Mac frustration

[cellio]

It's a lovely machine in many ways, but if I can't figure out how to print from it, it's going to be rather limited.

I have an HP LaserJet 1020, which apparently does not work natively with the Mac. I first tried to just share it from my PC, but that doesn't work -- at best I can get jobs to appear to queue from the Mac but go nowhere. These instructions were written for Tiger but I did basically the same stuff (the UI has changed). The Mac doesn't have a driver and won't even let me select one I downloaded (see next step), and "generic postscript" doesn't work. So then I moved the printer to the Mac and followed these instructions, which gets me as far as a job showing up in the print queue on the Mac and never printing. (But hey, on the way it showed me a picture of my printer, so it knows something.) Whee.

I don't care which machine it's connected to so long as I can print from both. Currently I can print from neither. I guess Apple tech support is my next stop. Sigh.

Edit: fixed on the Mac side (Windows can't print to it via the network yet).

Comments

[sethg]

FWIW, I have an LaserJet 1020 and I can print to it from Linux. Maybe there's some shim to make the hplip drivers work on a Mac?

[mbarr.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't be that hard-

a quick google turned up:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=376544

See if that helps.

[cellio]

That's one of the links I visited yesterday.

Last night in a round of "this is the definition of insanity" I tried repeating the steps. Obviously I did something differently, because now the printer connected to the Mac works. (Can't get Windows to use it remotely yet, but I'll deal with that later.) I think the difference might have been that after installing the driver, I disconnected the printer before rebooting. When it booted with the printer already attached and then configured it, it didn't work. When I rebooted and then attached the printer (after having installed the driver), Leopard just found and auto-configured it. Weird.

Printing from PC to MAC

[tc-tick.livejournal.com]

On my windows machine I have to go to network places/entire network/microsoft network/mac name and login as guest/no password. After that the printer works fine until I reboot one of the machines.

I also have problems sometimes if the mac is rebooted that I have to reselect printer sharing (turn off/on) to get it working again.

Re: Printing from PC to MAC

[cellio]

Which Windows -- XP? I don't see a way to log in via that path; what am I missing? (The error I am now getting is about authorization, so this seems like a promising path...)

Re: Printing from PC to MAC

[tc-tick.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is from XP Pro.

From "My Network Places-->Entire Network-->Microsoft Windows Network-->-->"

When I click on the Mac mini I am prompted for a login. I login using "guest" and "" for the password (null).

Does your Mac workgroup match the windows workgroup? Do you have printer sharing and sharing on the printer enabled on the Mac?

Re: Printing from PC to MAC

[cellio]

Interesting. I get (XP Home, not Pro) "... Microsoft Windows Network -> Workgroup -> (machines)". When I double-click on my Mac, it offers "Printers and Faxes" and my printer (HP Laserjet 1020). No password prompts.

I didn't do anything to the Mac to put it in "Workgroup", but it seems to be there. That's how the PCs came and we didn't change that.

Dani's Mac is also on the network (same place as mine). Double-clicking on that doesn't generate a password prompt either. (He has a public directory that's showing up there.)

I suppose the worst-case scenario is that I move the printer cable between machines as necessary. I hope unplugging it from the Mac doesn't mess up the Mac, though; it took so long to get here that I'm afraid to mess with it.