All manufacturers & drivers supressed on Panasonic KX-MB781 all-in-one

[dochawk]

I picked up a Panasonic KX-MB781 all-in-one.

It is detected when attached by usb, and found when I scan the network, depending upon how I connect it.

However, in the printer system settings, both the manufacturer and driver settings are now coming up *completely* empty. It's not that mine isn't there; there are no entries at all.

This seems to be a supported printer; I've found multiple references to its use.

I'm absolutely up to date at the moment.

Am I missing something, or is the machine out to get me?

hawk

[muzicman0]

Re: All manufacturers & drivers supressed on Panasonic KX-MB781 all-in-one

have you tried installing from CUPS? just click the link below:

http://localhost:631

mm0

[dibl]

Re: All manufacturers & drivers supressed on Panasonic KX-MB781 all-in-one

Here's where one needs to check before buying a printer for a Linux system:

http://openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi

The KX-MB781 is not listed.

There's a KX-MB778 listed -- and it is classified as a "paperweight" -- sorry. :P

[arochester]

Re: All manufacturers & drivers supressed on Panasonic KX-MB781 all-in-one

I first followed the same route as dibl and drew a blank.

There are some references that say "Its a GDI based printer which means that it wont work as a local printer with Ubuntu or other Linux PCs. However, there a ways to get it to be shared to Linux/Ubuntu clients on the ubuntu forums."

There is another reference at http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/...rinting_ubuntu which says:

"Hi, I have a Canon MPC600F. Its a windows GDI printer
I am able to print to it from Linux (Ubuntu 6.06) when it was connected to a windows pc via ethernet using the Canon s800 drivers. when I connect it directly to Linux pc usb, lsusb show its being detected. How can I get usb port to show up in the 'Add a printer' dialog. I'd like to see if I can use the GDI driver to print to it. Also I dont see and usb related file/directory under /dev

Looking at the Ubuntuforum I can't see very much - but http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ht=GDI+printer says :

"winprinters are usable in Linux.
espgs package provides a gdi device for such printers.
The postscript file is run through espgs ghostscript by a bash script.

The command:
printgdi letter.ps

the file printgdi:
#!/bin/bash
gs -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE \
-sDEVICE=gdi -sOutputFile=/dev/usb/lp0 $1

The parameter "letter.ps" becomes the value $1 above.
The winprinter, a Samsung, is on /dev/usb/lp0.
If you do not use cups, you will not need the .ppd file.
There is an abundance of information on printing in linux.

Gerald"