My account on Reddit got shadowbanned, that's why I'm mirroring all my helpful/informational posts and comments here.
Are laser toner levels just based on print count instead of actual usage?
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1hbsgn6/are_laser_toner_levels_just_based_on_print_count/m1ot25e/
Here's a great article in Russian, auto-translated to English: https://www-startcopy-ru.translate.goog/likbez/datchiki_tonera.shtml?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
In short, there are four methods:
- Inductive
- Ultrasonic
- Optical
- Capacitive
Could you try the following (all as root)?
mv /usr/bin/cnjbigufr2 /usr/bin/cnjbigufr2-orig
echo -e '#!/bin/bash\nexec cnjbigufr2-orig "$@"' > /usr/bin/cnjbigufr2
chmod +x /usr/bin/cnjbigufr2For some reason, this trick helped me. I'm not sure why, as cnjbigufr2 seem to be working fine. Probably related to some kind of bug with fork/waitpid in another binary which executes cnjbigufr2.
List of budget aftermarket models, all are monochrome laser with USB connection only. Ideal for occasional home use. Every printer listed is $100 refilled and after maintenance max, $30-$70 average.
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1awwacy/need_a_cheap_printer_for_occasional_use/krms1i3/
Printing only
Tier A
Most reliable models, cheap refills and repairs, supported on all current OS (Windows 11/macOS Intel & ARM/Linux as of 2024), good drivers
- HP 1010, 1015, 1018, 1020, 1022, P1005, P1006, P1505: very compact, folding paper tray, no-chip/no-lock cartridges. One-side printing.
- HP 1160, 1320, P2035, P2055: a brick-type model with hidden paper tray, no-lock cartridges. Duplex printing supported on 1320, P2055d.
- Canon LBP2900, LBP3000, LBP3010, LBP6000, LBP6020: no-chip/no-lock cartridges. One-side printing. LBP2900 is still in manufacturing since 2005 (but new models are not cheap, about $200). Drivers are still working but probably not going to be updated (Win 11 not supported officially, a bit strange macos driver)
- Canon LBP6030: no-lock chip. One-side printing. Still in manufacturing. Better driver then LBP2900 and such.
- Canon LBP6650, LBP6670: brick-type model, no-chip cartridges, duplex.
Tier B
Samsung printer division was bought by HP in 2017, do not expect driver updates
- Samsung ML1610/1640: chipped cartridges, cheap to refill or hack the firmware ($1)
- Samsung ML1710/1750: older series, still OK
Tier C
Outdated models
- Samsung ML1210: outdated drivers
- Canon LBP810, LBP1120: outdated drivers, no 64-bit Windows support
- HP P2015: BGA chip failures due to bad soldering are common. The drivers are still good.
- HP 1200, 1300: old model
MFP (printing + scanning + copying)
No tiers here
- HP M1005/M1120/M1132: no chip cartridges
- HP 3390
- HP 2727/1536/1522: BGA chip failures due to bad soldering are common, check before buying! 1536/2727 are duplex, 2727 is brick.
Samsung printer division was bought by HP in 2017, do not expect driver updates
- Samsung SCX-3200, SCX-3400 chipped cartridges, cheap to hack the firmware ($1)
- Samsung SCX-4200 / Xerox WorkCentre 3119: cartridges with chips but the chip data is hackable for cheap ($1)
- Samsung SCX-4x21: outdated model, no-chip
- Xerox WorkCentre 3210/3220: chipped cartridges, cheap to hack the firmware ($1), brick. 3220 is duplex.
Several Chinese companies have their own domestic laser printers, claiming of in-house components and development (Cumtenn, ZoneWin), and one company does inkjet printers in addition to lasers (Deli Printer).
ZoneWin made a clone of both HP LaserJet 1020 and LaserJet M1005, which reuse most of the original/compatible parts (Q2612A cartridge). They claim it's 100% domestic parts only.
https://www.rtmworld.com/news/new-chinese-made-printer-uses-hp-cartridges/
- ZoneWin (Cactus CS-LP1120B, Hiper p-1120)
- Cumtenn (FPlus MB301DNW)
- Zhongshan Sanzang (Bulat M1121, P1024)
- Deli
- Biaotop (Technoevolab T2023)
- Greatwall
Hacked firmware is available for a very wide variety of printers (SoCs/manufacturers).
Check https://chipov.net/ or https://overchip.net/ for example, which offer such firmware for a couple of bucks. Both are in Russian (as I assume most of printer research scene is based in ex-CIS countries).
