Displaying ink levels on a printer

[Adam Jimerson]

Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to display the ink
levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240, using the Lexmark z600 printer
driver installed on my 10.2 box, but it doesn't tell me about the ink levels
and its pretty annoying to have to wait until the print quality starts to
suck before I know that I need to go out and buy more ink.

[Patrick Shanahan]

Post by Adam Jimerson
Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to display the ink
levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240, using the Lexmark z600 printer
driver installed on my 10.2 box, but it doesn't tell me about the ink levels
and its pretty annoying to have to wait until the print quality starts to
suck before I know that I need to go out and buy more ink.

kink is available from packman

gutenprint 5.0.1 has escputil
software.opensuse.org/download/Printing/<distro>

[Adam Jimerson]

Post by Patrick Shanahan

Post by Adam Jimerson
Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to display
the ink levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240, using the Lexmark
z600 printer driver installed on my 10.2 box, but it doesn't tell me
about the ink levels and its pretty annoying to have to wait until the
print quality starts to suck before I know that I need to go out and buy
more ink.

kink is available from packman
gutenprint 5.0.1 has escputil
software.opensuse.org/download/Printing/<distro>
--
Patrick Shanahan Plainfield, Indiana, USA HOG # US1244711
http://wahoo.no-ip.org Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2

I tried ink, didn't see kink, but the ink program didn't work for my printer
I'm giving gutenprint a try.

[Rajko M.]

Post by Adam Jimerson

Post by Patrick Shanahan

Post by Adam Jimerson
Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to display
the ink levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240, using the Lexmark
z600 printer driver installed on my 10.2 box, but it doesn't tell me
about the ink levels and its pretty annoying to have to wait until the
print quality starts to suck before I know that I need to go out and
buy more ink.

kink is available from packman
gutenprint 5.0.1 has escputil
software.opensuse.org/download/Printing/<distro>

...

Post by Adam Jimerson
I tried ink, didn't see kink, but the ink program didn't work for my
printer I'm giving gutenprint a try.

Hi Adam,

The escputil is meant for Epson Stylus printers and it works fine them.

[BandiPat]

Post by Rajko M.

Post by Adam Jimerson

Post by Patrick Shanahan

Post by Adam Jimerson
Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to
display the ink levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240,
using the Lexmark z600 printer driver installed on my 10.2 box,
but it doesn't tell me about the ink levels and its pretty
annoying to have to wait until the print quality starts to suck
before I know that I need to go out and buy more ink.

kink is available from packman
gutenprint 5.0.1 has escputil
software.opensuse.org/download/Printing/<distro>

...

Post by Adam Jimerson
I tried ink, didn't see kink, but the ink program didn't work for
my printer I'm giving gutenprint a try.

Hi Adam,
The escputil is meant for Epson Stylus printers and it works fine
them.
--
Regards,
Rajko.

***************

I've always had good luck with "ink", but you have to have libinklevel
installed as well. I've used it successfully with different brands of
printers with good results. kink may also use the same files, just
give you a gui to work with instead of the shell.

regards,
Lee

[Daniel Feiglin]

Post by BandiPat

Post by Rajko M.

Post by Adam Jimerson

Post by Patrick Shanahan

Post by Adam Jimerson
Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to
display the ink levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240,
using the Lexmark z600 printer driver installed on my 10.2 box,
but it doesn't tell me about the ink levels and its pretty
annoying to have to wait until the print quality starts to suck
before I know that I need to go out and buy more ink.

kink is available from packman
gutenprint 5.0.1 has escputil
software.opensuse.org/download/Printing/<distro>

...

Post by Adam Jimerson
I tried ink, didn't see kink, but the ink program didn't work for
my printer I'm giving gutenprint a try.

Hi Adam,
The escputil is meant for Epson Stylus printers and it works fine
them.
--
Regards,
Rajko.

***************
I've always had good luck with "ink", but you have to have libinklevel
installed as well. I've used it successfully with different brands of
printers with good results. kink may also use the same files, just
give you a gui to work with instead of the shell.
regards,
Lee

I have a parallel port HP 5550 printer (supported in libinklevel).

I installed ink, and all I got for my troubles was this:
------------------------------------------>>
***@danny:~> ink -p "parport"
ink v0.3.1 (c) 2006 Markus Heinz



Could not get device id.
Could not get ink level.
------------------------------------------>>
Any ideas?

P.S.:
1. To get that far, I had to symlink /dev/lp0 to /dev/parport0
2. /dev/lp0 must have write permission enabled for everyone
3. URL for ink, kink and related matters:
http://libinklevel.sourceforge.net/. The KDE kink program is available
as as a tar.bz2 source archive. Unfortunately, the make fails with
compilation errors.

