[Gimp-print-devel] Mitsubishi printers of Gutenprint

[映情セ・プ技2G三好温子]

Dear gimp-print-devel san,

My name is Atsuko Miyoshi and I am in charge of Mitsubishi Electric Co.
at printer development in Japan.
The reason why I am writing this email to you is I'd like to ask some
questions about supported printers of Gutenprint 5.2.11.

The following printers are supported by Gutenprint now.
Some of these printer driver can not work.
---------------------
Mitsubishi CP-3020D mitsubishi-3020d Mitsubishi-3020D EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DU mitsubishi-3020du Mitsubishi-3020DU EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DE mitsubishi-3020de Mitsubishi-3020DE EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DA mitsubishi-3020da Mitsubishi-3020DA EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DAE mitsubishi-3020dae Mitsubishi-3020DAE EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-9550D mitsubishi-9550d Mitsubishi-9550D
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW mitsubishi-9550dw Mitsubishi-9550DW
Mitsubishi CP-9550DZ mitsubishi-9550dz Mitsubishi-9550DZ EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW-S mitsubishi-9550dw-s Mitsubishi-9550DW-S EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-9810D mitsubishi-9810d Mitsubishi-9810D
Mitsubishi CP-9810DW mitsubishi-9810dw Mitsubishi-9810DW
Mitsubishi CP-D70DW mitsubishi-d70dw Mitsubishi-D70DW EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-D707DW mitsubishi-d707dw Mitsubishi-D707DW EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-K60DW-S mitsubishi-k60dw Mitsubishi-K60DW-S EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-D80DW mitsubishi-d80dw Mitsubishi-D80DW EXPERIMENTAL
--------------------

I'd like to inform you of right information about our printers.
We have already prepared the printer driver of Mac or Linux.
Our customer is troubled on Linux.
Please let us know what I should do.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Best regards,
Atsuko Miyoshi
Printer Engineering Group Manager

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION KYOTO WORKS
http://Global.MitsubishiElectric.com

[Robert Krawitz]

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Dear gimp-print-devel san,
My name is Atsuko Miyoshi and I am in charge of Mitsubishi Electric Co.
at printer development in Japan.
The reason why I am writing this email to you is I'd like to ask some
questions about supported printers of Gutenprint 5.2.11.

Thank you for your email. I'll make sure that our dye sublimation
driver maintainer contacts you to correct this. I really appreciate
your contacting us about this.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
The following printers are supported by Gutenprint now.
Some of these printer driver can not work.
---------------------
Mitsubishi CP-3020D mitsubishi-3020d Mitsubishi-3020D EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DU mitsubishi-3020du Mitsubishi-3020DU EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DE mitsubishi-3020de Mitsubishi-3020DE EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DA mitsubishi-3020da Mitsubishi-3020DA EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DAE mitsubishi-3020dae Mitsubishi-3020DAE EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-9550D mitsubishi-9550d Mitsubishi-9550D
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW mitsubishi-9550dw Mitsubishi-9550DW
Mitsubishi CP-9550DZ mitsubishi-9550dz Mitsubishi-9550DZ EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW-S mitsubishi-9550dw-s Mitsubishi-9550DW-S EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-9810D mitsubishi-9810d Mitsubishi-9810D
Mitsubishi CP-9810DW mitsubishi-9810dw Mitsubishi-9810DW
Mitsubishi CP-D70DW mitsubishi-d70dw Mitsubishi-D70DW EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-D707DW mitsubishi-d707dw Mitsubishi-D707DW EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-K60DW-S mitsubishi-k60dw Mitsubishi-K60DW-S EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-D80DW mitsubishi-d80dw Mitsubishi-D80DW EXPERIMENTAL
--------------------
I'd like to inform you of right information about our printers.
We have already prepared the printer driver of Mac or Linux.
Our customer is troubled on Linux.
Please let us know what I should do.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Best regards,
Atsuko Miyoshi
Printer Engineering Group Manager
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION KYOTO WORKS
http://Global.MitsubishiElectric.com

[Solomon Peachy]

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
My name is Atsuko Miyoshi and I am in charge of Mitsubishi Electric Co.
at printer development in Japan.
The reason why I am writing this email to you is I'd like to ask some
questions about supported printers of Gutenprint 5.2.11.

