Anyone interested in driver development for Lexmark?

zox · #1 6th December 2004, 10:38 PM

Hello all!
I have Lexmark all in one printer/scanner X5270 and there is no drivers for it.
I mailed Lexmark support and they responded there is no drivers but there is SDK.
Since I am not programmer myself, maybe some of you brave dudes can take up a challenge and maybe even contact Lexmark for some kind of reward or something like Ndiswrapper driver peeps, and accept donations from people who use it, just a suggestion.

I know it's probably pain in a b#$@ developing drivers but I am pretty sure there will be more people interested as this is printer that "spy" users, at least under Windows and they are giving it away for free when you buy cellphone and other promotions too.

Anyway, keep up the good work and thanks for reading this

Quote:

Hello,
Thank you for your inquiry to our technical support center.
Drivers for our inkjet printers for linux operating systems are no longer
being developed. We do, however, have a Linux Drivers Development kit
available for individuals wishing to create thier own drivers. It is
located here:

http://www.lexmark.com/US/products/info/linux/

This is the extant of linux support we provide. We do not have any
pre-written drivers for your printer.

Have a great day,

Lexmark eSupport team
http://support.lexmark.com
*****Original Message*****

On Sun Dec 5th 08:26:36 PM EST 2004, xxx@xxx.com wrote:

> Hello.
> I can see that you have official support for Windows and Mac only,
however I also see some development in Linux waters.
>
> I am using Linux full time and have purchased this printer/scanner X5270.
> How can I get it to work under Linux?
> I see you have some SDK but unfortunately I am not software developer.
> Thank you very much.
> Zox

***bob*** · #2 7th December 2004, 12:43 AM

You might want to check into the SANE group http://www.sane-project.org/ and see if there's anything in development there.

zox · #3 8th December 2004, 10:17 PM

Tried, nothing there

.
Thanks for reply though, it's appreciated.

***bob*** · #4 8th December 2004, 10:32 PM

Yeah, Zox, I have a scanner that's never going to have Linux drivers either. It's one reason that I still dual-boot with WinXP and then share the data. Klunky but it's a solution.

sej7278 · #5 9th December 2004, 03:28 AM

I wouldn't use any Lexmark equipment - they're the Microsoft of the printer world.

moo113 · #6 2nd February 2005, 04:23 PM

Lexmark actually installed spyware on my windows system with their drivers. A folder called "LX_CATS" appeared in my programs folder and there was a little .inf in there directing it's spyware from where to collect, and when to send.

But besides that, I still like my printer. I've got the X5250.

Jason_Lovett · #7 20th March 2005, 08:56 AM

I have a lexmark x5250 AIO and am willing to have a go at creating some drivers for the printer, could you post you msn address or aim screenname so we can talk about it? btw i'm using suse linux 9.2

mrsmurf · #8 20th March 2005, 03:44 PM

Hello

I have a lexmark x6150 and I've been looking at various c++ code provided by lexmark.
What you're proposing does not look dificult.

We may get away with changing a few strings in the source code.
I'm taking the day to look into this. My parrents also have a z605
and that pc may end up with linux on in very soon.

jim · #9 20th March 2005, 04:08 PM

X5150 printer here It was connected to my FC2 pc before the drive died. It used the z55 driver to print black and white. There is a driver out there that someone hacked to work with the x5150 (i assume the X5250 will work as well). So al i do now it transfer what i need to print to my jump drive, walk over to my wifes desktop and print. Sucks but I havn't had the time to develop a driver for my printer. Let me know what you come up with maybe start a thread named "Lexmark multi-function printer driver" and users of that printer can chime in and let us know what they have working or not. At least get enough input to start a usable driver that could cover 3-4 different models of printers. Jst a thought tho....

mrsmurf · #10 20th March 2005, 10:38 PM

Here is the scoop:
After a few hours of looking at source code, I have to say that the
the Lexmark Linux Drivers Development Kit is mainly for show. These people are really sneaky...

Each printer needs its own "kit". Each kit is opensource in much the same way that the windows OS is not.
These 'kits' talk to the printer, while the open source driver (the part of it that we have the option of building (just as long as a kit already exists for that printer(so (for the most part) we don't really have the option of building it))) talks to CUPS.

What is revealed in the sample cup driver I found at lexmark.com ... NOT MUCH.
Also I can't seem to get it to compile on a 2.6 kernel.

What I need are the kernel source packages. (I keep getting the run around. up2date failed to download it)
I'm having trouble tracking them down. I think I'm just angry at Lexmark.
I'm thinking letter writing campaign. (one that can't easily be ignored with spam filters.)

This has not been a productive day.

mrsmurf · #11 20th March 2005, 10:41 PM

Dude, you need to setup a samba share, or printer...

I'm gonna see If I can track down that old hack'ed driver you're talkin about.

roolegion · #12 21st March 2005, 12:15 PM

I have a X1150 Lexmark and if I knew that it was going to be this difficult to run under Linux, I would have bought an Epson or HP - I believe that these have native Linux support. I do have a Samsung Laserprint but that does black only and has no scanner.

Let me know if I can help, even if it is to test run things for you.

Jason_Lovett · #13 21st March 2005, 06:14 PM

there is a book on creating linux device driver at Linux Device Drivers which may be useful in creating drivers for lexmark printers

jclem · #14 30th April 2005, 10:58 PM

Has there been any progress on developing an x5250 driver mrsurf?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrsmurf

Here is the scoop:
After a few hours of looking at source code, I have to say that the
the Lexmark Linux Drivers Development Kit is mainly for show. These people are really sneaky...

Each printer needs its own "kit". Each kit is opensource in much the same way that the windows OS is not.
These 'kits' talk to the printer, while the open source driver (the part of it that we have the option of building (just as long as a kit already exists for that printer(so (for the most part) we don't really have the option of building it))) talks to CUPS.

What is revealed in the sample cup driver I found at lexmark.com ... NOT MUCH.
Also I can't seem to get it to compile on a 2.6 kernel.

What I need are the kernel source packages. (I keep getting the run around. up2date failed to download it)
I'm having trouble tracking them down. I think I'm just angry at Lexmark.
I'm thinking letter writing campaign. (one that can't easily be ignored with spam filters.)

This has not been a productive day.

mikelw67 · #15 27th November 2006, 02:04 AM

do a search under my name.. to get install directions.. someone helped me out b4
apply to your printer i had a z611
i dont think you need to modifiy the SELinux try with out first
it will tell you to down load the lexmark rpm
read the directions on here because u get a tail error when uncompressing.. the directions have a fix
you will need to yum -y install libstdc++.so.5 to get to print...

gl mike