splix package lacks support for Xerox 6110MFP

[Fabio Zanini]

Binary package hint: splix

The ubuntu version of splix 2.0 (printer drivers) does not include support for the Xerox 6110MFP printer. The official package, as found on the following website, does work:

http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Xerox-Phaser_6110

Expected behaviour:
- when installing a new Xerox 6110 printer, the right splix driver should be in the list.

Actual behaviour:
- no splix driver is shown for that printer;
- there is a splix driver for 6100, but it does not work for 6110 printer;
- there is another driver for the 6110 printer, but it is old and feature-lacking.

Alternative route:
- download the official splix package from the page above. This will require 40 (!) dependencies and some non-intuitive user input.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CupsErrorLog:
 E [10/Nov/2009:19:12:02 +0100] [Job 452] Job aborted because the destination printer/class has gone away.
 E [10/Nov/2009:19:16:21 +0100] cupsdAuthorize: pam_authenticate() returned 7 (Authentication failure)!
 E [10/Nov/2009:19:16:25 +0100] cupsdAuthorize: Empty Basic username!
 E [10/Nov/2009:19:25:31 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
Date: Tue Nov 10 19:34:56 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lpstat:
 device for ML-2010: usb://Samsung/ML-2010
 device for phaser_rete: dnssd://Xerox%20Phaser%206110MFP%20(XRX0000AABAAAC5)._ipp._tcp.local/
MachineType: TBD K8Upgrade-760GX
Package: splix 2.0.0-2ubuntu2
Papersize: a4
PpdFiles:
 ML-2010: Samsung ML-2010, SpliX V. 2.0.0
 phaser_rete: Xerox Phaser 6110, SpliX 2.0.0 (OpenPrinting LSB 3.2)
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=38b6cfe5-494f-4c64-9684-41be7d9b6f02 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: splix
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 09/17/2004
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P1.30
dmi.board.name: K8Upgrade-760GX
dmi.board.vendor: TBD
dmi.board.version: 1.00
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP1.30:bd09/17/2004:svnTBD:pnK8Upgrade-760GX:pvr1.00:rvnTBD:rnK8Upgrade-760GX:rvr1.00:
dmi.product.name: K8Upgrade-760GX
dmi.product.version: 1.00
dmi.sys.vendor: TBD

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

The problem is that for your printer SpliX uses patented algorithms in the driver and these algorithms we cannot ship with Ubuntu (see the driver page of SpliX on OpenPrinting). Therefore the Ubuntu package of SpliX does not support all printers which are covered by the upstream package. You have two possibilities:

1. Use the "Xerox Phaser 6110 Foomatic/foo2qpdl" driver which is shipped with Ubuntu.

2. Install the SpliX driver package from OpenPrinting. Problem of the 40 dependencies is that the driver packages from Ubuntu are LSB-based. The dependencies are all packages which the LSB requirements need to be installed. What are the non-intuitive user inputs required?

[Fabio Zanini (iosonofabio)]

Thanks for your quick feedback. Answers:

2. One of the fourty packages is postfix. It asks the user to insert some data like "local only" or "internet" and some name. I can't describe it better but it has something to do with e-mail functionality (which is quite unrelated to printer drivers, isn't it?);

1. This is not a good option; the driver does not work as well as the splix driver.

A short comment. I know that patent rights are a hot topic these days, but it is not feasible for the mean user to visit the openprinting page, find out which package is the right one for him, download the .deb, install all dependencies (40!), fill out some e-mail related forms, etc. only to get his own printer to work. Peripherals drivers are one big problem between linux and its audience, indeed!

Wouldn't it be more user-friendly to ask the user about patented drivers during the usual splix package installation? If the user agrees, a full version of the package should be installed (via a licence acceptance, or something similar). Is this impossible?

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

postfix dependency problem is solved in Lucid, see bug 141641.

[Fabio Zanini (iosonofabio)]

I see the discussion was hot. It is an ugly hack, but also a solution. Server admins do know how to configure an MTA btw.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

We cannot include the patented algorithms, closing.