Attaching a Konica Minolta PagePro 1350W to Damn Small Linux
The PagePro 1350W is a low cost (wait for the sale/rebate and it's about US$50) black and white laser printer. I'm attaching it to a laptop computer running DSL version 1.5. It's a frugal install with a persistent home and opt directory.
Here's how I did it.
1) Search the DSL forum to see if someone has already solved your problem. DSL Forum Search Link
2) Go to LinuxPrinting.org and check their Database for your printer.
Here's what I found for the PagePro 1350W: PagePro 1350W link
After reading the page a couple times it looks like I need this driver module called min12xxw and a text file called a PPD. And some sort of printing sub-system, like CUPS or something.... I guess I really don't have a good handle on the difference between CUPS, PPR, LPD/LPRng, PDQ and all the other way-to-complex-and-spooky ways to print in Linux. I picked CUPS because I have seen someone else use it and it looked easy.
3) Go to the min12xxw driver page on Linux Printing and read it. Download the PPD file and note that the "Execution style" of the driver is "Filter"
4) Go to the Home page of min12xxw so you can download it. Read any instructions you can find on that page. Download the current version of the driver source. At the time I wrote this it was called min12xxw-0.0.9.tar.gz If you get everything working go back and send mala a nice thank you for writing the driver.
5) Back at the LinuxPrinting.org site follow the CUPS documentation link they have to get a good idea of what we're trying to do. While you're on the page download the two foomatic files. foomatic-rip and foomatic-gswrapper are mentioned in Step 4. There are other files mentioned but these are the only ones I used.
OK, at this point you have the PPD file and two foomatic files downloaded and saved in your home directory and the source code tarball for the driver downloaded and saved in your home directory.
6) Now you need to download the DSL components that you'll need. Open myDSL and go to the SYSTEM section. Download the GCC1 and CUPS modules.
7) Prepare the min12xxw driver to be compiled. The source for the driver is compressed into one file to make it smaller and easier to download. We need to expand it into it original files(s) and directory structure. Here's one way of doing it. Open emelFM and get BOTH the left and right window panes pointing at the directory that contains the min12xxw.tar.gz file that your downloaded. Now double-click the min12xxw.tar.gz file in the left window pane and it should change to show you a directory named min12xxw-0.0.9/ Highlight this directory name with a single click of the mouse and then select the COPY button, between the two panes, and it should copy the entire decompressed directory.
8) Compile the driver. Use emelFM to look around in the directory you just created (min12xxw-0.0.9) Open the README file and read it. Basically you have to run a ./configure and a make command. So open an xshell and navigate into the directory with the README file. Which means you'll probably have to do a 'cd min12xxw-0.0.9' command to change the directory.
Do an 'ls' command to list the files in the directory. There shouldn't be a filed called min12xxw in the directory.
Do a './configure' command and you should see something like this:
checking for....
checking for....
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status creating config.h
config.status: executing depfiles commands
After that is done do another 'ls' command and you'll see some new files but still no min12xxw file.
Enter the command 'make' and say out load "Look Ma! I'm compiling!"
You should see some "if....then....else" gibberish on the screen but no error messages.
Now do another 'ls' command and the driver file min12xxw is in your directory. If it's not then go back and look at the output from the ./configure and make command and try to find errors.
If it did work then great. You're very close to getting your printer setup
9) Move everything into it's proper directory.
The newly compiled min12xxw driver goes in /usr/local/bin.
The downloaded PPD file, that I've renamed to min12xxw.ppd goes in /usr/share/cups/model
The foomatic-rip and foomatic-gswrapper go in /usr/bin
Create the symbolic link "ln -s /usr/bin/foomatic-rip /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip"
Make sure the driver and foomatic files are executable by everyone.
The ppd file should be readable by everyone.
10) Startup CUPS and add the printer.
CUPS requires a password be set for user root. To do that you open an xshell and enter the command: sudo passwd
It will prompt you for a password and then ask you to confirm it.
With the printer turned on and plugged into the usb port start up CUPS. To do this, right click the desktop, select myDSL at the top, then CUPS, then START. If you don't see CUPS under myDSL then go back and re-download or re-install it.
Open firefox and go to the address http://localhost:631. You should be asked for a user id and password. The user id is root and the password is whatever you just made it.
We want to DO ADMINISTRATION TASKS so select that by clicking on it. Then click on the ADD PRINTER button.
Enter the printers name. I suggest you keep it short and sweet, no spaces or special characters. PagePro works fine.
Enter a location and description if you want and click the continue button.
The next screen should ask how the device is connected. If your printer is turned on and plugged in then the dropdown list should show it under USB connections. Select the proper connection and click continue.
Next comes the Make/Model selection. Look for the one that says Minolta. Select it and click the continue button.
Select the 1350W model (it may be the only one displayed) and click continue.
You should see a message that the PagePro has been added successfully.
Click on the PRINTERS link in the black bar at the top of the screen and you should see your printer and a few buttons.
The Printer State will probably say "idle, accepting jobs". Your printer could be unplugged, in a suitcase and in 200 feet of water off the coast of New Jersey and this page would still report "idle, accepting jobs". So don't get too excited.
11) Now the Moment of Truth. Click on the Print Test Page button. If all is well you'll hear the printer fire up in a couple of seconds and then it will print a really nice test page. If it does not print then start looking for errors. Did you select the right USB connection? Are all the files in the correct spot? Are the permissions set to executable? Check the logs in /var/log/cups/error_log. You're close... Re-read the LinuxPrinting.org pages.... Ponder why you ever left that Windows environment for this harsh world... figure it out... you're a fighter... you're using LINUX!!!
12) Some additional hints and tips once the printer is working. To print use the "lp" command. That LinuxPrinting.org page where you got the foomatic files has some examples. When you make changes to a printer via CUPS it's not always real-time. Sometimes you have to stop and restart CUPS. I'm never sure when it's needed and when it's not so I stop and restart CUPS after every set of changes I make.
13) Remember to save your files so it will all work again after a reboot. Here's what I save:
usr/share/cups/model/min12xxw.ppd
usr/bin/foomatic-gswrapper
usr/bin/foomatic-rip
usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip
usr/local/bin/min12xxw
etc/cups/ppd/pagepro.ppd
etc/cups/ppds.dat
etc/cups/printers.conf
etc/cups/printers.conf.O
You should also save the file that contains the root password but I can't remember what it's called, so I just do the 'sudo passwd' command each time before I go into the CUPS webadmin. You only need it when you want to go to the CUPS webadmin page, not when you just want to run cups on your machine.
14) That's about it. If you want you can alter your bootlocal.sh in /opt to start CUPS each time you startup. I don't do that because this is on a laptop and often I'm not connected to the printer so why have CUPS running waiting for print? It doesn't take much to start it up when I need it. CUPS can do a lot more that I haven't talked about. Read up on it.
It should be noted that this is how I installed my PagePro 1350W printer. As many can tell you around here, just because I posted a "How I did it..." doesn't mean that this is the best way to do it. There may be a much simpler way but this worked for me.
Good luck,
newOldUser at gmail dot com