HOWTO_Samsung_ML-2510_driver_with_CUPS

1 Samsung ML-2510 driver with CUPS
2 Preliminaries
3 Install CD
4 Manual Installation
5 External Links

Samsung ML-2510 driver with CUPS

This short guide will help you install the Samsung ML-2510 printer with CUPS.

Preliminaries

For this to work you will need USB support for printers in kernel and CUPS installed.

emerge -av net-print/cups

Install CD

Warning: DO NOT USE THE SAMSUNG INSTALLER provided on the driver CD. It's a nice gesture by Samsung to provide Linux users with a driver. However, since it runs every print job with root privileges (suid) it's not a good idea to use the installer provided on the CD. It is VERY insecure since CUPS is a network aware system and if you allow the printer to be shared with Samba it may provide root access to a remote computer.

Manual Installation

The installer is a bad idea, but fortunately the ppds file and the cups filter are provided for us on the cd. If you don't have the CD handy you can get the most recent linux driver package here.

Get The Driver From The Package/CD

You can use all of these instructions to install from the driver CD. Just mount it and all the commands should run just as they would with the downloaded package. However, it is recommended that you download the driver as you will get the most recent package. From here on out it will be assumed you are using the downloaded version.

Once you have downloaded the "20070720155241484_UnifiedLinuxDriver.tar.gz" file, extract it where ever you feel like. Go to that location in a root terminal and you will find a directory called "cdroot". Enter that directory (or the base directory of the install CD).

cd /where/you/put/it/cdroot   #replace with the location of 'cdroot'

Once there copy the ppds file to the proper location.

cp Linux/noarch/at_opt/share/ppd/ML-2510spl2.ppd /usr/share/cups/

Then copy the cups filter for your arch to the proper location.

For x86_64 arch:

cp Linux/x86_64/at_root/usr/lib64/cups/filter/rastertosamsungspl /usr/libexec/cups/filter/

For i386 arch:

cp Linux/i386/at_root/usr/lib/cups/filter/rastertosamsungspl /usr/libexec/cups/filter/

You now have the drivers installed! Next you need to set CUPS up to use them.

Alternative driver: spliX

SpliX is a set of CUPS printer drivers for SPL (Samsung Printer Language) printers, including the ML-2510, and can be used instead of the Samsung drivers.

emerge -av net-print/splix

Setting Up Cups

First, make sure that the printer is plugged in and connected to the computer. USB is recommended.

Next we set up CUPS. The fastest way to set up CUPS is through the web interface. Fire up your browser and point it to "localhost:631". This will open up the web interface. Depending on what version of CUPS you are using it will as you for your root password at some point in the process. It goes without saying that you should not let your browser save this information. Once you are up and running follow these steps.

Click the "Administration" tab.
Then click the "Add Printer" button.
Enter a space free spooler name such as "samsung_ml-2510".
Enter a description for where the printer is located. Spaces are ok here.
Enter a name for your printer. Spaces are ok here as well.
There will be a select box, if your printer is connected you will probably see something like this.

"Samsung ML-2510 Series USB#1 (Samsung ML-2510 Series)"

On the next page you will see several drivers that CUPS recommends for you. Click the "Browse" button where it asks you to provide a PPD file. Navigate to the following location. You can also copy paste it into the box.

/usr/share/cups/ML-2510spl2.ppd

If using the spliX driver, you can simply select the ML-2510 driver from the list.

Note: There should be one or more entries for each printer model with a different locale, but they may all be listed as "en". If you find that the printer configuration is in the wrong locale, try one of the other entries.

Click the "Add Printer" button.

Everything should be installed!

Test the Printer

It's a good idea to print a test page to see if it works. In the cups web interface click on the printer tab, click on the printer's name that you just installed, and click the "Print Test Page" button. If all went as it should you a generic CUPS test page will print.