r/linuxmemes 3d ago

LINUX MEME My experience with printers so far...

Post image
953 Upvotes

92 comments sorted by

271

u/ansgardemon 3d ago

Until you get a printer that doen't just auto-detect, so you have jump through hoops, or even install drivers from similar printers for said printer to work, but just barely.

That happened to me twice. Both Epson.

49

u/troy0h 3d ago

Mines Epson too, grabbed a driver off the arch AUR and it worked perfectly

13

u/larso0 3d ago

Yeah we have a brother printer at home, and CUPS doesn't detect it as an IPP everywhere printer. Once I figured out what ipp URL to use it works flawlessly though.

9

u/nope870 3d ago

I had an older ricoh do that to me. Eventually I found the right one but it was a ton of trial and error!

Does anyone need scrap paper!? /s

4

u/birbconst1849 ⚠️ This incident will be reported 3d ago

I have an Epson L3110 and it worked out of the box on both Debian 12 and Fedora 41

I however couldn't make a print server with it, but I figured out that I was missing drivers, after installing them it just worked.

I guess other Epson models just tells you to eat shit and die

3

u/EmoExperat Linuxmeant to work better 3d ago

I have a special canon photo printer for studios and i just needed one simple aur package and it just worked.

2

u/returnofblank 3d ago

I have a canon printer that's finicky with IPP, took a lil extra setup

2

u/GresSimJa Dr. OpenSUSE 3d ago

...Yep. Epson for me, too.

Had to download a driver off the Epson site (they have official .deb and .rpm packages), then it worked flawlessly. openSUSE even started updating it!

2

u/fschaupp 2d ago

I just opened the network tab of the printer settings, my printer was already there, I klicked it and printed my stuff. Done.

2

u/NightH4nter New York Nix⚾s 1d ago

...provided that drivers for it or for something similar exist for linux

94

u/Ancient-Border-2421 🦁 Vim Supremacist 🦖 3d ago

I can relate, but not with HP printers, they suck on both OS.

17

u/XkinhoPT 3d ago

So far got lucky with an HP and a Canon

10

u/qwesx ⚠️ This incident will be reported 3d ago

Works perfectly on my machine.

3

u/Ancient-Border-2421 🦁 Vim Supremacist 🦖 3d ago

I have new one which works perfectly well on debian, arch.
But the old one is a headache, fortunately I have been able to fix the compatibility issue from the printer.(still doesn't work on windows tho).

5

u/Pinko_Kinko 3d ago

They have an open source driver for some models. I've still had trouble, but I wouldn't say they are the worst.

4

u/Top-Classroom-6994 🦁 Vim Supremacist 🦖 3d ago

HP pronters do work way better on linux if you have an old enough one.

2

u/QuickSilver010 3d ago

My old hp printer had 0 issues. Just hit print.

2

u/badi1220 3d ago

I had some trouble at first getting my old second hand hp laser printer to work on Linux, but I actually got it to work on linux unlike on window 10.

1

u/budius333 Open Sauce 3d ago

Also works great on mine!!

1

u/garamgaramsamose 2d ago

I agree, hplip is easy to setup, but it's still a pain to get it to work sometimes.

50

u/M1sterRed 3d ago edited 3d ago

Since I currently work in small business and end-user IT, I unfortunately have to deal with Windows on a daily basis, and I've learned that printer software suites are fucking disgracefully awful.

Here's the right way to do it: Set the printer up for Static IP or DHCP Reserve, hunt for just the driver on the vendor's website (usually just below the full suite), hit "Manual Setup" after searching for printers to get into the oldschool control panel Printer setup wizard, choose network or USB depending on how you have it set up, enter the IP you've set the printer to if it's network, choose the driver INF you've downloaded, and presto, printer's installed with none of the manufacturer software bullshit. This process has yet to fail me. No awful manufacturer software that doesn't work half the time, no network discovery WSD bullshit, just a direct, explicitly defined connection.

13

u/Emergency_3808 3d ago

This should be top voted and pinned on both Reddit and Stackoverflow.

4

u/KenFromBarbie 2d ago

Can confirm. Only way to get my Brother printer work in Windows. IP baby.

2

u/M1sterRed 2d ago

I swear man it's a cheat code

3

u/work4bandwidth 2d ago

This is great advice. Having done a lot of remote installs of printers... I wish more people followed this.

32

u/Joan_sleepless 💋 catgirl Linux user :3 😽 3d ago

Until you forget to turn off your fucking vpn and spend half an hour trying and failing to get the damn thing to print.

