Does anyone have 4x6 thermal label printers working on Linux?
I have tried several thermal printers, zebra and off brands, none of them work on Linux, also tried arch, mint, manjaro, Ubuntu, and a few others.
Printers all detect and install, but never prints. I messed with CUPS settings, didnt help. I also tried LPrint. Didnt work. Nothing comes out any of the label printers. Not even the sample test labels.
Been using Linux for about 2 years full time. I only have windows to print shipping labels. I HATE using windows 10 and refuse to use 11. Now with no updates it’s the last thing I need to replace.
Many label printers (especially the older ones) use a proprietary text-based language, and accept plain vanilla text input via their serial port. They don’t use a printer driver as such. To use one of them you have to learn their command language (usually pretty simple) and write a text file describing what you want to print using that language, and upload the file to the printer.
Start with the printer documentation and go from there.
Newer printers need linux drivers. Support varies.
BTW this is also the case for most network printers. You can just print to them by sending a pdf/postscript file with
netcat. CUPS is rarely needed nowadays.I was sure the zebra used its own proprietary stuff, that’s why I got 2 more modern no name printers hoping they would work. I was so fed up with the zebra not working after trying everything I found online.
I ended up buying a rollo printer. Thank you for your advice!