Laserwriter II and OSX

Question

Laserwriter II and OSX

Has anyone discovered a way to print on their Laserwriter II with OSX? I have this great workhorse with a new toner cartridge and have ben unable to use it. I hate to just trash it. Will Apple ever produce a driver for it? I tired the linuxprinting.org site and saw some ideas there for downloading a ghostscript and PPD file - I tried that and it still doesn't work. the printer window actually says it is printing and the printer light blinks, but then nothing happens. I'm running OS 10.3.9 right now.

I would love some help with this!!
Thanks,
Marty

iMac 17" G4, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Jan 23, 2006 2:50 PM

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Answer 1

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Jan 23, 2006 3:14 PM in response to Marty Roberts

A Gimp-Print driver for Laserjet II Series is already included in Panther/Tiger. I'm guessing something else is wrong. How is the printer connected?

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Answer 2

Jan 23, 2006 3:51 PM in response to greg sahli

This is a laserwriter not laserjet. It is postscript 1 which apparently is not supported by system 10.

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Answer 3

Jan 23, 2006 5:51 PM in response to Marty Roberts

I have also posted this reply to the Apple-list on the linuxprinting.org mailing list.

I don't believe that there was a model designated as just Laserwriter II. Apple lists the following models under the Laserwriter II genre -- IISC, IINT, IINXT, IIg, IIf. It appears that you can more specifically identify your printer by the connections on the back panel. See <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24474> to help you identify your particular model.

The specifications for the Laserwriter IIf and IIg indicate that they are PostScript level 2 printers and should work natively in OS X 10.3.x without the pslevel1 drivers. Hopefully that is enough information for you to get your printer working. If not, please post back with the specific model designation of your printer and your computer. You should also indicate how you have the printer connected to your computer.

Mac Mini; B&W G3/300

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Answer 4

Jan 23, 2006 6:21 PM in response to Matt Broughton

OK thanks - it is a Laserwriter IINT (which is the driver I have).

So I downloaded:
ESP Ghostscript 7.05.5
and
PSLevel1

I added:
Apple Laserwriter II NT, Foomatic + Postscript
to my printer list, but it still isn't working. It does seem to communicate with the printer because the green light blinks, but then nothing happens and it disappears from the print queu.

Thanks so much for sticking with me on this!
Marty

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Answer 5

Jan 23, 2006 6:38 PM in response to Marty Roberts

It
does seem to communicate with the printer because the
green light blinks, but then nothing happens and it
disappears from the print queu.

Any indication of a problem in the CUPS error log? Open the Console (/Applications/Utilities). Click on the Logs icon at the top left. In the left hand pane, navigate down to and highlight /var/log/cups/error_log. The right hand pane should fill up with the error_log. If you don't spot the problem, copy about the last 25 or 30 lines of the error log and paste in a reply to this post. I'll see if I can spot what is going wrong.

As you mentioned that this is a Laserwriter IINT, can I presume that you have it connected to your computer via an Ethernet to LocalTalk bridge such as the AsanteTalk? Have you followed all the troubleshooting techniques for this sort of set up, ie, powering everything down and starting things up in the specified order? Greg is much more knowledgeable about the AsanteTalk than I am. We may need his input for the proper sequence et al.

Matt

Mac Mini; B&W G3/300

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Answer 6

Jan 23, 2006 6:48 PM in response to Matt Broughton

Hey - it works (sort of)! Here's what I did - not sure which part helped but here it is:

I reinstalled the two new pieces mentioned above because I wasn't certain that the printer had been turned on for both previous installations.

I restarted my computer (hadn't been recommended, but worth a try).

I went in the printer list and deleted the II NT foomatic and then re-added it again.

I tried printing an email from Mail and it didn't work.

But, I tried printing a Word doc and it did work! So, maybe it just won't print from Mail, but having it for Word is great. It's pretty slow, but oh well - saves on those ink jet cartridges!

Thanks for the help and if anyone has an idea of how to get Mail to print also, all the more cool.
Marty

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Answer 7

Jan 31, 2006 1:08 PM in response to Marty Roberts

Summary is to go to http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/ where they provide drivers and instructions to get this printer to work with OSX - it's great. Takes a little fussing around, but I got it to work. Read my other comments for what I did in the end to get it to work.

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