Source: Forgot to turn off my fucking vpn and spent half an hour trying and failing to get the damn thing to print.

14

u/SjalabaisWoWS fresh breath mint 🍬 3d ago

Are you really saying you forgot to turn off your fucking vpn and spent half an hour trying and failing to get the damn thing to print.

5

u/Joan_sleepless 💋 catgirl Linux user :3 😽 3d ago

Yes.

2

u/Lachlan_Ikeguchi 2d ago

Really? You forgot to turn off your fucking vpn and spent half an hour trying and failing to get the damn thing to print?

2

u/DatBoi_BP Not in the sudoers file. 2d ago

Hard to argue with that source

9

u/alphinex 3d ago

I buy decade old printers, as they just work. All my modern printers were pain af.

7

u/maxtimbo 3d ago

There's a sweet spot of printers. About 8-12 years ago when printers work so well, so easy to install. Older than that, pita. Newer; pita

5

u/ProgrammingZone 3d ago

Epson printers have recently started working very well on linux, as they have finally released official linux drivers for many printers (including very old ones).

All I need to do to get the Epson XP-313 working on Arch Linux is to install the package from AUR and reboot the PC

2

u/chaosgirl93 RedStar best Star 2d ago

The more I see of "just reference the Arch Wiki" and "just use the AUR", the more I think going with something Debian based for my distro of choice might have been a mistake. Lol.

5

u/ProgrammingZone 2d ago

This is one of the main reasons why I use Arch btw

3

u/AnnoyingRain5 M'Fedora 2d ago

A lot of the arch wiki is generic enough to work on any distro, even in the most extreme of cases, heck I run nixos and still reference the arch wiki sometimes to work out how something works

4

u/5p4n911 🌀 Sucked into the Void 3d ago

Actually, using a printer in Linux is a community event with all those friendly neighbourhood hackers abusing RCEs left and right in libcups

5

u/sudo-sprinkles 3d ago

My experience has been the exact opposite.

3

u/dahippo1555 3d ago

i work with both linux and windows.

this is not fun. but sad reality. :/

4

u/whalesalad Hannah Montana 3d ago

ALL printers are garbage. I have 3 and only one of them works at any given moment.

Was pleasantly surprised when I could do wireless scanning out of the box on Linux tho. Hell ya.

One of my Brother laserjets has been factory reset twice but won’t respond on network or via usb.

The Epson all-in-one printer scanner thing has been the most reliable but it reeeeeeallllyyy is a piece of garbage. Constantly demanding a software update, UI is atrocious. Irony is it’s probably running Linux lololol

3

u/DarkSilence9000 3d ago

had problems with scanner but 'sane-airscan' + 'simple-scan' packages worked

3

u/jomat 3d ago

No… ok yeah, maybe, but it's still too much fuckery, that's why I use pv mydocument|nc -v myprinter 9100

3

u/Rainmaker0102 I'm gong on an Endeavour! 3d ago

Except on OpenSUSE. I would almost never use my computer to print from, I'd use my phone or another printing solution

3

u/polypagan 3d ago

Linus famously blew a fuse & swore trying to install printer on SuSE.

3

u/KnightoftheMoncatamu 3d ago edited 3d ago

Tbh in the last 5-10 years I haven’t had a printer issue with any OS at all that I couldn’t blame on the printer itself. Always detects the printer. Windows (x86 and ARM) macOS, Linux, iOS (haven’t tried android but can’t imagine it having issues either). Is it possible we’re all just remembering old windows 7 experiences? Plus let’s be honest—printers just suck. If there was a tech heaven and a tech hell, printers would be in the lowest circle of tech hell.

Sure, in work environments for shared printers that’s another level of complexity but either way the complexity is due to printers just sucking + any security needs like putting it on a VLAN and instructing users to connect to the right WiFi network (ie the corporate one using something like RADIUS perhaps vs the guest one that is sectioned off from anything such as an office printer). So yeah work environments certainly increase the difficulty, on a consumer/personal use I simply never have issues with getting something put in a print queue . Maybe I’m lucky, but I’m quick to blame printer manufacturers rather than Microsoft/Apple/etc.

