P513W Linux drivers

Question

Although the printer's Quick Reference Guide and User Guide say there are Linux drivers for the P315W, and the Operating System Compatibility list says the P315W is Linux compatible, I can't locate the Linux drivers. Can anyone tell me what drivers to use with Ubuntu 13.04, and where to find them?

DELL-Babita S · Answer

Hi Alpreston,

Try the steps below to install the Linux drivers. Supported Operating systems are Ubuntu 8.04 & 8.10. You have mentioned the printer name as P315W - please check the name of the printer as it seems to be incorrect.

Attach the printer via USB to the Linux machine.
Run a browser and open "http://localhost:631"

Click "Add Printer" and fill out the details, such as name and description.

In the Device dropdown list, select "Dell USB Backend #1 (Dell < printer model >)" or "Dell Network Backend #1 (Dell < printer model >)".
Make sure you select the correct device. The printer is not detected by the machine if you cannot see its model in the list. On some distro, you may have to reboot the machine so it can be detected.
You can also Browse for the PPD file if the device is not on the list.

The ppd files are located in folder /usr/dellinkjet/dell09/etc/. The following are the different models supported by this driver and with their matching ppd file:

Printer	PPD
Dell V310-V510 Series	dlV310-V510.ppd
Dell P513w	dlP513w.ppd
Dell V715w	dlV715w.ppd
Dell P713w	dlP713w.ppd

Select your Dell printer model name. After adding the printer, you should see the "Printer Options". Click the "Set Printer Options" (optional) or proceed to the next step.
You can access the printer admin directly by typing this address in the browser: http://localhost:631/printers/< name of printer >. The name of the printer is what you entered in step 3.
Print a test page to make sure the software has been successfully installed.

Please reply if you have further queries.

Thanks and regards,
Babita S
#iworkforDell

For easy access to drivers, manuals and product updates, please visit our Support Site .

alpreston · Answer

Yes, I did type the printer name incorrectly; it's a P513W. In the CUPS (localhost:631) "Add printer" menu, the P513W appears as both a local (USB) printer and as a network printer, but the P513W driver is not listed; indeed it is nowhere to be found on my system. I had tried running the script dell-inkjet-09-driver-1.0-1.i386.deb.sh but it errors out - a bit of research revealed there's a known spelling error in the file run.lua in the tmp/config directory extracted from the script. After correcting that, I tried to run startupinstaller.sh, but that produced the error

" dpkg: error processing dell-inkjet-09-driver-1.0-1.i386.deb (--install):
parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/control' near line 9 package 'dell-inkjet-09-driver':
blank line in value of field 'Description' "

and apparently did not install the ppd files. A check of my system shows no /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/control file exists. Nor does the folder /usr/dellinkjet/dell09/etc/ exist.

How does one correct the above error to allow the installation to continue?

DELL-Babita S · Answer

Hi Alpreston,

Thank you for your reply.

Try downloading and installling the drivers from the link below. These drivers are compatible with Ubuntu Desktop 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04. Since you are using Ubuntu 13.04, there may be compatibility issues. Follow the installation instructions mentioned in the link to correctly install the driver.

http://dell.to/15DH7WZ

Please reply if you have further queries.

Thanks and regards,
Babita S
#iworkforDell

For easy access to drivers, manuals and product updates, please visit our Support Site .

alpreston · Answer

The suggested driver has the same problems as the earlier one. The spelling error in /config/run.lua is still present; correcting it and running the startupinstaller.sh script starts the installer, but it it stops working. I even managed to download an archived iso of Ubuntu 8.10 and set it up on a spare computer , but the installer wouldn't work properly on even that - it appears to run, but the printer cannot be accessed. It appears that while the Ubuntu iso files for such ancient, unsupported versions (8.04, 8.10 and 9.04 ) are still available for download, the driver needs files from their update repositories - which no longer exist.

Current releases of Ubuntu use a newer kernel (2.8) and updated libraries., e.g. Glibc6 instead of the long obsolete Glibc2.0 referenced in your driver files. It would appear that that the driver you offer above is completely useless with current Linux implementations. Offering such an outdated driver is akin to offering a Windows 3.1 driver to Windows 7 or 8 users!

dicicco · Answer

I have the same problems described in this and other posts. My Ubuntu laptop (12.04 at the moment) can not print (scan/etc) on my DELL P713W printer, while the older distributions (9. I guess) can. I am really annoyed about this problem as Ubuntu can handle apparently most of the printers, excluding the one owned by me.. Can Dell or other smart people do something for upgrading their drivers more frequently? Every 2-3 years should be enough...

alpreston · Answer

I found the solution to the blank line error in the dell-inkjet-09-driver-1.0-1.i386.deb's control file.

1.) I opened a konsole window

2.) I unpackaged the contents of the deb file to a new directory. (use "dpkg --help" to get the command parameters)

3.) I located the control file and edited out the blank line in the description section

4.) I then repackaged the deb file

The deb file now works.

To setup the printer, don't go through system settings - that will detect the printer and offer you a connection to use, but it offers the wrong backend. In a browser, go to localhost:631 to start the Cups manager and use it's installer. Pick Dell backend #1 as the connection (on my systems it listed several backends, which I think is what confuses the system settings procedure ) and select the ppd file for your printer. After doing that I was able to print.

I haven't yet figured out how to use the scanner on my P513W, as I have a more capable stand-alone scanner, but perhaps I'll look into it so I have an alternate.

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P513W Linux drivers

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