I am a Windows 10 user and am looking to try out Linux and also to see if I can use it to print to an Oki C8600 laser printer as Oki have not provided a printer driver for Windows 10. They do provide one that is known to operate on openSUSE 11.0 11.1 and 11.2.
I have created a bootable USB stick by downloading the openSUSE-Leap-15.0-DVD-x86_64.iso and using imageUSB.exe to create the stick. At the end of the copy and verify process it offered an option to format the drive for use.
I accepted the offer and now have a stick with two partitions on it which (in Windows) show up on my computer as drive F: containing an EFI directory and a packages file; and drive J: which is an empty folder named SUSE LINUX (the name I gave it when formatting).
On booting the computer using the USB (holding the ESC key when powerng up and selecting the USB) the computer attempts to install Linux and offers me a choice of cd:\ and hd:\ as destination.
At this point I am stuck as I am not sure which choice to make. What I want at this stage is to install to the USB stick so that I have a portable boot stick. I do not want to put it on the computer’s internal hard drive.
Can you please advise which of the two destination options will install to the stick.
Thanks.
Hi, welcome,
I suggest you try a Live image, write that to USB and you have what you want. Add a user for yourself, install whatever software, update it.
Although some testing is possible on a LiveCD, it’s limited and any configurations won’t be saved unless you also mount a partition or drive.
Recommend instead that you install Virtualbox on your Win10, then install LEAP 15 in it…
Everything in the Virtualbox Guest can be saved “permanently” and you should have far fewer limitations of what you are allowed to do.
TSU
+1 from me for this approach, and there are ways to have your Linux guest provide a means to printing documents from your Windows host if desired.
AFAICS, the OKI C8600 isn’t included in the current list of OKI Printers supported by the OpenPrinting part of the Linux Foundation: <Driver: Postscript-Oki | OpenPrinting - The Linux Foundation; – <openprinting:start [Wiki].
The OKI C8800 is supported – presumably it supports Postscript on the USB and Network interfaces …
I can’t find any information as to which print protocols the OKI C8600 supports – can you please take a look into the PPD file which was known to be OK with openSUSE 11.x and tell us which print protocol it’s using?
- If you have access to a Linux system, there’s a CLI (Terminal Window) utility to check the conformance of PPD files: “cupstestppd
”.
Thank you each for the replies so far. I will explore the Virtual Box option in a few days time - I need to have a clear day so I can proceed slowly and cautiously as I’m in unfamiliar territory here.
I can’t find a PPD file to check whether it is the same as a C8800.
Oki’s support file for the C8600 under Linux is some 235Mb in size and can be downloaded from https://www.oki.com/uk/printing/support/drivers-and-utilities/colour/01197001/?os=ab33&lang=ac2
Looking in the archive using 7Zip there doesn’t seem to be a PPD file as such included.
I have looked at the user guide and this describes the printer as 600x600, 1200x600 and ProQ2400 print resolution. I’m not certain this is a postscript driven printer because under “wait timeout” there is this statement - “In Postscript Emulation mode the job will be cancelled in timeout occurs”. That is the only mention of postscript in the entire manual.
Oki offer a Hyper-C drive for use under Windows 7 etc. and in the past these have worked - until the C8600 disappeared recently from the list of supported printers.
Can anyone confirm please, that the ‘cd:’ offer in the installation actually refers to the membory stick? I seem to recall reading somewhere the the iso file is designed for use on a CD.
Thanks, John
ISO will work on CD/DVD or stick. Note there is no need for special Linux stick creation programs you must do a binary copy of the iso image direct to the device (not a partition on the device!)
If from Windows this is known to work https://www.osforensics.com/tools/write-usb-images.html
Note boot the Stick/CD in the same boot mode as any other OS already installed (ie EFI or Legacy/MBR) Mixing boot modes on mult-boot will cause problems!
The C8600 model is described as a GDI printer by at least one review I have read, so it would require the proprietary Linux driver to operate. The C8800 model does support postscript though.
This seems to be some sort of printer management and/or support utility – not a CUPS driver definition.
What we needed is this table: <https://okiprinting-en-gb.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/1187/0/filename/OS_Windows+10%2C+Windows+Server+2016_Compatibilty+List_8.1.pdf> – the C8600 uses a printer language named “Hiper-C”; the C8800 uses the PCL and PS (Postscript) languages.
Checking for OKI “Hiper-C” Linux support, I found this: <https://okiprinting-en-gb.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/566/~/linux-printing-faq>.
- Scrolling down to the printers which use the “HIPER-W” language, it seems that, OKI never provided a Linux (or for that matter an Apple Mac – also CUPS) driver for printers which used the “Hiper-??” language.
- Printers which use the PCL or PS printer languages are OK.
[HR][/HR]Now for the bad news:
- It seems that, as far as Linux is concerned, the OKI C8600 printer series is, because of the printer language, a paper weight …
BTW, a trace of the Hiper-C language is available here: <http://www.undocprint.org/formats/page_description_languages/hiperc>.