dell open print driver / bidirectional support

What are you looking to see with Bidirectional support? Perhaps I can come up with another method that will show you what you need from the printer?

in the printer properties under the configure tab, none of the fields are populating; also under that tab, there is no auto-configuration button, just a "static printer objects" button in its apparent place;...is it unusual that bidirectional support checkbox is greyed out or is that the norm?

The open print driver is a bit of a different animal. If you run the MSI it will install a printer called Dell Open Print driver. That "printer" is actually a management object. It was designed as a "printer" so that in server environments it would not take up unnecessary resources. I would reccommend using that management console in larger server environments because it gives you an easy way to create print queues, but you do not want to use it as a printer. in that type of environment you want to hit the configure tab and press the manage button. That will open a new screen which uses SNMP to detect all the printers on your network. You can then click a small radial to add each printer it finds with a new queue.

Probably the best way to use that driver in smaller environments is to install with the MSI, then delete the printer it auto creates. If you check your server properties it should still have the x86 and x64 drivers for PCL5, PCL 6 and PS. Finally, just use the add printer wizard and select which of those three drivers you want to use during the install process. That might make the options available that you are looking for as well as allow you to edit the type of printer and installed options.

Sorry for the wall of text :-)

thanks much for info!

still having issue but at least i feel better informed!  to complicate matters, i have win 2008 r2 prrint server cluster; i installed the drivers on both nodes and left all 3 forms of the driver (PCL5, PCL XL, and PS) in both x86 and x64 versions; that "printer object" u described is not there (forgot if i deleted or not); since the driver only came in msi format could not directly install into cluster; had to add to cluster via the "add driver" option which effectively installed it from the repository on the node (only installed pcl xl and ps onto cluster but omitting pcl 5 shouldnt cause prob i hope);  have noticed that not only does configure tab on printer properties not populate but features listed under general tab are inaccurate (ie, color feauture listed under 1815 mfp)...

On my win 7 pc the drop downs in the configure tab are greyed out but become active after I press the change settings button at the bottom under administration. Then you should be able to edit the model and options that are installed. If you choose the correct model it will not display things like color on a mono printer.

Hope that helps on the 2008, I dont have one in front of me but I can get to one if you do not have the same option.

thanks again!

i dont have the "auto configuration" 'refresh" button, there is a button labeled "static printer objects" but doesnt thelp out; i wonder if not being able to run the msi install itself in the cluster is at the root of the prob?  on my local workstation, i setup a printer object with a standard tcp/ip port that point to 1 of my print server printers - so in effect i have access to the print server printer but its not being pushed down/controlled by the print server; on my workstation, ive also run the msi install to get drivers; the properties for that printer object look good - the configure tab has correct info and i do see the "auto configuration" button to refresh...perhaps the cluster is missing some files because the msi couldnt be run? i'm perplexed

thank u!

wonder why that is?

so if that's normal then my issue is basically that the configure tab details are greyed out...plus no auto configuration button...someone at dell support is looking into too but no resolution yet;  wouldnt be surprised if it relates to the cluster and that the msi install wasnt explicitly run therein...

I apologize for not looking back sooner at the original question after giving you all that information. The bidirectional checkbox will appear greyed out normally on the Dell open print driver.