Solid Block of Ise

Yeah, this is yet another why-linux-rules-post but whatever…

Back in spring me and Ann-Sofie inherited a printer. The previous printer we’d had was a low-end Epson that came as part of the computer package Ash bought before I met her. It did the job, but like all inkjet printers it was temperamental, wasteful and the printer was very vulnerable to dust. I don’t know how much paper we wasted having to clean the heads of that thing over and over, and it gobbled ink as if it was powered by a gas-turbine. Also, like all inkjets it was expensive to maintain in the long run since ink is more expensive than gasoline and even human blood.

Overall I’ve never really been a fan of inkjet printers. Sure, they’ve come a long way from their humble beginnings in the early 90’s, but they’re still a very poor excuse for printers. There are few peripherals that can cause such extreme irritations as printers, and since inkjet printers are squarely aimed at the Joe Schmoe market-segment they’re of course the ones that are the least properly engineered. The software and drivers are usually alpha-quality and as such it’s usually a bit of an adventure operating a consumer-grade inkjet printer, regardless of how “userfriendly” the manufacturer claims it to be.

Lasers however have usually been the opposite way. Since laserprinters historically get aimed at offices and businesses they usually receive somewhat more polish on the engineering of hardware and software. This is also reflected on the price - lasers ain’t the cheapest printer around. At least not on the initial purchase, but they weigh it up by being more reliable and more economic in the long run.

Color-lasers however were the domain of nerds wet dreams up until maybe a year or two ago. Hell, I remember when I worked in the US back in ‘99 and a customer special-ordered a color-laser. I can’t remember the exact model, but I’m pretty sure it was a Xerox and costed somewhere around US$80.000. The size is something I am sure about, it was about the size of any average house. Of course, this was the absolute top of the line, spare no expenses-class of printers, and the office that ordered it had some pretty crazy printing-needs. None the less, a lot of fan-photos were taken of the staff with that printer when it arrived.

Today even color-lasers have come down a bit and are readily available to anyone who wants something better-than-average when it comes to printing. Sure, they’re still several magnitudes more expensive than a cheapo inkjet, but you’ll get a really decent color-laser for around 600 US bucks these days. That’s a lot cheaper than 80 grand.

Our laser-printer is of the color-persuasion. We inherited from acquaintances of Ann-Sofies parents, with the provision that the toner was more or less empty and that we’d probably have to replace it pretty soon. Fine, it’s still a functioning laserprinter! And in color! Give it here, right now. Never look a gift-horse in the mouth, especially when it’s a colorlaser.

The printer turned out to be a Konica-Minolta 2300w. No frills whatsoever, but I knew it was a laser and thus was an arm and a leg (plus various other bodyparts) above anything that any inkjet could offer. It turned out to be a bit temperamental, when we first tried installing it under Windows it sometimes refused to acknowledge itself. After some tickling and general prodding it started to behave, but after both me and Ash switched to Ubuntu it got relegated to the corner since it seemed to lack support under Ubuntu - which I found a bit weird since it was a very capable printer and as pretty much any decent laserprinter was postscript-compatible. It was additionally weird since I’d found a Linux-driver and since it showed up just fine in among all the other USB-devices.

None the less, neither of us had much interest in fiddling with it, and for the bare printing needs we had the old Epson worked fine under Ubuntu. Of course with all the annoyances of a cheap inkjet, but par for the course.

Earlier tonight I decided to have a go at it again. Gutsy had supposedly a much improved printing-system over Feisty, so I decided to try it out. Same thing. Printer plugged in just fine, but printings just never happened no matter how much you clicked the “print” button. So I hit the forums, and found this thread which suggested that installing the m2300w-wrapper package from the repos made everything worked. Thus, I installed that package, restarted the printer and presto - IT PRINTS!

About the only complaint I now have about this thing is that it’s virtually impossible to place anywhere sane. All but one side of it has some panel which either needs free access or has some hatch that might need opening for jammed papers or change of toner. The only workable place to put it is literally in the middle of the room with nothing around it.

License

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