Does anyone have 4x6 thermal label printers working on Linux?
I have tried several thermal printers, zebra and off brands, none of them work on Linux, also tried arch, mint, manjaro, Ubuntu, and a few others.
Printers all detect and install, but never prints. I messed with CUPS settings, didnt help. I also tried LPrint. Didnt work. Nothing comes out any of the label printers. Not even the sample test labels.
Been using Linux for about 2 years full time. I only have windows to print shipping labels. I HATE using windows 10 and refuse to use 11. Now with no updates it’s the last thing I need to replace.
Many label printers (especially the older ones) use a proprietary text-based language, and accept plain vanilla text input via their serial port. They don't use a printer driver as such. To use one of them you have to learn their command language (usually pretty simple) and write a text file describing what you want to print using that language, and upload the file to the printer.
Start with the printer documentation and go from there.
Newer printers need linux drivers. Support varies.
BTW this is also the case for most network printers. You can just print to them by sending a pdf/postscript file with
netcat. CUPS is rarely needed nowadays.Can you get modern laser printers that work that way?
I recently tried setting up my hp p1102w to print from openwrt using p910nd, but can't because it's a "host based" printer, whatever that means.
Even in cups, it needs a special driver to get it to behave. Doesn't even work out of the box on my Fedora install.
I bought it a couple years ago, second hand, because the toner is cheap, and if I don't update the firmware, I can keep using aftermarket toner.
It has Wi-Fi, but sometimes it refuses to print from Linux or my phone, just randomly. Always works on Windows though 🤦♂️
My plan is to kill the Wi-Fi because I don't trust it being so out of date anymore, and either plug it into my server or slap a rpi on the back with cups on the network. But it's proving to be a painful experience.
Host based means the printer has no real brains of its own and depends on the computer driving it to do everything. Sort of like the Winmodems of the ‘90s. Feature-reduced cost-cutting.
Ah yes winmodems, what garbage. That's dumb. I probably should've dug deeper when I got it. Honestly I hate printers. I asked the printer community on Reddit to recommend me a cheap printer that used cheap toner. I gave them my requirements and they even found a Craigslist listing for me. I think I'm only in 20 or 40 bucks, can't remember, but I guess I can't complain too hard.
I am gonna try this.
This is the way we did things back in the day in manufacturing. Zebra printers connected to serial connections or via dumb terminals via serial ports being sent ZPL from OpenVMS based applications.
I was sure the zebra used its own proprietary stuff, that’s why I got 2 more modern no name printers hoping they would work. I was so fed up with the zebra not working after trying everything I found online.
I ended up buying a rollo printer. Thank you for your advice!