Lexmark Printer

[bobcat331]

I'm new to Linux So I have installed Ubuntu 10.10 AMD 64. I'm trying to load the driver cd for a Lexmark X5650 All-In-One and the cd shows up but won't auto install. I double click on it and the files show up but I don't know what to do from there. I went on the Lexmark site and it shows two drivers for Linux. Redhat Package Manager and Debian Package Manager. Which one do I need ? My printer is not listed in the driver database. Thanks

[MikeTbob]

Did you see any Linux drivers on the CD? The Debian packages are the ones you want. Do you have CUPS installed? See this link.
https://help.ubuntu.com/6.06/ubuntu/...de/C/cups.html

[bobcat331]

Thanks for the quick response. No the cd doesn't have any Linux drivers on it. I looked at the link page and I'm not too sharp yet on command prompts. I don't know if that's something I should try right now. If I download the drivers for Debian will that be good enough or no?

Edit: I looked at the Debian driver package on the Lexmark site and It looks to complicated for me to mess with. I have two hard drives in my computer and I have Linux on one and windows on the other. I'm not a programmer or such so it's easier if I just use the hard drive with windows on it I guess if I want to print something.

[chadfluegge]

I have the exact same printer, and although it works flawlessly on a 32 bit machine, it will not work on my 64 bit Ubuntu 10.10 machine, even though I have the 32bit libraries installed.

The 32 bit drivers can be found here.

It comes in the form of an archive. Simply unzip it and run the resulting executable.

You could try installing the 32bit libs on your machine and then try installing this. Who knows, maybe it will work for you.

Hope that helps.

[sgosnell]

You definitely want the .deb file, since Ubuntu is a fork of Debian, and uses .deb package files. It's not rocket science, just download the driver, and your browser should ask if you want to open with Archive Manager or save. Select the Open with Archive Manager option, and extract all the files to a folder by checking the appropriate checkboxes and selecting the destination, preferably your home folder. When the extraction is done, a dialog should appear asking what you want to do. Click on 'Show the files', and Nautilus should open in the folder where you extracted the files. Double-click on the file, and follow the instructions.

This isn't really much different than what you would do in Windows, and it's something you need to learn anyway.

[chadfluegge]

I would be most interested to know if the 32bit drivers work for you too...

'Cause if it does, than it gives me reason to believe that it should work on my 64bit machine as well, and that I'm just missing something.

[bobcat331]

You definitely want the .deb file, since Ubuntu is a fork of Debian, and uses .deb package files. It's not rocket science, just download the driver, and your browser should ask if you want to open with Archive Manager or save. Select the Open with Archive Manager option, and extract all the files to a folder by checking the appropriate checkboxes and selecting the destination, preferably your home folder. When the extraction is done, a dialog should appear asking what you want to do. Click on 'Show the files', and Nautilus should open in the folder where you extracted the files. Double-click on the file, and follow the instructions.

This isn't really much different than what you would do in Windows, and it's something you need to learn anyway.

I got all the way to install until the administrator dialog box came up. I put in the password I've been using since I installed Linux and it's telling me the password is wrong. Also you are absoultly correct I do need to learn instead of taking the easy way out.

PS: Is the administrator root privlegs password different?

[sgosnell]

No, it should be your user password, unless you have installed a different root password.

[bobcat331]

No I haven't changed it. It keeps telling me I'm using the wrong password.

[chadfluegge]

You may not be in the sudoers file...

Run the installer from terminal and report any errors back here.

To run from terminal, simply cd into whatever directory the installer is and run the following command:

sudo gdebi nameofinstaller.deb

When asked for password, give your user's password.

If you get an error, let us know what it is and we can go from there.