# Samsung ML-4500 printer --can anyone help?

## correctclick

I have a Samsung ML-4500 printer hooked up to my parallel port.  I do not understand the process for setting up a printer; I feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark.  I'll tell you everything I know / have done, hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to tell me what else I have to do.

 I believe the kernel is seeing it properly:

```

...

parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]

parport0: Printer, Samsung ML-4500

...

```

Linuxprinting.org's entry for the printer is here: http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=517394.  It says the driver I need is 'gdi'.  So I try this:

```
bash-2.05b$ gs -h | grep gdi

   fmpr fs600 gdi hl1240 hl1250 hl7x0 hpdj1120c hpdj310 hpdj320 hpdj340

   samsunggdi sj48 st800 stcolor t4693d2 t4693d4 t4693d8 tek4696 uniprint

bash-2.05b$ 

```

So apparently it has the gdi driver (it listed gdi as one of the items).  I've downloaded the ppd file for the printer here: http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=gdi and copied it into /usr/share/cups/model.

This is what happens when I start cupsd:

```

bash-2.05b# /etc/init.d/cupsd start

 * Starting cupsd...                                                       [ !! ]

bash-2.05b# 

```

Or:

```
bash-2.05b# cupsd

cupsd: Child exited with status 98!

bash-2.05b# 

```

This would lead me to think that cups isn't running (the !! and the error message), but if I go to localhost:631, I get the regular cups page.  I can then go to install the printer, but when it asks for the printer make, samsung is not listed.  I've tried using hp drivers, etc., but, not surprisingly, they didn't work.

I really don't know what to do from this point, any help would be greatly appreciated.

----------

## Donovan

Hi there,

did you get your printer working yet?

...Dono

----------

## drizzt

I have an ML-1210 Samsung Laser. I need samsunggdi modules in GS to print correctly. What I think is that 'gdi' means the GDI-Modules from Samsung. Unfortunately I was not able to patch GS with the Samsunggdi delivered on the Samsung printer CD(there called 'printer driver for linux').

 :Confused: 

Just checked the linuxprinting.org website and found what I already suspected:

"Stupidly, Samsung has named the driver "gdi". This name is confusing, because the driver supports only Samsungs GDI printers. I tried to hack the driver to give a new name to it, but I didn't succeed."

----------

## correctclick

no, unfortunately I gave up a while ago.  If anybody has any ideas please let me know, I'd still like to get it working.

----------

## qwkbrnfox

Hi,

I just bought a samsung ML-1450.  It's great!  Took a couple of tries to get it going, though.  Documentation is pretty sparse.  The following all assumes that you are using cups as your printing system.  First, go to the samsung linux page and download the driver.  Untar/zip it and as root run the setup.sh script.  

How this actually proceeded next is a bit hazy - I did this a few days ago.  You have to add the printer, specify the port (for me, LPD on the firewall, probably a parallel port for you), then pick a ppd file.  This is the one that stalled me.  You have a choice of pcl, ps, or spl drivers, for a bunch of different printers.  I was picking the ps.  Postscript, right?  Wrong!  Unless you have an add-on card for the printer, you should use the pcl driver.  Don't know what the spl driver is.

Give that a try.  If you have difficulties, let me know.  Actually, let me know if it works, too   :Wink:   Good luck...

qbf

----------

## Erik2v

Hmmm...

I'm in the same boat.  I got the printer printing in CUPS using standard LaserJet 4 - CUPS (not using gimp-print).

However, you mentioned that the files you downloaded and installed are accessible from the CUPS configuration menu?  I downloaded the driver 'ml1450.zip and ml_1450.zip' both of which don't appear to be valid PPD files.  I don't recognize the format... looks like some sorta configuration/driver - maybe for lpr?

Getting lost looking for PPD files... linuxprinting.org just contains a PDD for other ML printers... no mention of 1450 there.  Should I try that?

The support online for Samsung is a waste - useless completely.

-Erik

----------

## correctclick

I have a ML-4500 printer, whereas the last two replies have a 1450.  Keep this in mind, there's a good chance they're incompatable.

