Where can I find the Ubuntu drivers for a Dell 1700 printer.

Question

I have Hewlett Packard Compaq D230 PC running Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 LTS 32 bit. I have a Dell 1700 printer and I want to download the corresponing drivers and utilities for it.

Could someone give me the correct link to download them?

The Dell website, only has Windows operating systems listed in their download section.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/uk/en/ukdhs1/Product/dell-1700n?s=dhs

Solution 1

Unfortunately, Dell doesn't provide their own Ubuntu drivers for their printers, all those drivers are for various versions of Windows. The printer should however run fine in Ubuntu without the drivers.

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Using Printers with Ubuntu

In the application System Settings (by default in the dock) there is a section called "Printing".

Alternatively, you can access it via the System Menu:

From that tool you can add and manage your printers.

Once you have a printer added you can manage it by right-clicking on it and choosing "Properties"

From here you can see, edit and control various aspects of your printer like status, name and ink levels (if supported).

Solution 2

The best linux printer driver I've found for this printer is Generic PCL 6/PCL XL Printer Foomatic/ljet4. If you have problems with slow printing I'd recommend giving it a try.

Solution 3

Some configurations result in printer "escape" codes appearing in the printout as well as output that is not centered on the sheet or completely garbled output. I've had intermittent trouble with the following:

Generic PCL 6/PCL XL Printer Foomatic/pxlcolor (recommended)
Generic PCL 6/PCL XL Printer Foomatic/ljet4d
Generic PCL 6/PCL XL Printer Foomatic/CUPS

So I'm not recommending the one labelled "recommended". I'm now using:

Generic PCL 5e

This one seems to be better in my experience.

You can set this up the usual way using System Settings > Printing.

Comments

[njallam]

Dell only supports Windows for their drivers. You probably will have to stick with the drivers that Ubuntu has provided for you automatically. Does the printer still work?

[Mario Bonsembiante]

Thanks! I guess it'll be worth a try. I'll post again, if I'm coming across probs. Thanks once again.

[Tomasz Kapłoński]

Finally I can print docs at work!

[mikewhatever]

LM is off topic here. If you actually want to help, test your answers on Ubuntu.