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Dave Howorth 10/31/05 12:24 PM >>> On Mon, 2005-10-31 at 11:32 +0000, Stephen Carter wrote:

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Dave Howorth 10/31/05 10:51 AM >>> Hmm. In the specs at: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06a/5043-5047-5051-5051-5063->12096450.html

one line stands out:

Standard Printer Languages Host-based

If I interpret that rightly, it means this printer is probably a 'paperweight' as far as Linux goes. Host-based printing means that the intelligence is in the driver software on the host PC and the same specs mention that it is available on various flavours of Windows and OSX. You should be looking for a printer that says 'PostScript' or PCL5 or somesuch, and is preferably listed in the linuxprinting database with three penguins.

Hope I'm wrong but trying to exchange it seems like the best option.

Dave

I hope you're wrong as well but I doubt it. The printer was bought for our production workstations which are all running WinXP, so was a wise choice for what was needed. I'm on my own with linux as a desktop so I've had to make do with whatever I can, and I was hoping to take advantage of this printer. I have been to date using an old Lexmark Optra R+ but it's just run out of toner and they won't buy any more as they have a new 'n shiny HP CL2600n...

I saw someone is trying to get a linux based project working with these host based HP printers. One can only hope either they will get it working or HP will add some rudimentary support for linux on the desktop at some time.

One other thing I noticed on the HP site was the possibility to add an external print server. That might get around the problem if your budget rules allow them to buy one of those ...

Cheers, Dave

Well Rick Richardson has done us all a great favour and has developed a linux driver that works! Head over to this website: http://foo2hp.rkkda.com/ and follow the very simple instructions. A quote from his site: "foo2hp is an open source printer driver for printers that use the Zenographics ZjStream wire protocol for their print data, such as the HP Color LaserJet 2600n." It won't do photo quality colour like the official HP driver but should be fine for other colour prints. Why the hell HP couln't do this (I believe it's only 1 guy who did the majority of the work on the foo2hp driver) and why HP wouldn't *want* to support Rick in his efforts has me stumped.... Stephen Carter Retrac Networking Limited www: http://www.retnet.co.uk Ph: +44 (0)7870 218 693 Fax: +44 (0)870 7060 056 CNA, CNE, CNS, CCNA, MCP