Samsung CLX-3175FW under Linux
In this post I will collect some of my experiences with using the Samsung CLX-3175FW MFP under Linux. I will probably update this every now and then, just got it today (July 17 2009). I have here one Ubuntu 8.04 desktop wired to my router, and two Ubuntu 8.10 laptops connected wireless. First I connected the Samsung (I call it MFP from now) via cable to my router. It comes with a quick install guide, and the manual itself comes on CD. Strangely, I couldn’t read it on any Linux machine, they just showed an empty directory for the CD. But you can download it from the Samsung site.
The Linux drivers can also be downloaded from the Samsung site. There are three archives:
- Unified Linux Driver (the basic thing you need to access the printer)
- Smart Panel Application for Linux (a panel application giving you some printing status)
- Printer Setting Utility for Linux (not sure what this is good for)
All can be unpacked in the same directory, they put all their stuff in a directory called ‘cdroot‘. Next, as root, execute cdroot/Linux/install.sh. You go through a bunch of questions, and then it does the magic, restarting CUPS and putting a bunch of files in /opt/Samsung. This is the important step, since it will put all the necessary files on your machine. It may happen that after this an "Add printer wizard" is started. This one did only work on the desktop machine connected via wire, the others did not manage to find the printer on the network after pressing "Search". Also choosing "Manual select" does not help here. But there is a simple solution, close the wizard and access the CUPS server via a web browser (http://localhost:631). Here, add a new printer, give it some name, and choose Internet Printing Protocol (ipp) as the protocol. Next you have to give the URI. You need to know here the IP of the MFP. One common way to find this out is to check the web interface of your router (look for connected devices), or you can use the MFP itself, there is an option to print the network configuration (look for IP-Address in TCP/IP). Once you know this, say 123.456.7.8, enter ipp://123.456.7.8. Then choose Samsung and then Samsung CLX-3170 Series (SPL-C) (en). That should do the trick, you should now be able to print. Note that you may want to change the paper size to A4 in CUPS (default is Letter)
To configure the printer itself you also need its IP, enter it in a browser, like http://123.456.7.8/. Here you can do all the setup. Clicking Printer Settings in the Smart Panel application will not work (unless you are root…).
To the wireless connection of the MFP. One slightly weird feature is that the MFP automatically connects to the first non-secured wireless network it finds. This is really lame, and I guess you do not want that. As mentioned above, I connected it via wire, but it staid connected to some unsecured network. To try out if it also works wireless I entered the access details of my wireless network, and it did not connect. After some trial and error I found out that I had to disconnect the wire first, then it connected to my wireless network. So, if you use a wire, make sure that it does not connect to some non secured wireless network!
What does not seem to work is to scan via the network, but using the scan to email function is a first workaround here.
So, at the end I could install the drivers on all three machines, and it makes a good impression, since it gives you access to a lot of features of the printer.
Update 04.01.2010:
After all I did not manage to get scanning via the network running natively under Linux. But you can use a virtual Windows for that, the following YouTube screencast explains how to set it up:
