Monday 18 May 2015

Running Ricoh SP 200 printer on Linux

Recently I purchased Ricoh SP 200 printer from flipkart (link). To my utter dismay I realised that this printer is only compatible with windows, and will not work with Linux. I tried various printer drivers available on my ubuntu 14.04
hoping that at least one will work. Being a Linux guy there was no way I was going to use windows as my main OS, Dual boot certainly was an option, but it required disruption of work every time a printout had to be taken. This was the reason that my brand new printer was lying idle for past 3 months, until today when I stumbled across two posts.
  • http://askubuntu.com/a/98838 ,and
  • http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/251473-adding-usb-port-windows-7-inside-virtualbox.html
Here I will try to summarize the steps required to make the printer work. Some of these may be redundant, and might not be required, but following them will certainly do no harm.


System configuration

I have Ubuntu 14.04 running as my main OS, and windows 7 ultimate x64 running in virtual box. Windows 7 has guest additions installed. The printer was connected to USB 2.0 port of my laptop.

STEP 1

In your Linux installation, add the user you use to log into Ubuntu to vboxusers group. This can be done from command line or by using "users-admin" uti
  • Install gnome system tools : sudo apt-get install gnome-system-tools
  • Launch "users-admin" from console or search for "users and groups" in Dash.
  • In the window that appears click on manage groups.
  • Now a new window would have opened, showing the groups available on the system. scroll down to vboxusers, and click properties.
  • In the group members dialog that would be showing now, select your user name.
  • click OK, enter password if prompted for, close all the dialog boxes.
STEP 2

In your windows VM settings enable USB 2.0 EHCI. This will require virtualbox extension pack.
  • Install virtualbox extension pack (link).
  • Go to settings os windows 7 VM -> USB
    • Make sure Enable USB controller is selected
    • select Enable USB 2.0 EHCI controller.
    • Ensure that virtualbox is showing no warnings. In my case it was showing a warning as the extension pack was missing, which i subsequently installed.
    • click ok. 
     
  • close all dialog boxes.
STEP 3

Run windows 7 VM. Make sure the printer is disconnected right now.
Download the driver from Ricoh's website (link), and install it.
During installation, there will be a point when the installation will pause for detecting the printer. At that time connect the printer to the VM by selecting it from devices menu (Devices->USB devices->RICOH SP 200).
The installation will now detect the printer, and will then finish.
Make sure the printer is working correctly by printing a page from the VM.

 Done!!