[Patrick Shanahan]

Post by Daniel Feiglin
http://libinklevel.sourceforge.net/. The KDE kink program is available
as as a tar.bz2 source archive. Unfortunately, the make fails with
compilation errors.

05:55 wahoo:~ > webpin kink -d10.2
Query URL:
http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/searchservice/SearchService/Search/Simple/openSUSE_102/kink
1 results (1 packages) found for "kink" in openSUSE_102
* wireshark-debuginfo: Debug information for package wireshark
(not installed)
- 0.99.4 [BS::home:/rbos] {i586}
@ http://software.opensuse.org/download/home:/rbos/openSUSE_10.2

Post by Daniel Feiglin

/usr/src/debug/wireshark-0.99.4/epan/dissectors/packet-kink.c

try http://software.opensuse.org/download/home:/rbos/openSUSE_10.2

and why are you building from source when there are rpm's available?

the webpin utility is available from:
http://anorien.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/opensuse/guru/10.2/RPMS

another necessary utility for finding packages is "pin" which is
provided with the install media.

[Kai Ponte]

<snip>

Post by Daniel Feiglin
I have a parallel port HP 5550 printer (supported in libinklevel).

If you have an HP, you might try HPLIP.

http://hplip.sourceforge.net/

I've had good luck with this project.

[Dave Grosvold]

Post by Adam Jimerson
Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to display the ink
levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240, using the Lexmark z600 printer
driver installed on my 10.2 box, but it doesn't tell me about the ink levels
and its pretty annoying to have to wait until the print quality starts to
suck before I know that I need to go out and buy more ink.

I made the switch several years ago to network printers, rather than
locally-attached ones (of course, having 5 or six computers in the house
made this a necessity.)

The point is - most network printers have a built in web server. Just
point your browser at the IP address of the printer, and voila! You have
all the information you need about ink levels, configuration, etc. This
eliminates the need for printer utility software on each PC in the
network, and I can access this information from any PC.


-- Dave Grosvold

[BandiPat]

On Tuesday 31 July 2007, Daniel Feiglin wrote:
[...]

Post by Daniel Feiglin
I have a parallel port HP 5550 printer (supported in libinklevel).
------------------------------------------>>
ink v0.3.1 (c) 2006 Markus Heinz
Could not get device id.
Could not get ink level.
------------------------------------------>>
Any ideas?
1. To get that far, I had to symlink /dev/lp0 to /dev/parport0
2. /dev/lp0 must have write permission enabled for everyone
http://libinklevel.sourceforge.net/. The KDE kink program is
available as as a tar.bz2 source archive. Unfortunately, the make
fails with compilation errors.

============

Let me try my HP960C connected via the parallel port to check your
findings. I haven't used or tried anything other than a USB
connection, but the 960C has a parallel port adapter as well. Have you
tried the USB? Or did you try "ink -p parport"?? I don't think you
are suppose to use the quotes around the device port name. I always
use ink -p usb and get results.

Lee

[Daniel Feiglin]

Post by Patrick Shanahan

Post by Daniel Feiglin
http://libinklevel.sourceforge.net/. The KDE kink program is available
as as a tar.bz2 source archive. Unfortunately, the make fails with
compilation errors.

05:55 wahoo:~ > webpin kink -d10.2
http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/searchservice/SearchService/Search/Simple/openSUSE_102/kink
1 results (1 packages) found for "kink" in openSUSE_102
* wireshark-debuginfo: Debug information for package wireshark
(not installed)
- 0.99.4 [BS::home:/rbos] {i586}
@ http://software.opensuse.org/download/home:/rbos/openSUSE_10.2

Post by Daniel Feiglin

/usr/src/debug/wireshark-0.99.4/epan/dissectors/packet-kink.c

try http://software.opensuse.org/download/home:/rbos/openSUSE_10.2
and why are you building from source when there are rpm's available?

I guess that I didn't look hard enough.

I found it - and it still doesn't work. The Detect fails.

Post by Patrick Shanahan
http://anorien.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/opensuse/guru/10.2/RPMS
another necessary utility for finding packages is "pin" which is
provided with the install media.

[Adam Jimerson]

Post by BandiPat

Post by Rajko M.

Post by Adam Jimerson

Post by Patrick Shanahan

Post by Adam Jimerson
Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to
display the ink levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240,
using the Lexmark z600 printer driver installed on my 10.2 box,
but it doesn't tell me about the ink levels and its pretty
annoying to have to wait until the print quality starts to suck
before I know that I need to go out and buy more ink.

kink is available from packman
gutenprint 5.0.1 has escputil
software.opensuse.org/download/Printing/<distro>

...

