Printer Support

This page is part of the XO Support FAQ.     Support Index | Print This Page

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Overview

In the developing world, paper is a precious resource, so children store their work on their laptops rather than print it out.

However, there may be some use cases where a printer is available, and may be useful to print activities on paper.

The XO laptop can only connect to a printer via USB cable or over the network. Check your printer to see if it supports either of these two options. For most classroom settings, a network printer is probably the best option.

The XO runs a modified version of Red Hat's Fedora 7, so we need to also determine if the printer is supported on Linux. Check the Open Printing Database for the level of support. This database has come up with the following ranking system. Printers are categorized according to how well they work under Linux and Unix. The ratings do not pertain to whether or not the printer will be auto-recognized or auto-configured, but merely to the highest level of functionality achieved.

Perfectly 

Everything the printer can do is working also under Linux

Mostly 

Works almost perfectly - enhanced resolution modes may be missing, or the color is a bit off, but nothing that would make the printouts not useful

Partially 

Mostly don't work; you may be able to print only in black and white on a color printer, or the printouts look horrible

Paperweight 

These printers don't work at all. They may work in the future, but don't count on it

If your printer only supports a parallel cable connection, or does not have a high enough ranking above, you may need to obtain a different printer. The Linux Foundation website offers a list of suggested printers and tutorials.

Print using another device

Documents can be saved to a USB flash drive and printed from another computer.

CUPS

Software to enable printing will be added sometime in 2008 with a software upgrade that supports the standard CUPS / IPP protocols.

You can add network printing yourself, in the meantime, if you are in a real pinch and somewhat technically inclined.