Usb Printer

[zipmaster]

I, as I'm sure many of you, have a usb printer. I noticed from reading this forum that the little usb port on the bottem is for hosting devices. I was wondering if it's possible for me to hook up my printer to that and what software would I need to print out my documents and such?

[lumi]

You _really_ should start out with the important stuff like what is the make and model of your printer.  Yes, it matters.....

1.  There needs to be a Linux driver for your printer.  And the driver needs to be compiled (and run successfully) on an ARM-processor device.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of the drivers expected the only computing systems capable of hosting a printer are Intel-x86 compatible.

2. You need applications which know how to print (or even care).  I haven't seen anything besides "a2ps" that really considered hardcopy output.  Printed output is not a "given" function of a PDA so far.

My few cents,
Dave

[sgtron]

I guess it should also be noted that the Hancom Word doesn't have a print option, nor the email nor the web browser programs.

Perhaps more interesting would be beaming your file to an infrared equipped printer.  Anyone do that yet?

[mimsmall]

Perhaps a small distro like Damn Small Linux is a solution. Distro Watch has some. They only take 100 meg or less.

[adf]

pocketworkstation should be able to handle that pretty nicely.  And, there is probably somthing you could do in openzaurus---- and of course you could connect the printer to another box and print over a network.
my .02
adf

[mimsmall]

This site has some useful info for printing from non-pc devices.

http://www.cswl.com/whiteppr/tech/PrintHpApdk.html

Perhaps there is a driver for an ARM processor.

[mimsmall]

Here is another site I googled up.

HP Inkjet Linux Driver 1.3.1 release
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=250494

    The Hewlett-Packard Co. Linux Inkjet Driver Project is a add-on to the
    GNU Ghostscript application. This driver is based on the Hewlett
    Packard Appliance APDK for deskjet printers. This HP Inkjet Linux
    Driver (HPIJS) release includes support for custom paper sizes, and a
    number of bug fixes. The complete list of changes in this release
    include: 1. Added data compression to DJ3320. 2. Changed the default
    black pen vertical alignment value for the DJ3320. 3. Added support for
    custom paper size. 4. Removed 3425-COVER paper size, this is now a
    custom paper size. 5. Added Printable Area documentation. 6. Fixed a
    Officejet hang problem (ie: Officejet 500/600/700 and PSC 300). The
    Officejet would hang after printing a job. See hpinkjet.sourceforge.net
    and the hpijs_readme.html file for more information.

[mimsmall]

Kindly disregard previous post.

[adf]

has this gone anywhere?  right now I think all my printers are parallel, and so I can't check. Usb printer support is available in the kernel though...

Why not use firefox to print?

..just a few thoughts, adf

[sgtron]

I'm sure you could do a great deal of things with Firefox, Openzaurus, etc... I want the machine I bought, stock kernel, the machine Sharp said "Hey this thing as USB" to work.  All the jumping through hoops we do to get things to work is ridiculous.

[adf]

Ah... but that is based on the premise that sharp does software development

Honestly though... I compiled usb printer and scanner support into my kernel (it is a recompile of the fast kernel sources from guylhem, and it runs on a sharp rom with no more trouble than an update and the removal of a module or two). I'll try to test it myself, and post any worthwhile results. So far, I seem to have been lucky about getting stuff going, but not so lucky it goes on the 1st try.

now I just have to find usb printers and scanners....

[sgtron]

Great, I look forward to hearing your results.

[rickh]

For what it's worth...

I have a Canon i70 portable printer that has an IR interface in addition to USB, and can beam text documents fine to the printer.  Haven't been able to beam images, though.

R.
==

[sgtron]

Was there anything special you had to do with the printer? Or did you just align the infrared ports and press "beam" and it magically works?

[rickh]

Was there anything special you had to do with the printer? Or did you just align the infrared ports and press "beam" and it magically works?
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Just align the ports and beam.  This only works for text documents, though.  KA/Pi addresses as well.  KO/Pi entries print as well, but they don't really print out anything usable (pretty much raw data without the tags).

I occasionally print out meeting notes in text format this way (normally I keep them electronic, but once in a while someone wants a printout without dealing with email or whatever).

R.
==