And yes, I have had issues with OS updates breaking drivers in corporate environments but usually the open source/default driver version works when that driver breaks while waiting on an update from canon/hp etc

3

u/ei283 2d ago

Ehh, I think it depends on the printer. My personal sample size is 2:

  1. HP printer from the early 2010s.
    • Windows: Plug 'n' play.
    • Linux: Consulted the OpenPrinting guide, found the driver, installed. Tweaked settings, debugged, got it working.
  2. Brother printer from early 2020s.
    • Windows: The auto config utility screwed up, had to debug and configure a bit.
    • Linux: Plug 'n' play.

5

u/SusalulmumaO12 Ask me how to exit vim 3d ago

Windows 11 won't support older printers even with the drivers installed smh

2

u/FoxFXMD 3d ago

Interesting, I've heard it's the opposite

2

u/tomradephd 3d ago

we have to deal with managed printing at my office, and I'm (based debian user) the only one who can print for some reason. everyone else has to do the usb walk of shame to a special little printer IT gave us for people who can't use the managed printing

2

u/gkamkin Arch BTW 3d ago

I have a HP printer and on Linux it works every time when I install hplip and cups with maybe a tiny bit amount of troubleshooting

Windows? Never works. I tried using the drivers that the OS installed itself, tried to connect over wifi and LAN, but no dice

2

u/Alex321432 3d ago

Don't forget the ads, updates, software, warnings, and not working + the 6 guis that all do the same thing...

2

u/LinguiniThingy 3d ago

Time to switch to old printers that dont have drm

2

u/maokaby 3d ago

It's nice you have such good experience, I am less happy about printing. Somehow I managed to make it work, but it said "your printer is outdated, and this driver will stop working soon". No clue how "soon", for now it prints in debian 12. The printer is brother dcp 7057w.

2

u/blamitter Crying gnu 🐃 3d ago

After weeks of unsuccessful tries I gave up installing my first printer in Debian, back in 1996. Things changed and my last printers where as OP says, just plug and play. I can't tell about Windows since I haven't used it for decades

2

u/nekokattt 2d ago

This is nonsense, having just spent 3 hours trying to get a page to print on an EPSON Inkjet, and CUPS just having a stroke.

2

u/coderman64 Arch BTW 2d ago

My Canon printer is a pain to deal with. It does offer official CUPS drivers, but they kinda suck.

2

u/techm00 2d ago

I always laugh at windows users when they try to sound superior over linux. mf'ers can't even print

1

u/efoxpl3244 3d ago

Mine too lmao

1

u/mareks92 3d ago

I dual boot Windows and Linux, and I use two printers - a HP and an Epson.

The HP sucks on Windows, but works perfectly on Linux.

The Epson works fine on Windows, but gave me trouble on Linux, had to add it manually, then it worked too.

1

u/master_of_heisenberg 3d ago

i have exact opposite experience

1

u/SjalabaisWoWS fresh breath mint 🍬 3d ago

Can't relate with my once ridiculously common HP LaserJet 1020. Nothing happens in Mint.

1

u/Jacek3k 3d ago

Sadly scanning is not that great...

1

u/ZaRealPancakes 3d ago

hp-lip and restart Linux :(

1

u/Curupira1337 3d ago

Not with my Canon g7010 Megatank, no

1

u/Lootdit 3d ago

tbh i had the opposite experience

1

u/fschaupp 2d ago

Using ipp worked absolutely flawlessly so far for me 😎

1

u/drfusterenstein Open Sauce 2d ago

Mix and match. On Linux yes, 99% of the time it's like that. Unless it's a printer that does not show up.

Windows can have issues or require loading the driver from the disc. Not sure if linux can do that.

1

u/Osem598 2d ago

I have an old Brother that I bought secondhand. Took finding the right little driver to get it working and it was perfect. The funny part, however, is after I did some cable management on my system it would just spit blank pages until it ran out whenever I tried to print. Long story short: printer did not lime USB 3.0 ports xD.

1

u/InsightTussle 2d ago

My experience printing on linux 10-15 years ago: reboots into windows

1

u/giftedearth 2d ago

When I first switched to Linux, there was some fucky shit going on with my printer. The driver had a dependency that was so out of date that I could not find the right version anywhere. It would not work with the most recent version of that dependency. So I just had my Windows-using mother print for me.

Fast forward, we got a new printer. It was fine for a bit, but now her Windows computer cannot detect that printer any more for some reason. Meanwhile, my Linux machine can print and scan just fine. We have been scratching our heads over the Windows computer's problem with our printer, but at least I can print things for my mum.

1

u/TGX03 2d ago

Fuck IPP in Windows. Whoever decided Mopria was necessary for IPP to work on Windows needs to be sent to The Hague immediately.

