Samsung ML-2151N Printer (2150 series) with Suse Linux 9 & Ubuntu 5, 6, 7

Note: There are improvements in ease of use with the newer Samsung ML-2851N printer under linux.

Updated 2007-12-1: I just got a fix for this from an email sent to me because of this page. The work around the apparently buggy driver is to create two instances of the printer, associating it with two (or three) different drivers. I've never printed "duplex_short" myself. Here is the info I got.

You need to set up three "printers" for the Samsung, each with a different driver:
Samsung_Monoplex: Samsung ML-2151N Foomatic/pxlmono
Samsung_Duplex_Long: Samsung ML-2250 Foomatic/Postscript
Samsung_Duplex_Short: Samsung ML-2151N Foomatic/ljet4d
Note that the Long entry has the "wrong" printer.

If you do the above and are not getting duplex printing, there is one more place you can make an adjustment. Go to System... Administration... Printing. Highlight the duplex printer configuration and click on the "Printer Options" tab. Make sure the "Double-Sided Printing" option is set to the value you want.

Updated 2007-11-08: I have had problems using the driver described below, after updating my operating system to Ubuntu linux version 7.10. I used System...Administration...Update Manager to go from Ubuntu 7.04 to 7.10. The duplex printing now prints the second side upside-down no matter what changes I make to printer adminstration, programs, or printer settings. Bummer. I have been using this network printer with no issues whatsoever for about 4 years with different versions of Linux and Windows. I don't have a fix or know what program to look into. We now return to the regularly scheduled page...

I have been able to use this printer with Suse 9.x, but not with the recommended methods. The reasons I bought this printer was for laser printing economy, 2-sided printing and it was "supported" under Suse linux. I have never been able to use the package provided by Samsung. I can install it, but when I go to use it, it gives me a dialog for the root password and always says something like "could not log on root". Well, I've done it logged on as root and have tried the password (which I use daily) like a dozen times, so it may be me, but there is some trick to it. I thought at first it was because I had changed the installation somehow, but I recently tried it with a brand new Suse 9.2 install and got exactly the same results.

If you use Yast to set up the printer, it will suggest a driver it names "2151N Foomatic/pxlmono". This resulted in slow printing for me and I could NOT do duplex printing, the whole duplex area was greyed out. Don't fall for it.

I have a small LAN and can easily use fixed IPs. This seems to be the easiest and best way to set up this printer. Using Yast, I used the following settings:

• Print directly to network printer.
• Direct TCP printing. TCP port #9100
• Driver = 2151N Foomatic/ljet4d

This gives me fast, duplex printing. I also have the cupsd daemon running and my version of the printer does not have postscript support.

Samsung ML-2151N Printer (2150 series) with Ubuntu Linux

This printer has also worked well printing from Ubuntu linux. Please see what is written above about fixed IP's and the correct driver to use (last 2 paragraphs). The setup in Ubuntu:

• System...Administration...Printing...New Printer
• Step 1: Select "Network Printer" and the drop-down "HP JetDirect" (even though it isn't).
• Use the fixed IP in the "host" dialog and leave the default "Port 9100". Click "Forward".
• Step 2: Select Manufacturer = Samsung, Model = ML-2151N, DRIVER = ljet4d IF YOU WANT DUPLEX.
• Step 3: There is no step 3. To change the settings or print a test page, go to the same "Printing" dialog, right-click on the printer and choose "Properties". I think I've had to change the paper from A4 to US letter and possibly make duplex the default if it isn't already.

A note about printing web pages. If you use Mozilla/Firefox browser and print from it, there is a non-human friendly dialog box that greets you under "properties" in the printer dialog. With this printer, you pretty much need to set the "Duplex" and "Toner Saver" buttons the way you want them on the machine, and the browser will use the defaults. Otherwise, you will need to go to the printer administration to change settings if you can't read "command line".

Good luck,
Kim