Re: [hpoj-devel] officejet g55 supported - any gotchas?

[<pa...@rc...>]

Hi, Carlos.

cp...@tr... wrote:
> i am seriously considering purchasing an hp officejet g55.
> it seems that the printing and scanning is all supported
> (via the paralel port, i assume, and not via usb?).
> seems like the perfect printer for home use for me.
Correct -- currently only parallel is supported, but USB is on my
to-do list.

It is also supported to connect the G series to an HP JetDirect 70X, 170X,
300X, or 500X print server (firmware x.08.xx or later).

> before i go down an buy it, are there any gotchas i
> should be aware of? basically of all the features in the
> printer (resolution/speed/quality in pringing and
> resolution/quality in scanning), what is *not* currently
> supported under linux?
Printing is generally done through the ghostscript DeskJet 550C
driver, which doesn't take full advantage of the G series' capabilities.
It seems there is now a DeskJet 970C driver developed through reverse-
engineering the Windows driver (see
"http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=cdj970").  I haven't
tried it personally yet.  (The G series uses the same printing technology
as the DeskJet 970C.)

Scanning works pretty well with this model.  There is a bug in one of the
kernel-mode drivers provided with this package which causes intermittent
process hangs during a scan, but I think I figured it out today and am
waiting on confirmation of my fix from the person who has seen the problem
the most.

The G series also functions very well as a standalone copier.  Personally,
I find that the G85's automatic document feeder (ADF) comes in handy a lot
for handling legal-size originals, or for handling a stack of originals.
The G85 also has fax capability (which is also not present on the G55).

> i could put down some moderate amoung of hacking too..
> 
> specifically, i am running a custom 2.2.17 #1 SMP kernel
> and i would rather not have to patch/recompile, if i could
> help it. specifically, i probably cannot go to 2.4 kernels.
The hpoj drivers currently don't work with SMP (any kernel version) or
2.4.  There are a couple of people working on this, but I don't know
what their status is right now.  You're more than welcome to help out.  :-)

Long term I intend to replace the kernel-mode drivers with a user-mode
daemon, which will provide better stability and portability due to not
depending on an ever-changing kernel interface.

David