Installing old Samsung printer drivers on latest macOS

Good find. One caution: I wouldn’t upload or recommend a repacked installer. Once the original Apple package has been modified and redistributed, other users have no easy way to verify what was changed.

Apple still provides the original Samsung Printer Drivers v2.6 package, although it officially lists much older versions of OS X as its supported systems.

For anyone trying this workaround, I’d download the original package directly from Apple and make the modification locally as you described. Also keep in mind that an old driver working on Tahoe today doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll continue working after a future macOS update.

bobkadj wrote:

1. The step by step instruction:

Thanks, that works when installing drivers for Samsung ML-1675 in macOS 26.6.2 Tahoe and it should also work for:

Samsung ML-1630

Samsung ML-1660

Samsung ML-1670

Samsung ML-1675

Samsung ML-1860

Also installing with Pacifist works the same as described in your initial post's 2nd link.

MrHoffman wrote:

I can’t be certain from the available docs and the specs, but I do see IPP/IPPS listed in a few spots in the docs, and that support (if present) would mean macOS CUPS printing can be used with no added drivers.

When Samsung installer didn't anymore work in Big Sur and later, AFAIR I unsuccessfully did try to use it via CUPS until I got Samsung software to install via Pacifist.

I'll re-try CUPS again in macOS 28. In M series Mac macOS 26 Tahoe you must install Rosetta if it isn't already installed because otherwise printing fails with "Stopped "Data" failed". You can do that by opening '/Library/Image Capture/Devices/Samsung Scanner.app' which is an Intel app. But AFAIK Rosetta isn't supported in macOS 28 and later.

Matti Haveri wrote:

MrHoffman wrote:

If the user interface controls or web interface don’t give it away, scan the printer itself for IPP/IPPS support; for TCP 631.

Scanners are a different path altogether and would need ICA and TWAIN for native Mac support, or a third-party scanning tool, in the absence of vendor-provided drivers.

Thanks for the info.

SamsungPrinterDrivers.pkg installs that '/Library/Image Capture/Devices/Samsung Scanner.app' although Samsung ML-1675 is only a printer, not a scanner. But the printer needs that Intel app for the print to succeed. For a moment I wondered why the printer worked in a Tahoe install that happened to have Rosetta but not in a clean install that did not yet have Rosetta.

If you can confirm that printer supports IPP / IPPS, the rest of this thread is irrelevant. No drivers are needed for printing. AirPrint is very much related to IPP / IPPS, particularly around not needing added printer drivers.

I can’t be certain from the available docs and the specs, but I do see IPP/IPPS listed in a few spots in the docs, and that support (if present) would mean macOS CUPS printing can be used with no added drivers.

MrHoffman wrote:

If the user interface controls or web interface don’t give it away, scan the printer itself for IPP/IPPS support; for TCP 631.

Scanners are a different path altogether and would need ICA and TWAIN for native Mac support, or a third-party scanning tool, in the absence of vendor-provided drivers.

Thanks for the info.

SamsungPrinterDrivers.pkg installs that '/Library/Image Capture/Devices/Samsung Scanner.app' although Samsung ML-1675 is only a printer, not a scanner. But the printer needs that Intel app for the print to succeed. For a moment I wondered why the printer worked in a Tahoe install that happened to have Rosetta but not in a clean install that did not yet have Rosetta.

I have to chuckle when I see all of the energy expended on trying to make a 15-year-old printer work by package hacking that the next release of macOS may break. I think of my time as costing money, and a new AirPrint-capable printer may actually cost less than the time expended performing gymnastics with the drivers on a long depreciated printer. 😉

If the user interface controls or web interface don’t give it away, scan the printer itself for IPP/IPPS support; for TCP 631.

Scanners are a different path altogether and would need ICA and TWAIN for native Mac support, or a third-party scanning tool, in the absence of vendor-provided drivers.

Info:

• https://www.cups.org/doc/network.html
• https://github.com/apple/cups/wiki/IPP-(Everywhere)-Mini-Tutorial (just the first part, not the tools)

And why exactly should I throw away a perfectly fine working printer? After the last Golden Gate update it took me the command "softwareupdate --install-rosetta" to get it working again.

Thanks for the info. I have installed Samsung ML-1675 printer in Tahoe via Pacifist but I'd also like to try your workaround.

It seems I can expand that mounted SamsungPrinterDrivers.dmg with something like:

pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Samsung\ Printer\ Drivers/SamsungPrinterDrivers.pkg ~/Desktop/expanded_folder

...and then open the expanded ~/Desktop/expanded_folder/Distribution file with BBEdit and a with Line numbers enabled I see the following:

	        if (system.env.OS_INSTALL == 1) {
	            return true;
	        }
        
	        if (system.compareVersions(system.version.ProductVersion, '10.6.1') >= 0 &&
				system.compareVersions(system.version.ProductVersion, '11.0') == -1) {
	            return true;
	        }
        
	        my.result.type = 'Fatal';
	        my.result.message = system.localizedString('ERROR_INSTALL');
	        return(false);			
		}

        function volumeCheck()
        {
            if (system.env.OS_INSTALL == 1) {
                return true;

...so which lines should I edit?

...I guess I can then save the edited .pkg with something like:

pkgutil --flatten ~/Desktop/expanded_folder ~/Desktop/SamsungPrinterDrivers_edited.pkg

...so there is no more the following error in Tahoe:

VikingOSX wrote:

I have to chuckle when I see all of the energy expended on trying to make a 15-year-old printer work by package hacking that the next release of macOS may break. I think of my time as costing money, and a new AirPrint-capable printer may actually cost less than the time expended performing gymnastics with the drivers on a long depreciated printer. 😉

A few years ago my wife bought that Samsung ML-1675 from flea market for 5€ and only then asked if it might work, and recently I also inherited HP LaserJet P1005 which still works with a similar workaround in Tahoe. I very seldom print anything. I am a packrat that runs old stuff as long as it works. I want to reduce e-waste and a trip to the recycling facility. I like to tinker just for fun. ...and to quote James Bond, as a retiree "I have all the time in the world" 🤠

I associate more than $10 per minute for my time and despite a 30-year hands-on technology career, we do not share the same hobby… 😉

You think you are worth $600 (!) an hour but you have time to write comments in this thread without actually contributing anything useful?