Hanging login after installing TP-link USB printer controller on MacOS Catalina

Hi,

What I had in mind was something like a TL-PS110U print server. There are similar devices from a number of manufacturers. The external print server would be connected to one of the LAN ports of the existing router.

https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/347/

This may or may not work with your printer. Compatibility lists are not that useful, since they cannot show all compatible printers, only the ones actually tested.

Yes, I noticed that a beta version of the USB printer controller utility has been mentioned in the TP-Link communities. Only you can decide whether it is worth the risk of using a beta utility with a new system upgrade.

There is another factor to take into consideration, the driver for the CLX-3185 under macOS Big Sur. Which printer driver and which macOS version had you been using when an earlier utility once worked? Does this printer driver work if the CLX-3185 is directly connected by USB cable to the MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina 10.15.7?

Add a printer on Mac - Apple Support

Reset the Mac printing system to solve a problem - Apple Support

Thank you for the information.

macOS Catalina version 10.15.7 was released approx. ten months after the date of the utility. The time difference may or may not be of importance here, but I would be very reluctant to carry out further tests with a utility affecting a computer in the way you describe.

Any chance of testing a conventional USB print server (for an Ethernet connection to one of the LAN ports of the Wi-Fi router)? The idea would be to avoid installing anything on the computer (other than a printer driver, which can be a problem in itself).

Hi,

Which exact macOS Catalina version are you using? Have you tried to contact TP-Link support, since the utility in question (date 20191107) as such does not appear to be compatible with your macOS Catalina version?

This seems to be a universal utility, but (for possible workarounds) it might help if you could mention the router model. Also, any information about the printer model, its printer driver, and the protocol(s) used?

Hello again,

You may want to have a look at the HP article https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06520117 about Catalina drivers. As you will find out, the CLX-3185 is not mentioned (only some other CLX models).

Sometimes, it may be worth testing printer drivers for other similar models.

It is also interesting to note that an Open Printing page https://www.openprinting.org/driver/foo2qpdl (for Linux) indicates that a number of printers (including the CLX-3185) could use one common driver. A CLP-365 listed here appears in the above HP article with a reference to a macOS driver for an SL-C430W printer.

The HP downloads page for the Samsung Xpress SL-C430 Color Laser Printer series shows a (Sep 16, 2020) V3.92.00 (https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software13/printers/SS/Print_Common_SW/Samsung_Mac_10.15_Driver_V3.92.00.dmg) universal driver for macOS 10.15, and a (Feb 11, 2021) V3.93.01 (https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software13/printers/SS/Print_Common_SW/Samsung_Mac_Driver_V3.93.01.dmg) version for macOS 11.

It is quite possible that a universal driver (or another driver for a specific printer) would not work at all with a (USB-connected) CLX-3185, but the experimentally inclined could perhaps be interested in carrying out a few experiments. However, there is always a risk with any experiment. Software conflicts cannot be ruled out. Data may be lost. So, if you choose to run tests, make sure that you have multiple backup copies of all important files on the computer. Also, it is probably a good idea to reset the printing system before and between tests.