Samsung_CLP-510

Introduction

This HOWTO covers installing a Samsung CLP-510 color laser printer under Linux using CUPS. If you have done any research on the internet, you probably have read how plagued with problems this printer is used to be under Linux. Mostly doing with properly installing and configuring CUPS to use it.

Configuration Disclaimer

I was able to get this printer working correctly however it could of been just the right combination of factors. In order to help you the system I used was on kernel version 2.6.17-gentoo-r8 built for athlon64 with CUPS version 1.2.9.

I also assume you have sudo installed and are using it. If you do not, you'll need to be logged in as root and can omit the 'sudo' before any commands that use it.

Installing CUPS

As far as emerging CUPS itself and configuring your kernel, you can follow the official Gentoo Printing Guide. Follow the guide up to step 4 and then return here.

Installing Samsung's Proprietary Linux Driver

There is no CUPS driver included for this printer, however Samsung does provide a proprietary driver for Linux. You can download the driver from their website. Once you have the tar file downloaded you need to extract the files.

tar zxvf 20061108083007875_UnifiedLinuxDriver.tar.gz

It will extract the contents into a directory called 'cdroot'.

cd cdroot/Linux

You can run in the install for the Samsung drivers now. sudo ./install.sh

This installer will work partially (enough) however the installer doesn't work correctly either with Gentoo in general or the 64-bit version.

Once the installer has been ran, some of the filters need to be placed in the correct location. You can either copy the files or if you want to be fancy, create a symlink. In this instance, I did the former: sudo cp -v /usr/lib/cups/filter/* /usr/libexec/cups/filter/

After you have done that, there is one more file to copy: sudo cp -v /usr/lib/cups/backend/mfp /usr/libexec/cups/backend/

The Samsung drivers should now be installed.

Installing the SpliX Driver

The SpliX-project is nowadays considered the best method for making the CLP-500/510 (and a bunch of other) printers work with Linux. It is open source, which makes it a lot less cumbersome. (My experience with the proprietary drivers was that they would frequently break when you did an emerge --sync && emerge -u world). The functionality is also better. The proprietary drivers were x86 & ppc only, whereas the SpliX driver also supports (at least) amd64. Furthermore the proprietary drivers wouldn't let you use a resolution greater than 600dpi, even though the printer supports 1200dpi. The SpliX driver fixes this as well.

You'll probably want to use the latest driver when installing, so issue the following commands as root:

echo "net-print/splix" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
emerge -av splix

Configuring CUPS

Make sure you have your printed connected and powered on before you continue. You must first start CUPS before it can be configured: sudo /etc/init.d/cupsd start

Once you have starts CUPS, it can be configured through its web interface. You can use any browser but the system I was using didn't have a GUI so I used lynx: lynx http://localhost:631

Once on the CUPS webpage, you'll want to select "Administration". It should say that new printers were found. It should either list two printers: "CLP-510" and "Samsung CLP-510". (For the proprietary drivers - you will want to choose the second one.) Or list several printers "Samsung-XXX-YYY, 1.0 (language)" (For the SpliX drivers - you'll just have to search for the right printer and the desired language.) Once you add it, you should go to the CUPS Settings-page and check that the settings are correct. The printer should be installed now.

Testing & Troubleshooting

You can test the printer by printing a test page through the CUPS web interface. If it prints out OK, you correctly got the printer setup.

If CUPS complains about pstoraster failure, check which version of ghostscript you have installed. For me ghostscript-esp worked fine under the x86 architecture, but produced the error under amd64. ghostscript-gpl, on the other hand worked fine under amd64. I haven't tried it under x86, so I don't know how that works. Replacing ghostscript-esp with the -gpl version was as simple as

emerge -C ghostscript-esp
emerge -av ghostscript-gpl

You should also check that the "cups" use flag is set for whichever ghostscript you use.