Hello! My name is Solomon Peachy, and I am responsible for the
Mitsubishi Dye-sublimation printer support in Gutenprint. As Robert has
already mentioned, we greatly appreciate you contacting us, and I hope
that we can build a formal working relationship with Mitsubishi.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
The following printers are supported by Gutenprint now.
Some of these printer driver can not work.

Do you have more specific information about which models are having
problems, and what platforms are being used? Several of the models you
listed below have been confirmed to function, at least under some
circumstances.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Mitsubishi CP-3020D mitsubishi-3020d Mitsubishi-3020D EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DU mitsubishi-3020du Mitsubishi-3020DU EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DE mitsubishi-3020de Mitsubishi-3020DE EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DA mitsubishi-3020da Mitsubishi-3020DA EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DAE mitsubishi-3020dae Mitsubishi-3020DAE EXPERIMENTAL

Gutenprint generates print jobs similar to what the Windows drivers
generates, but nobody with one of these printers has tested these
models.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Mitsubishi CP-9810D mitsubishi-9810d Mitsubishi-9810D
Mitsubishi CP-9810DW mitsubishi-9810dw Mitsubishi-9810DW
Mitsubishi CP-9550D mitsubishi-9550d Mitsubishi-9550D
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW mitsubishi-9550dw Mitsubishi-9550DW
Mitsubishi CP-9550DZ mitsubishi-9550dz Mitsubishi-9550DZ EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW-S mitsubishi-9550dw-s Mitsubishi-9550DW-S EXPERIMENTAL

These models have been confirmed to be functional with Gutenprint, based
on user reports.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Mitsubishi CP-D70DW mitsubishi-d70dw Mitsubishi-D70DW EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-D707DW mitsubishi-d707dw Mitsubishi-D707DW EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-K60DW-S mitsubishi-k60dw Mitsubishi-K60DW-S EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-D80DW mitsubishi-d80dw Mitsubishi-D80DW EXPERIMENTAL

These models are only partially functional with Gutenprint; they
function but the output quality is poor. These printers rely on an
unknown algorithm to perform color scaling and thermal compensation.

Many people are interested in using the CP-D70 family of printers with
Linux; I typically receive a new inquiry about once a week, but have
been forced to recommend different models.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
I'd like to inform you of right information about our printers.
We have already prepared the printer driver of Mac or Linux.

Are you saying that Mitsubishi provides official Linux drivers for their
printers? This is surprising news, as I have never seen any mention of
Linux drivers on any Mitsubishi printer support site.

If Linux drivers are available from Mitsubishi, would it be possible to
tell us where we may obtain them, what platforms they support, and
the license terms for these drivers?

Oh, I should mention that Gutenprint is only utilized when there is no
(or poor) manufacturer support for a given printer on a given version
of OSX or Linux.

For example, Mitsubishi does not provide drivers for the CP-9550DW
printer for the most recent two releases of MacOSX, and it has never
publicly released a Linux driver for the CP-9550DW. Consequently, in
order to use that printer on a recent version of OSX or any Linux
platform, it is necessary to install Gutenprint.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Our customer is troubled on Linux.

I am sorry, I am not sure what you mean by this. Can you please provide
more details on what your customers are reporting? For example:

* Operating System (for example, 'MacOS X 10.10', 'Ubuntu 14.04', etc)
* Hardware Platform (for example, 'Macbook', 'x86_64 PC', 'Raspberry Pi 2', etc)
* Printer model (eg 'CP-9550DW-S') and loaded media (eg 'CK9046')
* Gutenprint information
* Where it was obtained (eg downloaded from Gutenprint site)
* Was it compiled from source code
* Application used to print (eg 'geeqie', 'gimp', etc)
* Print settings (eg desired print size, etc)
* Reported errors
* Application errors
* Printer errors

Thank you,

- Solomon

[映情セ・プ技2G三好温子]

I will resend it.
Please change the attend file name from .zi_ to .zip.
Thank you.