Right now, I'm using an hp and everything's working, and I really don't have the time to pull everythign apart and try it with the other printer again.

I definately agree that Samsung's help is a complete waste --its agrivating that they even put a pengiun sticker on the printer.  Their 'support' consists only of an rpm for an outdated redhat release (6.0 I think).

Let me know if anyone ever gets a 4500 to work though.  Good luck.Last edited by correctclick on Mon Mar 24, 2003 12:11 pm; edited 2 times in total

----------

## Malakin

Here's the trick in getting a gdi Samsung printer working with Gentoo.

The latest version of ghostscript actually calls the Samsung gdi driver "samsunggdi" and this is what screws everything up since the ppd file thinks it's called "gdi".

Download the ppd file from linuxprinting.org and put it in /usr/share/cups/model directory. Edit the ppd and replace all mention of "gdi" to "samsunggdi", I'm guessing the only lines that matter are the ones that start with 'driver' and 'cmd' but I changed them all. Then just "/etc/init.d/cupsd restart", add your printer and it should work.

----------

## direwolf

Ok, here's what I did to get my ML-4500 working right.  I couldn't use Samsung's installer thingy, because the printer is attached to a server box, without X or other gui stuff needed by the configuration tool.  Things didn't print right for me from clients using that tool, anyway, so I did the following on the (Linux) clients and it worked much better.

To print from Windoze clients, all you need is cups on the server.  The Samsung drivers work fine on Windoze, you just have to add a port to print to the server (if you are doing this).  I use Samba to share the printer.

My cups configuration in /etc/cups/printers.conf looks like this:

```

<DefaultPrinter samsung>

Info Samsung ML-4500

Location The Office

DeviceURI parallel:/dev/printers/0

State Idle

Accepting Yes

JobSheets none none

QuotaPeriod 0

PageLimit 0

KLimit 0

</Printer>

```

To print from the Gentoo box (using lpr), or from a Gentoo client, I took these steps (both on the server and clients):

```

emerge ghostscript

emerge foomatic

```

go to the linuxprinting.org site (http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=gdi&fromprinter=Samsung-ML-4500)

and use the PPD Generated to create the PPD file for the printer.  I use cups, so that's what I selected.  Copy the generated PPD file to /usr/share/cups/model.

I Edited the PPD file, and changed the "PCFileName" entry from "gdi.ppd" to "samsung-ml-4500-gdi.ppd".  Probably not needed, but I did it anyway.

Enter the following commands (my printer is named "samsung" in the /etc/cups/printers.conf file):

```

lpadmin -d samsung

lpadmin -p samsung -m /usr/share/cups/model/samsung-ml-4500-gdi.ppd

```

Restart cupsd and print away.  

Hope this helps someone!

----------

## correctclick

yup, I've since done something very similar and it works.  thanks.

Occasionally, however, it only prints the first page of a multi-page document.  The only way to get it to print the rest is to reboot the computer.  Not a big problem, because it's so rare, but does anyone else have this?

----------

## sala

I too have a problem with a Samsung ML-4500 Only printing parts of multi-page documents.  When I go to the cups config page it says:  

```

Printer State: idle, accepting jobs.

"Parallel port busy; will retry in 30 seconds..."
```

Anybody no how to fix this?

----------

## direwolf

The ML-4500 is not a very robust printer, and doesn't have very much memory.  I got mine really cheap on clearance, and it's a great printer for the price, but it is not without issues.  I have had problems with a number large PDF files with complex graphics that caused the printer to hang (stop printing) and had to power it off.  The only solution I have found is to just print a few pages at a time.  I have never gotten it to do 4-up printing at all.  I've experienced this regardless of the computer it's attached to or the driver being used.  So, your issue is probably the printer itself, and your only workaround is to print smaller jobs.

----------

## phceac

In case it helps anyone, I had problems with printer lockups on an ML4500, which eventually turned out to be fixed by changing the configuration of the parallel port in the PC bios.   One of the options (EPP, SPP, ECP) was causing problems.

Sadly my printer blew its fuser lamp, and is no more....

----------

