Ricoh Aficio 550

Daniel Kasak dkasak at nusconsulting.com.au
Thu Oct 6 17:28:32 PDT 2005


Anonymous wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> First, please excuse my english, it's not my native language.

You're doing OK :)

> I'm trying to configure a Ricoh printer model Aficio 550 to work on a Linux system using cups.


I don't see that particular model on http://www.linuxprinting.org

> I found on Ricoh's support web site a driver but it is working with an old version of lpr, and I'd rather use cups. The other drivers we can download are only for Windows systems.

If you're lucky, you can find a PPD for the printer in the Windows 
drivers that will work. I'm not sure if lpr uses a ppd or not, but if it 
does, you can check whether their Linux driver package has a ppd. 
Otherwise, just get a ppd from a similar printer. We've got a Ricoh 
Aficio AP3200 which I couldn't find a ppd for, so I used the Aficio 2000 
ppd and it worked fine. You're basically after a ppd from a printer that 
matches the features that you're going to be using, eg

- paper size support
- duplex support

> How can I configure it ?

Get a ppd ( try the Windows driver first, or a ppd from another printer 
if you can't find the Windows ppd ). Put the ppd in your system's ppd 
folder - mine is /usr/share/cups/model - but yours may be different. 
Call it something appropriate. Restart cups so it knows about the new ppd.

Use the web admin tool to add a new printer.

If you connect directly to the printer, set it up on Parellel Port #1 or 
whatever port it's connected to.

If you put in on the network, either give the printer a fixed IP address 
( and add it to your /etc/hosts ), or make sure your CUPS server can 
somehow find the printer ( eg via DNS ). Then you'd set it up as an 'LPD 
/ LPR Host or Printer'. This is what we've done. Our device URI is:

lpd://ricoh_ap3200/lpd

and we've got an entry for ricoh_ap3200 in our /etc/hosts
Note the /lpd at the end - this seems to be required in most cases.

Next you select the printer Model / Driver. If you put the printer's ppd 
in the right place and restarted the server, you should see the printer 
in the list.

The rest should be fairly easy.

Dan




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