Dear Solomon-san,

Thank you for your quick reply and cooperation.

I understood that our printer situation from your email.
I want to solve this problem right away no matter what.
We need your cooperation.

Post by Solomon Peachy
Many people are interested in using the CP-D70 family of printers with
Linux; I typically receive a new inquiry about once a week, but have
been forced to recommend different models.

I will attache the CP-D70DW Linux driver of CUPS.
This driver can work i386 x32 of Ubuntu, Fedora and e,t,c,
Please confirm the contents of this file and please let us know what
should we do before that.

Thank you.
Best regards,
Atsuko Miyoshi

Post by Solomon Peachy

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
My name is Atsuko Miyoshi and I am in charge of Mitsubishi Electric Co.
at printer development in Japan.
The reason why I am writing this email to you is I'd like to ask some
questions about supported printers of Gutenprint 5.2.11.

Hello! My name is Solomon Peachy, and I am responsible for the
Mitsubishi Dye-sublimation printer support in Gutenprint. As Robert has
already mentioned, we greatly appreciate you contacting us, and I hope
that we can build a formal working relationship with Mitsubishi.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
The following printers are supported by Gutenprint now.
Some of these printer driver can not work.

Do you have more specific information about which models are having
problems, and what platforms are being used? Several of the models you
listed below have been confirmed to function, at least under some
circumstances.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Mitsubishi CP-3020D mitsubishi-3020d Mitsubishi-3020D EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DU mitsubishi-3020du Mitsubishi-3020DU EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DE mitsubishi-3020de Mitsubishi-3020DE EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DA mitsubishi-3020da Mitsubishi-3020DA EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-3020DAE mitsubishi-3020dae Mitsubishi-3020DAE EXPERIMENTAL

Gutenprint generates print jobs similar to what the Windows drivers
generates, but nobody with one of these printers has tested these
models.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Mitsubishi CP-9810D mitsubishi-9810d Mitsubishi-9810D
Mitsubishi CP-9810DW mitsubishi-9810dw Mitsubishi-9810DW
Mitsubishi CP-9550D mitsubishi-9550d Mitsubishi-9550D
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW mitsubishi-9550dw Mitsubishi-9550DW
Mitsubishi CP-9550DZ mitsubishi-9550dz Mitsubishi-9550DZ EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW-S mitsubishi-9550dw-s Mitsubishi-9550DW-S EXPERIMENTAL

These models have been confirmed to be functional with Gutenprint, based
on user reports.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Mitsubishi CP-D70DW mitsubishi-d70dw Mitsubishi-D70DW EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-D707DW mitsubishi-d707dw Mitsubishi-D707DW EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-K60DW-S mitsubishi-k60dw Mitsubishi-K60DW-S EXPERIMENTAL
Mitsubishi CP-D80DW mitsubishi-d80dw Mitsubishi-D80DW EXPERIMENTAL

These models are only partially functional with Gutenprint; they
function but the output quality is poor. These printers rely on an
unknown algorithm to perform color scaling and thermal compensation.
Many people are interested in using the CP-D70 family of printers with
Linux; I typically receive a new inquiry about once a week, but have
been forced to recommend different models.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
I'd like to inform you of right information about our printers.
We have already prepared the printer driver of Mac or Linux.

Are you saying that Mitsubishi provides official Linux drivers for their
printers? This is surprising news, as I have never seen any mention of
Linux drivers on any Mitsubishi printer support site.
If Linux drivers are available from Mitsubishi, would it be possible to
tell us where we may obtain them, what platforms they support, and
the license terms for these drivers?
Oh, I should mention that Gutenprint is only utilized when there is no
(or poor) manufacturer support for a given printer on a given version
of OSX or Linux.
For example, Mitsubishi does not provide drivers for the CP-9550DW
printer for the most recent two releases of MacOSX, and it has never
publicly released a Linux driver for the CP-9550DW. Consequently, in
order to use that printer on a recent version of OSX or any Linux
platform, it is necessary to install Gutenprint.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Our customer is troubled on Linux.