Post by Adam Jimerson
I tried ink, didn't see kink, but the ink program didn't work for
my printer I'm giving gutenprint a try.

Hi Adam,
The escputil is meant for Epson Stylus printers and it works fine
them.
--
Regards,
Rajko.

***************
I've always had good luck with "ink", but you have to have libinklevel
installed as well. I've used it successfully with different brands of
printers with good results. kink may also use the same files, just
give you a gui to work with instead of the shell.
regards,
Lee

I have ink, libinklevel and kink installed on my system, the error ink gives
me is
"No printer found.
Could not get ink level."
My printer is on /dev/usb/lp0 and is fully configured. When using Kink I get
the Printer error page saying that it could not find the printer on my system
and saying that I need to run chmod 666 /dev/usb/lp0 to fix any permissions
problem, after running that I still get the same error.

It would be nice if Lexmark had the same support that hp and epson pinters
have, that would make things a lot easier. gutenprint didn't seem to make
any difference that I can tell.

[Adam Jimerson]

Post by Dave Grosvold

Post by Adam Jimerson
Is there a way to get ether cups or the YaST printer module to display
the ink levels on printers? I have a Lexmark x1240, using the Lexmark
z600 printer driver installed on my 10.2 box, but it doesn't tell me
about the ink levels and its pretty annoying to have to wait until the
print quality starts to suck before I know that I need to go out and buy
more ink.

I made the switch several years ago to network printers, rather than
locally-attached ones (of course, having 5 or six computers in the house
made this a necessity.)
The point is - most network printers have a built in web server. Just
point your browser at the IP address of the printer, and voila! You have
all the information you need about ink levels, configuration, etc. This
eliminates the need for printer utility software on each PC in the
network, and I can access this information from any PC.
-- Dave Grosvold

Sadly I am to poor to be able to buy a network printer and so I have to work
with what I can get, but thanks for the advice.

[taharka]

How do,

On Tue, 2007-07-31 at 13:10 -0400, Adam Jimerson wrote:
<snip>

Post by Adam Jimerson
Sadly I am to poor to be able to buy a network printer and so I have to work
with what I can get, but thanks for the advice.

It's summertime now. No yard sales in the area you live in? ~three weeks
ago, I picked up an hp psc 2210 all-in-one at a yard sale for $5. Works
flawlessly with hplip :-) Goodwill stores are another good source for $5
hp printers also.

taharka

Lexington, Kentucky U.S.A.

[Chris Worley]

Post by Adam Jimerson
It would be nice if Lexmark had the same support that hp and epson
pinters have, that would make things a lot easier.

I once had Lexmark send me a new printer because I couldn't figure out
it was out of ink ;)

Post by Adam Jimerson
It's summertime now. No yard sales in the area you live in? ~three weeks
ago, I picked up an hp psc 2210 all-in-one at a yard sale for $5. Works
flawlessly with hplip :-) Goodwill stores are another good source for $5
hp printers also.

... And you must become proficient in these means of collecting
hardware to consider yourself Linux-savvy.

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

Post by Adam Jimerson
It would be nice if Lexmark had the same support that hp and epson pinters
have, that would make things a lot easier.

The Lexmark inkjet division simply does not want to support Linux.
Have a look at
http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/LinuxSupportByPrinterVendors

To make things easy, I recommend to wait until you would need to
buy new ink and then buy a printer which is supported by Linux, see
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Purchasing_a_Printer_and_Compatibility

Using a proper printer will solve the driver problem once and for all,
as it will eliminate the need for installing and configuring proprietary
driver software and obtaining driver updates required for new developments
in the print system.

If you are looking for a well supported all-in-one device, see
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/index.html
and for more details what exactly is supported, see
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/tech_docs/device_classes.html


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner

[Damon Register]

Post by Johannes Meixner
If you are looking for a well supported all-in-one device, see
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/index.html
and for more details what exactly is supported, see
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/tech_docs/device_classes.html

Thank you for these links. This is really useful info.

Damon Register

[Adam Jimerson]

Post by taharka
How do,
<snip>

Post by Adam Jimerson
Sadly I am to poor to be able to buy a network printer and so I have to
work with what I can get, but thanks for the advice.

It's summertime now. No yard sales in the area you live in? ~three weeks
ago, I picked up an hp psc 2210 all-in-one at a yard sale for $5. Works
flawlessly with hplip :-) Goodwill stores are another good source for $5
hp printers also.
taharka
Lexington, Kentucky U.S.A.

None that is selling printers, or at least ones that work. I haven't tried
looking in a Goodwill store for a printer.