the *rmp-file best (I have a new installaition here any not yet installed all my programs. I remember i attached some unpacker to do this job, but cannot remember which one..).
As soon as i get that file i will try to attach this one.
Btw, the new installation showed a nice printer-symbol with the printers name (but of course did not inatall a fitting driver)

I wrote to CANON, but only got a response, that began with "Sorry, but..."
Weird: they called ARCAOS an "open source system". Maybe I asked the wrong person there...
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Martin Iturbide on February 14, 2025, 01:16:25 pm
Hi Andreas

I'm posting what I was able to uncompress from the RPM on my side, that may be useful. Please remember that I have no idea how CUPS internals works, we need help from someone with more CUPS experience to let us know if the pdd works or not, for this case.

Weird: they called ARCAOS an "open source system". Maybe I asked the wrong person there...
ArcaOS is not an open source system. It is close source system because of all the IBM binaries and closed drivers, with a mix of open source software (like CUPS, xWPS, RPM, WarpIn etc) on the top.

Regards
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Silvan Scherrer on February 14, 2025, 03:01:26 pm
Hi Andreas

I'm posting what I was able to uncompress from the RPM on my side, that may be useful. Please remember that I have no idea how CUPS internals works, we need help from someone with more CUPS experience to let us know if the pdd works or not, for this case.

Weird: they called ARCAOS an "open source system". Maybe I asked the wrong person there...
ArcaOS is not an open source system. It is close source system because of all the IBM binaries and closed drivers, with a mix of open source software (like CUPS, xWPS, RPM, WarpIn etc) on the top.

Regards
I don't see how it will work att all w/o the source for the cups filter. As ion the PPD it clear states:
*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-raster 0 rastertoufr2"
Which means this filter is doing most of the work. Sure we could eventually build this filter, but iirc the source is closed source from canon.
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Martin Iturbide on February 14, 2025, 03:08:46 pm
Hi
I don't see how it will work att all w/o the source for the cups filter. As ion the PPD it clear states:
*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-raster 0 rastertoufr2"
Which means this filter is doing most of the work. Sure we could eventually build this filter, but iirc the source is closed source from canon.
Thanks for the information Silvan. That means that the chances for this printers to run with CUPS on are low.
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: Pete on February 14, 2025, 07:02:04 pm
Hi Martin

I could add that when I bought a Canon MG7550 inkjet printer/scanner there was no cups support - Canon provided linux systems with ppd files and a closed source "plugin". However, cups was developing support for that printer without using the Canon ppds or plugin, I had to "hassle" Paul into updating "our" cups and ended up with a nicely working printer.

However, looking these pages
   https://www.cups.org/ 
   https://www.pwg.org/ipp/everywhere.html 
   https://openprinting.github.io/current/
it seems the only development is IPP Everywhere.

So, it looks like cups V3 will see us all switch to IPP Everywhere .

Maybe Paul and Silvan can enlighten us further when they look into porting cups V3 ...


Regards

Pete



Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Printer Suggestion for ArcaOS
Post by: andreas on February 14, 2025, 08:42:37 pm
Sure we could eventually build this filter, but iirc the source is closed source from canon.

I wrote a mail to CANON and asked for this...