I am sorry, I am not sure what you mean by this. Can you please provide
* Operating System (for example, 'MacOS X 10.10', 'Ubuntu 14.04', etc)
* Hardware Platform (for example, 'Macbook', 'x86_64 PC', 'Raspberry Pi 2', etc)
* Printer model (eg 'CP-9550DW-S') and loaded media (eg 'CK9046')
* Gutenprint information
* Where it was obtained (eg downloaded from Gutenprint site)
* Was it compiled from source code
* Application used to print (eg 'geeqie', 'gimp', etc)
* Print settings (eg desired print size, etc)
* Reported errors
* Application errors
* Printer errors
Thank you,
- Solomon

[Solomon Peachy]

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Thank you for your quick reply and cooperation.

I will be glad to help, although I must confess that I still do not
understand what you are asking us to assist you with. Please forgive me
if my answer below is not what you are looking for.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
I will attache the CP-D70DW Linux driver of CUPS.
This driver can work i386 x32 of Ubuntu, Fedora and e,t,c,
Please confirm the contents of this file and please let us know what should
we do before that.

Thank you for this driver! Is this something that we may distribute to
people that ask for it? Also, would it be possible to create a version
for ARM-based systems like the popular Raspberry Pi devices, and is
there a version for the popular CP-K60DW-S?

Unfortuntely I have no way to properly test this driver's functionality,
as I do not own or have access to a CP-D70 or CP-D707 printer.

However, I did spend some time analzying the driver, and have some
observations that may explain some of the difficulties your customers
are encountering:

CUPS drivers typically involve two components, a Filter, which
translates the image data into a format the printer understands, and a
Backend, which performs the actual communication with the printer. CUPS
normally includes several backends, including one that is suitable for
printers that adhere to the "USB Printing Class" specification.

The driver you provided only includes the Filter component, but not a
Backend. This means it must rely on the standard CUPS USB backend for
printer communications. Unfortunately, for proper function, the CP-D70
family of printers require use of a special, non-standard two-way
communication protocol, so the standard USB backend will not be able to
reliably send data to the printer (especially when the printer's buffers
are full)

Gutenprint includes a backend that can intelligently query the printer
status and send the print job data to the printer. This also disables
the standard USB backend. Unfortunately, the Gutenprint backend does
not understand the slight difference in data format between the
Gutenprint filter and the CP70Filter you provided, resulting in an
inability to print.

Therefore, your customers should, try this if they wish to use the
CP70Filter driver:

* Remove Gutenprint entirely from their system. (On Ubuntu, this can
be accomplished by running 'sudo apt-get remove gutenprint')
* Reboot (_very_ important!)
* Install the CP70DFilter driver following the instructions in the readme
* Attempt to print

If, after following these instructions, the user is still not able to
print, then the problem is solely with Mitsubishi's driver package. I
may be able to assist further, but I will need more details on the
actual symptoms and any error the printer or application reports.

In the mean time, I will modify the Gutenprint backend so that it will
understand the slight difference in output from the CP70Filter as
compared to the output of the Windows driver (or Gutenprint).

Thanks,

- Solomon

[映情セ・プ技2G三好温子]

Dear Solomon-san,

Thank you very much for giving me and our customer many advice.

That printer driver can not work ARM-based systems and CP-D70 or CP-D707
only.
However, we can compile by ARM-based system,
Please let us know what should we do to handle Gutenprint.
Will I send you our Linux printer drivers as one possibility?

Do you have our CP-K60DW-S?
Do you need our printer(CP-D70 or e.t.c) for Gutenprint?

Please let us know.

Thank you.

Best Regards,
Atsuko Miyoshi

Post by Solomon Peachy

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Thank you for your quick reply and cooperation.