Buy the cracked firmware:
| Printer | Website |
|---|---|
| Samsung SCX, M, ML, CLP, SL | chipov.net overchip.net testcopy.tech printblog.ru korotron-online.net |
| HP Laser | |
| Xerox Phaser/WorkCentre | |
| Pantum | All above nochip.ru |
| Epson | https://orpys.com/ printblog.ru: adjustment program, reset, firmware |
Free
- FREE cracked firmware request: http://fix-free.ru/
- FREE cracked flash dumps: https://testcopy.tech/downloads/?c=55
- FREE cracked firmware and dumps: rutracker search for fix/фикс
Reset FAQs: http://forum.workoffice.ru/index.php
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1gvzqe1/best_laser_printer_under_300/ly6i0no/
Regarding drivers, check AirPrint-certified devices on Apple website, Mopria on Mopria website. These are driverless printing/scanning standards for which you don't have to install any driver or app on desktop and smartphone. Standards are 99% interchangeable: if the printer supports AirPrint, it most likely to support Mopria, and vice versa.
iOS doesn't support AirPrint scanning though, you need to use manufacturer app to scan on iPhone/iPad. macOS (as well as Windows) support driverless scanning.
Trusty HP LaserJet 1020 won't work in Linux Mint 21.3, is detected, but won't install in Windows 10
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1hd79in/trusty_hp_laserjet_1020_wont_work_in_linux_mint/m1xon3o/
On Linux, you need to install the firmware first. Your printer doesn't have the firmware storage, and it expects the PC to upload the firmware every time you power it on.
If you've only installed hplip (official HP driver) or foo2zjs (third-party driver), then:
- You most likely don't have the firmware files. Each driver has their own directories, so you need to install the fw for exactly the driver you're trying to use (foo2zjs on your screenshot). Use
getwebscript:sudo getweb 1020, and hope that your distro has the working URLs in the script (the author has died and his website has died, some distros has changed the URLs to the mirror, some did not). The file should be in/usr/lib/firmware/hp/sihp1020.dl. - If you have BOTH drivers installed, they BOTH are trying to upload the firmware. I'm not sure if that's fatal in your case, but there's definitely no safety measures implemented to prevent this in the drivers.
Power off, wait 10 seconds and power on your printer after you've installed the driver. It should be initializing twice if everything is fine.
https://github.com/koenkooi/foo2zjs/blob/master/getweb.in#L25
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1gh287h/hp_laserjet_p1006_on_macos_sequoia/luvopm3/
Try this driver: https://updates.cdn-apple.com/2021/macos/071-46903-20211101-0BD2764A-901C-41BA-9573-C17B8FDC4D90/HewlettPackardPrinterDrivers.dmg
If it doesn't install right away, follow this: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4608326#forum-post-66027086
- Download and install Pacifist: https://www.charlessoft.com/
- Download HP Drivers pack: https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1888 = will take a while...
- Mount (double click) the downloaded dmg file.
- Open Pacifist...(free to use but you need to wait 15 sec if you do not pay for the software).
- Choose "Open Package" and navigate in Finder to "HP_PrinterSupportManual" and open the file "HewlettPackardPrinterDrivers.pkg"
- Highlight (= click once) the row "HewlettPackardPrinterDrivers Contents".
- At the top of that window choose Install.
- And the rest should be as easy to follow!
- Finally add the printer with the normal procedure.
If it doesn't work, you can always install Linux in a virtual machine and setup the printer there. Linux's CUPS will share the printer as airprint.
The best drivers are from HP. Available not only for x86, but also for ARMv7/v8, and in general all functions are fully supported.
Brother drivers are of poor quality for some models, some are completely worthless. There is a third-party open source brlaser - good, but not without flaws, and somewhat abandoned. Scanner drivers are proprietary x86-only, but SANE developers are reverse-engineer it and actively making open-source reimplementation.
Kyocera FS series has an official driver for the x86 printer only, but there is an open, working one. The scanner driver is ancient Greek and will not work under modern operating systems.
Canon CAPT (LBP2900 and similar) stuck in 2015, driver only x86 32-bit, poor architecture. There is an open one, but it seems to be not always stable. Canon UFR is clearly better, available for ARMv8.
All problems with drivers are relevant only for host-based models. Most modern printers come with AirPrint/Mopria support; you can print and scan without drivers.
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1dqvvtz/do_i_need_a_new_printer/latb252/
Your printer is supported by SpliX open-source driver: https://openprinting.github.io/splix/
CUPS drivers for Linux are generally compatible with macOS as well. Here's the instruction I found on the internet for macOS:
https://github.com/peekpt/Old-Samsung-Printer-Splix-Catalina
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1by04w6/printer_could_not_be_discovered_after_some_time/
Spent some time debugging mysterious issues with auto-discovery protocols over Wi-Fi last month: it was my old router, or more precisely the incompatibility of (presumably buggy) firmware/Wi-Fi chip of the router and Wi-Fi chip of the device.
In short, if your printer is **connected** to the network all the time (and you can see it in the router's web interface), but could be discovered on the network only for precisely 1 hour or 1 day or other round time, try:
- Checking your router for multicast filtering option, as well as IGMP Snooping, and disabling it
- Switching your Wi-Fi security mode to "WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK Mixed"
- Disabling GTK (Group Key) rekeying
- Creating dedicated (but not isolated) Wi-Fi network for printer only
Auto-discovery protocols (mDNS/DNS-SD) are using multicast type of traffic, which works not so trivial over Wi-Fi compared to the wired network.
