Getting a printer working on a mac

[wegotitugetit]

so i have solved the original issue with the networking a printer on windows system

now my issue is i do not have a printer driver for my mac this is something to do with a license on a mac

they have windows , linux already but not for osx

is there anyway around this at all

 

[neil_g]

licence??

if you dont have a driver, it no worky im afraid. unless you can find a generic driver that makes it work (very hit and miss)

 

[2blue4u]

What make and model of printer are we talking about?

This, printers, is the only real issue I've ever had with macs since making the switch about ten years ago. Now, I can even get a label printer to work although that did take a few years

 

[wegotitugetit]

sharp mx182D

http://www.sharp.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/gb/hs.xsl/-/html/product-details.htm?product=MXM182D&cat=341

 

[wegotitugetit]

licence??

if you dont have a driver, it no worky im afraid. unless you can find a generic driver that makes it work (very hit and miss)

i rang the rep who sold the printer and he said about a license which i thought was a load of bull really

 

[2blue4u]

/edit

sorry. More appropriate to link to the page rather than directly to the driver download.

Looky Here

Have you tried here?

 

[LongLensPhotography]

sharp mx182D

http://www.sharp.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/gb/hs.xsl/-/html/product-details.htm?product=MXM182D&cat=341

Here is your download link from that page http://www.sharp.co.uk/cps/rde/xbcr...M202D-M232D_DRV_PS-MacOSx1072-ver1100_ALL.dmg unless I missed something very fundamental

P.S. Mac and linux use pretty much the same printing system - CUPS, except mac has extensions like airprint (maybe linux got that too, I didn't really look into that)

 

[wegotitugetit]

sorry found it arghhh

but not printing at min mmmm what have i missed

 

[ancient_mariner]

Which version of OSX are you using? I found 10.6 Snow Leopard had real problems using a Samsung printer.

Is the software/driver actually able to see the printer so that in system preferences/print and scan the printer is online?

 

[neil_g]

sorry found it arghhh

but not printing at min mmmm what have i missed

dont mean to sound rude but please include more info..

are the print jobs going to the print queue on the mac? are there any errors on the queue, which driver did you use, what version of OSX are you using?

 

[wegotitugetit]

the job is going to printer and says it is printing and connected

 

[wegotitugetit]

Which version of OSX are you using? I found 10.6 Snow Leopard had real problems using a Samsung printer.

Is the software/driver actually able to see the printer so that in system preferences/print and scan the printer is online?

I'm on latests 10.9 i believe its called

 

[ancient_mariner]

OK, obvious stuff then: paper & toner/ink levels all OK? Is the printer able to print a test page if you press the appropriate key combinations on the printer itself? Can it print a test page from the control panel?

10.9 = Mavericks. I've stuck with 10.8 so there may be specific issues with that right now. Sorry that doesn't help, but it may mean there are fixes on the way. A quick google for problems on 10.9 didn't turn up anything.

 

[LongLensPhotography]

http://localhost:631/ is another printer related place to look

(enter "cupsctl WebInterface=yes" in terminal before proceeding)

Does the printer need some form of authentication?

 

[wegotitugetit]

cupsctl WebInterface=yes

doesn't seem to work

 

[wegotitugetit]

just tried it it comes up with

spooling then percentage then done so it looks like it is sending it direct to the printer


just another thing

tried to add a printer on a fixed ip address of 192.16.1.38 which is the correct address but could not communicate

really stuck here any help would be great

 

[wegotitugetit]

cupsctl WebInterface=yes

doesn't seem to work

missed the double dash things lol

result below

admins-Mac-Pro:~ alex$ "cupsctl WebInterface=yes"

-bash: cupsctl WebInterface=yes: command not found

 

[ancient_mariner]

Sorry - I can't really help further.

One of the things that used to REALLY annoy me about some versions of Linux was that in order to get some peripherals to work you had to buy a driver & license. This may well be the same, and although it's BS, if you want to use the printer (and can't persuade Sharp to give you the driver) then that's the only course left open if you must print from an OSX machine.