I will be glad to help, although I must confess that I still do not
understand what you are asking us to assist you with. Please forgive me
if my answer below is not what you are looking for.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
I will attache the CP-D70DW Linux driver of CUPS.
This driver can work i386 x32 of Ubuntu, Fedora and e,t,c,
Please confirm the contents of this file and please let us know what should
we do before that.

Thank you for this driver! Is this something that we may distribute to
people that ask for it? Also, would it be possible to create a version
for ARM-based systems like the popular Raspberry Pi devices, and is
there a version for the popular CP-K60DW-S?
Unfortuntely I have no way to properly test this driver's functionality,
as I do not own or have access to a CP-D70 or CP-D707 printer.
However, I did spend some time analzying the driver, and have some
observations that may explain some of the difficulties your customers
CUPS drivers typically involve two components, a Filter, which
translates the image data into a format the printer understands, and a
Backend, which performs the actual communication with the printer. CUPS
normally includes several backends, including one that is suitable for
printers that adhere to the "USB Printing Class" specification.
The driver you provided only includes the Filter component, but not a
Backend. This means it must rely on the standard CUPS USB backend for
printer communications. Unfortunately, for proper function, the CP-D70
family of printers require use of a special, non-standard two-way
communication protocol, so the standard USB backend will not be able to
reliably send data to the printer (especially when the printer's buffers
are full)
Gutenprint includes a backend that can intelligently query the printer
status and send the print job data to the printer. This also disables
the standard USB backend. Unfortunately, the Gutenprint backend does
not understand the slight difference in data format between the
Gutenprint filter and the CP70Filter you provided, resulting in an
inability to print.
Therefore, your customers should, try this if they wish to use the
* Remove Gutenprint entirely from their system. (On Ubuntu, this can
be accomplished by running 'sudo apt-get remove gutenprint')
* Reboot (_very_ important!)
* Install the CP70DFilter driver following the instructions in the readme
* Attempt to print
If, after following these instructions, the user is still not able to
print, then the problem is solely with Mitsubishi's driver package. I
may be able to assist further, but I will need more details on the
actual symptoms and any error the printer or application reports.
In the mean time, I will modify the Gutenprint backend so that it will
understand the slight difference in output from the CP70Filter as
compared to the output of the Windows driver (or Gutenprint).
Thanks,
- Solomon

[Solomon Peachy]

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
That printer driver can not work ARM-based systems and CP-D70 or CP-D707
only.

From what I understand, the other related printers (eg CP-K60 and
CP-D80) only differ slightly in their command syntax. The main changes
are captured in the CPC/LUT files that supply the parameters/data for
the image processing algorithms.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
However, we can compile by ARM-based system,

Many users would appreciate this. Most of the inquiries I receive are
about using the CP-K60DW-S on a Raspberry Pi (armv6) system.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Please let us know what should we do to handle Gutenprint.
Will I send you our Linux printer drivers as one possibility?

First, it must be understood that Gutenprint is provided in source code
format under the terms of the GNU GPLv2. This means that any support in
Gutenprint for Mitsubishi printers must be made available under
compatible terms.

This is an unofficial Japanese translation of the GNU GPLv2:

http://www.opensource.jp/gpl/gpl.ja.html

This page explains the concept of open source licenses in general:

http://www.opensource.jp/osd/osd-japanese.html

For Mitsubishi to provide better support for Linux users, there are
several options, listed below in order of desireability:

1) Release your printer driver source code under an open-source license
so that it may be freely utilized and distributed.
2) Under NDA, provide programming documentation to your printers so
that we may indepedently implement our own driver. Please note
this is what we are already doing, using information obtained via
reverse-engineering. Also, in the case of the D70/D707/K60/D80
models, we would need information on the image processing algorithms
in order to properly implement a driver.
3) Under NDA, provide the source code to your drivers, but give
permission to compile and distribute binaries on various platforms.
4) You would compile and maintain binary drivers for multiple
common Linux platforms (eg Ubuntu/x86, Raspbian/ARMv6, etc). You
can distribute themselves on your web site, but I am willing to
host and distribute these driver binaries if given written permission.