Wi-Fi uses different encryption algorithms and different encryption keys for unicast and broadcast/multicast traffic: individual per-client encryption keys for regular unicast (pairwise cipher with pairwise key) and a separate shared encryption key (group cipher with group temporal key) for multicast/broadcast traffic.
Turns out there could be issues with multicast under some conditions. Intel Wi-Fi drivers on Windows are known to mishandle multicast traffic after suspend/resume cycle, Ubiquiti APs were known for mishandling GTK.
Regarding IGMP Snooping: some APs may require the device to join mDNS multicast group to receive mDNS requests, and some device may not do that. Most APs forward mDNS request regardless of joined groups, but some do not or mishandle that.
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1dkgw33/psa_new_windows_on_arm_snapdragon_laptops_wont/
If you're planning to buy new Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon), Surface Pro 11 (Snapdragon), ASUS Vivobook S 15, or any other ARM "Copilot+ PC" device, you need to understand that
Drivers could not be emulated. x86 drivers won't run on ARM. Not today, not in the future.
That means that if your current printer does not support AirPrint/Mopria driverless standards, or at least PostScript/PCL printing languages, and requires driver to print which is not provided for ARM by your printer manufacturer, you won't be able to use it.
Brother, for example, which you love in this subreddit, does not provide ARM drivers for current printer generation, and have no plans for it
Windows have a bit limited support of Mopria standard. For example, it won't allow you to choose any supported paper size reported by the printer, requiring this information to be included in the manufacturer driver description file instead of the printer itself (despite this feature working completely fine in any other OS without a driver). So, your mileage may vary.
If your printer supports PostScript, you can use generic PostScript drivers:
- MS built-in (
MS Publisher ImagesetterorMS Publisher Color Printer) - Xerox PostScript driver (v3 driver architecture)
- HP Smart Universal Driver (v4 driver architecture)
If it doesn't support PostScript but supports PCL5/6, you can also use Xerox (V3 Xerox Global Print Driver PCL6) or HP drivers mentioned above (but not the MS ones).
https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1cysdan/used_xerox_phaser_3250/l5d1h61/
Like any printer on the market, this one (Xerox Phaser 3250) has a chip in the cartridge, which prevents you from just refilling the cartridge with the toner from the bottle.
The genuine cartridge, according to Xerox website, is "Starting At $182.99".
To refill, you can:
- Buy third-party cartridge AND make sure it comes with the chip ($20+, more like $30+)
- Buy toner bottle AND chip only: refill the cartridge, remove the existing chip, replace with a new one (≈$8)
- Buy toner bottle AND a hacked firmware for the printer, it will continue to work with existing chip (≈$3 one time + $5 every time)
- Open service manual for your printer model
- Navigate to "Repetitive image defects" table
- Use the ruler to understand which roller is to blame
- Clean or replace it
https://imgur.com/HZeQqiD - that's from M351/M451
support@fplustech.ru
April 25, 2025 3:09 AM
Добрый день, драйвер под Alt Linux для МФУ MB301DNW, судя по его содержимому, основан на открытом ПО, распространяемом под лицензией GPL/GPLv2. На вашем сайте не могу найти исходный код драйвера. Где я могу его скачать?
29.04.2025, 1:55 PM
Добрый день!По Вашему обращению создан запрос на сервисное обслуживание SRMT0004896 Просьба предоставить серийный номер оборудования Пожалуйста, отвечайте только при помощи опции “ответить всем”.Спасибо.
29.04.2025, 4:03 PM
Приветствую, я еще его не покупал. Я выбираю принтер под широкий парк оборудования на разных архитектурах, поэтому покупку начинаю с анализа ПО и драйверов, иначе не смогу пользоваться устройством.Пакет драйвера печати модели MB301DNW для Linux (файл "драйвер для alt.zip" с вашего сайта) содержит исполняемый файл rtoctljp, преобразующий документ в понятный принтеру формат. Этот драйвер основан на семействе открытых драйверов foo2zjs, а именно файле jbig.c и foo2oak.c из его состава.См. приложенный скриншот: в файле rtoctljp вашего драйвера содержится копирайт из файла jbig.c за авторством разработчика foo2zjs Rick Richardson ("rick"), а также автора библиотеки JBIG-KIT Markus Kuhn, которую этот драйвер использует.Библиотека JBIG-KIT распространяется на условиях лицензии GNU General Public License (GPL), а код драйвера foo2zjs — на условиях GPLv2. Эта лицензия является «вирусной» — любое ПО, которое включает в себя компоненты под GPL/GPLv2, также обязано использовать эту лицензию.GPL обязывает распространителя ПО предоставлять исходный код ПО по требованию получателя.Я рассматриваю к покупке модель MB301DNW и готов её купить, если вы со своей стороны гарантируете исполнение лицензии GPL, под которой лицензирован ваш драйвера, и предоставите его исходный код, иначе я банально не смогу печатать на этом принтере на всём парке оборудования.