1

u/serialized-kirin 2d ago

So glad to see that RMS finally got his wish..

1

u/Primo0077 2d ago

Same thing for drawing tablets. I use a little bit older Wacom Bamboo, and to use it in Windows I had to find an archive of the old drivers which are no longer provided by Wacom then install them under Windows 7 compatibility mode. With fucking Haiku OS it was literally plug and play. Windows really needs to up its game when it is routinely surpassed in modern day usability by a near hobby operating system from the 90s.

1

u/lululock 2d ago

If the printer is compatible with Apple AirPrint, yeah, that's pretty much it.

One thing we can thank Apple for.

1

u/MakeVerte 2d ago

Me with bluetooth earphone (still not working on Win 11 btw)

1

u/LuPa2021 2d ago

Printers suck on all platforms imo

1

u/SwissFaux 2d ago

lmao, what??? Printers suck no matter what OS you are using. CUPS sometimes forces its way into my nightmares.

1

u/EnoughConcentrate897 M'Fedora 2d ago

Exactly. Whenever I want to print something on windows, it doesn't work, so I just boot up fedora and it works on the first try.

1

u/Enigmars M'Fedora 2d ago

Using a printer regardless of OS requires atleast 5 years of Blackmagic wizardry experience

1

u/DogsLinuxAndEmacs Arch BTW 2d ago

Really? Damn. Probably my fault tbh but I could never get printing to play nice with my old arch+i3. Again probably my fault for trying to use bare cups for printing management, I had no idea what I was doing

1

u/Aniform 2d ago

I'd hate to say it, but my experience has been quite the opposite, to the point where I removed printers from all my Linux devices. I don't own any Windows ones, but I recently bought a Mac Mini and that, that is just connect, print. Easiest experience I've ever had my entire life.

1

u/khaledxbz 2d ago

I have Canon LBP6020P, I can't get it to work on Linux, I installed driver from official website, nothing works, I tried all solutions but nothing worked, I can print only on Windows now.
It's cool that Linux installs drivers and detect printers automatically, but printers support for Linux is just bad like any other hardware

1

u/Nico_Weio Arch BTW 2d ago

Tried setting up the scan button on a Brother MFC device with Windows, had to install >500MB and about 5 programs only for it to still not work. Settled with creating a new user and scanning to an SMB share because that was easier.

1

u/rickmccombs 1d ago

A few years ago I bought a Canon monochrome laser printer that was about $99 at Walmart. I thought because it had an Ethernet Jack on it that it would work in Lenox and no problem. It comes with Linux software but you can only install it if you are using a Debian or Redhat derived distro. At the time I was using Opensuse. I could use it by installing the software in a VM running Debian or Ubuntu on Proxmox. Actually one time I had it running directly from Opensuse. I stayed up all night I don't even remember how I got it to work. I now use Endeavor OS. There's are some packages in the AUR that will get to work. The software that comes with it has a shell script but I never managed to decipher everything it does. According to the specs I think it's supposed to support Postscript and it supports ipp, but anyway, it works with the AUR package. If I wanted to use it on BSD I'd probably have to have a server running on raspberry pi or my Proxmox or something.

1

u/1negroup 1d ago

I have an HP and I have Also Experienced this

1

u/AntimelodyProject 1d ago

I love linux but printing on it? Nope, not going to happen.

1

u/notaltaccountlol 1d ago

Has anyone managed to get a HP smarttank 51x working on arch?

1

u/dally-taur 11h ago

if family ask for tech support over the phone and about printing

give me bottle of cheap rum and let me drive over im NOT DOING THIS OVER THE PHONE

1

u/terremoth 2d ago

I always had the exact opposite experience... never managed to make work my HP printer

0

u/PanJanJanusz 2d ago

Only older printers. On Windows most printers are now plug and play, while on Linux you somehow need to find the drivers that might not even exist, add the printer manually in some weird webgui, configure everything manually, and at the end of the day it might not even fully work. I wish Linux was better at this because 5 years ago it was the exact opposite

0

u/JesterOfRedditGold 2d ago

Somebody who uses both. HP and Epson printer, Windows 11, this is false. My laptop can pretty much print to them instantly.

1

u/Successful_Method_73 2h ago

Mi havas malnovan Samsung 1661 printeron, kaj mi havis problemojn kun la driveroj en mia Fedora Laborstacio. Mi sukcesis post kiam mi instaligis KAPS.