The continuing story of a Windows geek who’s gone to the penguins.

Having gotten Ubuntu Linux 7.04 installed on a VMware virtual machine, gotten the VMware Tools package installed, and fixed lots of little irritations, I was almost ready to install some actual software packages. Before I did though, I wanted to get a little more comfortable with Linux in general, and get a few other basic things working.

To that end, I decided to set up the networking system. I’ve got several older computers around the house, all running different versions of Windows at present. At least some of them will have to stay Windows computers, so before I move to Linux full-time, I’ll need the ability to send files around the network.

A little research showed me that the software I needed was called Samba. I opened a terminal window and invoked the magic words: “sudo apt-get install samba”! The installer did it’s thing and claimed success, and I confidently opened the file-browser to a shared folder on one of my desktop systems.

After quite a long wait, during which I grew more and more puzzled, it came back saying that it “couldn’t display all the files.” That’s an understatement; it wasn’t displaying any of them. What’s going on here?

To make a long story — a long, long story — short, I finally admitted defeat. As my grandmother used to say, “when all else fails, read the directions.” After a short search, I dug up a description of how to make it properly work. I haven’t set up the WINS server, so I can only get to the Windows systems via IP address so far, but I can see all of the shares on all of the systems, in both directions. It’s not something that your average user (or even your average experienced computer geek who’s new to Linux) could figure out without help, but as it’s the first thing I’ve run into of that sort, and help (once I decided to look for it) was easy to find, I think I can let it pass.

Next on the list was getting my printer/scanner/fax machine to work, if possible.

The machine in question is a Canon Multipass F50, fairly high-end in it’s day, but it’s day is fairly far in the past. It has served me well for a number of years now, but it’s all but impossible to get replacement parts for it anymore; the next time anything wears out on it, I’ll pretty much be forced to break down and buy a newer model. Fortunately, some of the newer Canon models still use the same ink tanks, so it’s not completely obsolete yet. It’s hooked up to a desktop Windows system that’s currently serving as a print/file/TV server for my little network. It should be fairly easy to get Linux on the virtual machine to print to it, at least, right?

Wrong.

I wasn’t able to find any mention of Linux on Canon’s US website. Their Canadian website did though, under the topic Linux Driver Information. “Enquiry: Are Linux drivers available for my product? Answer: We are sorry to advise that Canon Canada does not develop nor support drivers for our products in the Linux operating system.”

Well, I guess I know where my next printer won’t be coming from.

There is exactly one driver for the F50, here. The author’s hand-me-down printer died before he finished it; he says the driver “has all the basics and can be beaten into shape by someone who cares.” I care, but I’m definitely not feeling up to tackling a printer driver on a completely new system yet. I’ve grabbed the archive; maybe I’ll tackle it later. In the mean time, I’ve set it to emulate a Multipass 730. It seems to work for the most part, but it looks like it cuts off the bottom half-inch or so of the page.

I’ve got a Costco coupon for a significant amount off of a Xerox Phaser 6110MFP/X color laser printer (and copier/scanner/fax), which says that it is “accessible to everyone on the office network regardless of platform (PC, Mac, Linux).” The coupon is good from early- to mid-August… I think I can limp along with this one until then.

Unless I find something else that grabs my attention, the next chapter will concern software.