I personally feel that options (1) and (2) are preferential, but option
(4) is closest to what you do for Windows and MacOS platforms today, and
would allow general end-users to utilize your printers with Linux.

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Do you have our CP-K60DW-S?
Do you need our printer(CP-D70 or e.t.c) for Gutenprint?

None of the Gutenprint developers have access to any Mitsubishi
printers. If Mitsubishi is willing to send (or loan) one or more models
to us, it will make it much easier to test and debug problems.

Thank you,

- Solomon

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

regarding printer driver licensing
I would like to share my point of view
regarding Linux distributions in general
and in particular regarding openSUSE.
...

Post by Solomon Peachy

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Please let us know what should we do to handle Gutenprint.
Will I send you our Linux printer drivers as one possibility?

First, it must be understood that Gutenprint is provided in
source code format under the terms of the GNU GPLv2.
This means that any support in Gutenprint for Mitsubishi
printers must be made available under
compatible terms.

...

Post by Solomon Peachy
For Mitsubishi to provide better support for Linux users, there
1) Release your printer driver source code under an open-source
license so that it may be freely utilized and distributed.

In the "Conditions" section in

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Information_for_Printer_Manufacturers_Regarding_Linux_Support

I summarized some basic conditions how printer
manufacturers should make their driver software
to achieve easy end-user out-of-the-box support for
their printers in all the various Linux distributions
that exist nowadays.


I understand that sometimes printer manufacturers
cannot make free driver software because of whatever
reasons like internal third-party license restrictions
that do not allow the printer manufacturer to publish
techincal details about their printers (in this case
I think their printers are actually not their printers
but be "possessed" by whatever obscure third parties).

Under such unfortunate restrictions the printer manufacturer
can nevertheless make free software for their printers
to still achieve easy end-user out-of-the-box support
in all Linux distributions.

In this case the free software from the printer manufacturer
cannot be the actual driver software but instead the free
software from the printer manufacturer would be a program
that downloads and installs the actual (non-free) driver
software on the end-user's system.

Again the perfect example how to do that correctly
is HP's free HPLIP software.

For most HP printers HP can make free driver software
and those free drivers are included in their HPLIP
software so that for most HP printers HP has full
and easy end-user out-of-the-box support in all
Linux distributions that distribute HP's free
HPLIP software.

But for some HP printers HP cannot make free driver
software. For those unfortunate printers HP provides
a free download and install tool in HP's free HPLIP
software that downloads the actual (non-free) driver
from a HP server and installs it in the right way
with the right end-user license dialog and it does
whatever else is needed to make those unfortunate
printers work on the end-user's system.

Of course for those unfortunate printers HP must make
totally on their own various versions of their actual
(non-free) driver software to be able to provide it
appropriately so that it works for the various end-users
of the various kind of Linux distributions (think
about various architectures like 32-bit x86 versus
64-bit x86_64 versus ARM and so on and so on).
But that is the price HP has to pay for having printers
where even HP itself cannot make free driver software.


In the end what really matters for Linux end-users is
that there is free software that can be included in
all Linux distributions so that all Linux end-users
can run that free software out-of-the-box and then
that free software does whatever is needed to make
a printer model work on the end-user's system.

If that free software is the actual printer driver or
if it is a printer driver download and install tool
does not really matter for very most Linux end-users.


FYI to make it clear:

Free software is only free when its source code is free
which means it must not contain any tiny part that
is under a non-free license.

This means printer manufacturers must not bundle
non-free parts together with free software
because non-free parts poision the whole thing
so that nothing at all from such a bundle could be
included in many Linux distributions.

In particular I could not include such things
in the openSUSE distribution, cf.
https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/Printing


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner

[Robert Krawitz]

Post by Solomon Peachy

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
Please let us know what should we do to handle Gutenprint.
Will I send you our Linux printer drivers as one possibility?

