Leopard doesn't like my printer

Posted by: DWallach

Leopard doesn't like my printer - 25/11/2007 00:06

I've got a Xerox 6110N (also known as a Samsung CLP-300N). It's a color laser network printer. Got it six months ago. Works great.

I just upgraded to Leopard (10.5) and have all the latest Apple updates.

Guess what? I can't print to my printer any more. Of all the 10.5 annoyances, this one tops the charts. Neither Samsung nor Xerox appear to have updated their web site.

What happens: if I try adding the printer, it sees it right away via Bonjour. It didn't find a default driver for it. There was a driver for "Xerox Phaser 6120" and there was also a driver for "Phaser 6110" (no "N", and no "Xerox"). When I try printing a page, I get:
Quote:
Attempting to connect to host _ for printer
Network host " is busy; will retry in 25 seconds

That underscore represents what looks, to my eyes, to be a double space.

I've tried with the Samsung drivers, from Samsung's web site. I've tried with the Xerox 6120 driver, which I assume might be close enough to just work. Everything ultimately gives the same problem: the computer is not succeeding in connecting to the printer. I verified that my (Windows-based) laptop has no trouble speaking to the printer.

EDIT: I decided that Bonjour must be deeply confused (even though it used to work fine). I followed the manual's setup instructions, which talk about using "IP Printing" via "Socket/HP Jet Direct" and lo and behold the thing works! Moral of the story: say goodbye to Bonjour.

(And don't even get me started griping about how Apple's Spaces manages to fall far short of the mark and simultaneously broke the third-party virtual desktop system I'd been using that worked just fine, thank you.)
Posted by: Neutrino

Re: Leopard doesn't like my printer - 25/11/2007 01:34

Are you talking about Parallels? I've been running Leopard since it came out without issues. Spaces and Parallels seem to work fine together on my system. Glad you got your printer working. I'm actually new to OSX having only used it for less than a year. I have a lot to learn! Since I picked up a Macbook I don't think I'll ever go back.
Posted by: DWallach

Re: Leopard doesn't like my printer - 25/11/2007 05:12

Quote:
Are you talking about Parallels?

No, sorry, virtual desktops, not virtual machines. I'd previously used Desktop Manager, which is nicely configurable in all the right ways, doing all the important bits that Apple's Spaces now does, only better in a bunch of important ways. (Example: Spaces forces all of your Finder windows onto a specific pane, while Desktop Manager was perfectly happy having Finder windows or shells or whatever else spread all around.)

I'm still tweaked that Bonjour held out the promise of things just freakin' working, worked perfectly in 10.4, works perfectly on my freakin' Windows laptop, but failed on 10.5.
Posted by: music

Re: Leopard doesn't like my printer - 25/11/2007 06:13

Quote:
Moral of the story: say goodbye to Bonjour.


Um, don't you mean au revoir ? Or perhaps adieu ?
Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Leopard doesn't like my printer - 25/11/2007 13:25

You'd think that after integrating CUPS the whole printing platform would be improving, not breaking or getting worse.
Posted by: drakino

Re: Leopard doesn't like my printer - 25/11/2007 19:17

Quote:
Example: Spaces forces all of your Finder windows onto a specific pane, while Desktop Manager was perfectly happy having Finder windows or shells or whatever else spread all around.


Spaces does default to going back to a certain desktop if that one desktop has the only window of an app. But it will allow multiple windows on different desktops. Either drag the second window to the edge of the desktop to switch over, use F8 to move one over, or right click the Finder Dock icon and choose New Finder Window. The same should work for other apps too.

Quote:
I'm still tweaked that Bonjour held out the promise of things just freakin' working, worked perfectly in 10.4, works perfectly on my freakin' Windows laptop, but failed on 10.5.


I wonder if your printer has the same Bonjour bug my NAS did. The root of the problem was that the NAS was broadcasting AFP shares over Bonjour, but the port number was set to 0. 10.4 would just try the default port and work, 10.5 bombed out on connecting till a firmware upgrade to the NAS broadcast the proper port. My HP Color Laserjet works fine in 10.5 under Bonjour, and it's nice that the driver is built in. The printer was just slightly too new to be under 10.4, so I still had to manually install drivers for it.

Interesting tidbit, Apple does allow driver updates specifically for printers now via Software Update, something they never did for 10.4 or before. Looks like they realize 10.5 will probably be around for even longer then 10.4, and they need a way to easily update drivers. It's one thing I'll credit Microsoft Update for, driver updates can be pulled down using it.