LinuxWorld: Ask the Geek: Setting up a serial printer | Linux Today

LinuxWorld: Ask the Geek: Setting up a serial printer

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Aug 4, 2000

“I have an old serial-based dot-matrix printer. How do I set
this up to work with Linux?”

“Wow, it’s been quite a while since I had to set up a
serial-based printer.”

“For those who are unfamiliar with the technology, serial port
connections offer several advantages over parallel port
connections, and even over category 5 network cabling. Serial
connections do not suffer from distance limitations to the extent
that other technologies do. On the downside, serial connections are
very slow.”

Setting up Linux for serial-based printing is not
difficult, but there are some extra steps that you’ll need to take.
The first step is to make sure that Linux sees your serial ports.
There are several ways to do this.


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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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