First, it must be understood that Gutenprint is provided in source code
format under the terms of the GNU GPLv2. This means that any support in
Gutenprint for Mitsubishi printers must be made available under
compatible terms.

To clarify, Gutenprint is licensed under the terms of the GPLv2 or any
newer version ("GPLv2+"). Therefore, we cannot distribute any
binary-only or other restricted components. Also, Gutenprint runs on
many platforms besides x86/Linux (Macintosh OS X, Solaris/SPARC and
x86, and so forth).

[Solomon Peachy]

The Linux drivers for our printers will be posted on the our company website
first. I'll let you know that.

This is excellent news for Linux users!

I would like to confirm whether source cord of a new model printer can be
exhibited.

I have already made some investigation into the newest CP-D90DW model,
and see that it no longer requires a special image processing library
(eg CImageEffect70) for proper operation.

I have already implemented preliminary support in Gutenprint for this
model, although the USB communication protocol remains uknown.

Any source code or documentation release for the CP-D90DW (or any other
Mitsubishi printer model) will be appreciated and utilized.

I will contact you again.
Thank you for your cooperation.

I look forward to it.

Thanks again,

- Solomon

[映情セ・プ技2G三好温子]

Dear Solomon-san,

It has been a long time since the last time.
I knew you to complete our printer drivers.
Many customer can start using our printers with Linux.
Thank you for your cooperation.

http://www.peachyphotos.com/blog/posts/201610061508-mitsubishi-cp-d70-family-working/

Can I use the Gutenprint by Raspberry Pi 3(ARM) and our printers?

If you have information, please let me know.

Best regards,
Atsuko Miyoshi
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC

[Solomon Peachy]

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
It has been a long time since the last time.
I knew you to complete our printer drivers.
Many customer can start using our printers with Linux.
Can I use the Gutenprint by Raspberry Pi 3(ARM) and our printers?

In general, yes, as long a sufficiently recent version of Gutenprint is
being used. I know of many people and organizations using Gutenprint
with Mitsubishi printers on various ARM platforms.

However, the Raspberry Pi family has a major problem when used with the
D70/D707 printer -- when sending over the image data, we get USB
timeouts and other related errors, resulting in failures to print.
Without direct access to this model, I am unable to diagnose the
problem. It is likely that properly investigating and resolving this
problem will require some technical assistance from Mitsubishi.
(There are more details; I will follow-up with a private email)

Post by 映情セ・プ技2G三好温子
If you have information, please let me know.

Here are the Mitsubishi models that are currently known to work with
Gutenprint 5.2.12:

Mitsubishi CP-3800DW
Mitsubishi CP-9550D/DW/DW-S/DZ/DZ-S
Mitsubishi CP-9600D/DW
Mitsubishi CP-D70DW
Mitsubishi CP-D80DW
Mitsubishi CP-K60DW-S
Mitsubishi P93DW (5.2.13-pre or newer)
Mitsubishi P95DW

Here are the models that are untested but are expected to work:

Mitsubishi CP-D707DW
Mitsubishi CP-9000DW, CP-9500DW, and CP-9600DW-S

These models are known to not work properly:

Mitsubishi CP-3020D/DE and CP-3020DA/DAE
Mitsubishi CP-D70DW-S, CP-D707DW-S, and CP-D80DW-S
Mitsubishi CP-9800DW, CP-9800DW-S, CP-9810DW, and CP-9820DW-S
Mitsubishi CP-D90DW
Mitsubishi CP-W5000DW
Mitsubishi CP-30DW

There are other Mitsubishi models that are not on this list, but I
believe they are too obsolete to be relevant.

Oh, one other thing -- While Mitsubishi is free to utilize Gutenprint
for any purpose, it is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL. If you
chose to distribute it to others, there are certain requirements that
must be complied with; the primary one is that Mitsubishi must make
available the complete source code to the version of Gutenprint they
distribute.

Here is an unofficial Japanese translation of the license, and an
explanation of the principles behind it:

http://www.opensource.jp/gpl/gpl.ja.html
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.ja.html

Regards,

- Solomon