Книга: Fedora™ Unleashed, 2008 edition

Using USB and Legacy Printers

Using USB and Legacy Printers

Other problems can arise from the lack of a printer's USB vendor and device ID information — a problem shared by some USB scanners under Linux. For information regarding USB printer support, you can check with the Linux printing folks (http://www.linuxprinting.org/vendors.html) or with the Linux USB project athttp://www.linux-usb.org/.

Although many newer printers require a universal serial bus (USB) port, excellent support still exists for legacy parallel-port (IEEE-1284) printers with Linux, enabling sites to continue to use older hardware. You can take advantage of Linux workarounds to set up printing even if the host computer does not have a traditional parallel printer port or if you want to use a newer USB printer on an older computer.

For example, to host a parallel port-based printer on a USB-only computer, attach the printer to the computer using an inexpensive USB-to-parallel converter. USB-to-parallel converters typically provide a Centronics connector; one end of that connector is plugged in to the older printer, whereas the other end is plugged in to a USB connector. The USB connector is then plugged in to your hub, desktop, or notebook USB port. On the other hand, you can use an add-on PCI card to add USB support for printing (and other devices) if the legacy computer does not have a built-in USB port. Most PCI USB interface cards add at least two ports, and devices can be chained via a hub.

Related Fedora and Linux Commands

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