"install" a printer that has no available linux drivers in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Well I have been happily using Ubuntu 12.04 and had installed Virtual box by using software center. Then I got a Dell C1660w LED printer and set out to simply use it. Although the steps I'll describe here are very "simple" it was in many instances frustrating, head banging might have occurred during this process; but I do not remember not sure if due to concussion or repressed memory!!! :)  Still this is a lengthy process so if you want to share any ideas, comments or better way to do it, you are encourage and welcomed to comment.

Well I was going to continue to describe my odyssey (could also be described as whining or flash back from PTSD), but you likely want to just do it and skip my artful literary description of the cephalic acceleration and deceleration against an inanimate object, therefore jump below to see an overview of how to do this.

WARNING: This is not an easy way of doing, there might be other ways of doing better than this; as in my method/approach you will have to install Virtual box then windows 7 then USB 2 support with guest additions then your printer if there is a more difficult way there probably is but this get's up there with any other method I would suspect! So buckle up for some FUN!

OK as everyone warns I am not your mommy or daddy therefore not responsible for you breaking your PC, your OS setup, your files, your head or the wall! so hope though this helps and wish you luck


1) Install virtual box via software center (the only available version for Virtualbox on my search of the software center in my PC was 4.1.12 which is an older version), and then windows 7.

2) Install the Guest additions

3) Install the Oracle Virtualbox extension pack; if you google this you'll get a lot of results with a lot of wrong answers. How I finally did it was by doing this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgYA7F4PR5k

which essentially tells you to go to:
http://download.virtualbox.org/

then to the subdirectory that contains your version of virtualbox for me was:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.1.12/ (direct link)
download this

Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.1.12.vbox-extpack   (also direct link)

4)  Close VBox, then you double click on the dowloaded file, it opens virtual box and will ask if you want to install, obviously go ahead.

5) Once installed add your user to the virtualbox group I did while battling with things so not totally sure is needed but almost sure, you can do it as the video tells you or with a terminal command which is how I did it using this:
 sudo usermod -aG vboxusers <your username>



6) OK then you start VBox or if you still have it running then go to the settings section of the VM for win 7 on the USB section select USB2

7) Add a USB port selecting the printer to be added for the USB port (printer was already connected for me somewhere between step 2 and 3 but you can just connect prior to selecting the USB 2 and adding the printer.

8) Start your VM when is going into boot, see on the status line the usb icon right click and uncheck everything.

9) Once logged in, install drivers with the supplied driver disc by using the setup program, then right click on the USB icon of the VM (bottom right) and check the printer mine was Dell C1660w.

10) windows will install the USB printing port and get the driver.

11) well that should be all, check if the monitor status for the printer works send a test page if it works congrats! You have a lot of patience and perseverace, or just insanely crazy like me :(

Howto Install Citrix client on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS!

I needed to install citirix Receiver for Linux my system has Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Please if you are trying to install and are going to use this instructions, read everything prior to trying any of this. You might be able to skip some of the steps that I used but I do not think they are needed, any way this is to help I am not responsible for your use of it, so with that good luck!

I searched and found one page for 12.0 (this: http://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-receiver/legacy-client-software/receiver-for-linux-120.html) and one for 12.1 (http://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-receiver/linux/receiver-for-linux-121.html)

Decided to install the 12.1 deb pkg which this is the download link: http://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-receiver/linux/receiver-for-linux-121.html#ctx-dl-eula

I only downloaded it as the howto suggested to install other packages for citrix client to work.

Ok then I proceeded to install the other packages I searched for how others had installed citrix and found these pages:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CitrixICAClientHowTo
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX125285

Therefore as ICAClient needs FFmpeg and others suggested I needed ibmotif4:i386 I installed only ibmotif4:i386 as ffmpeg was already installed (I looked in software center->installed programs and search for FFmpeg). to install libmotif4:i386 i used the following command:
sudo apt-get install libmotif4:i386

Alright then tried to install the citrix package I downloaded (went into the download folder clicked on the file, software center opened and follow instructions to install) but it would give me the following and not finish installing and would say:
Setting up icaclient (12.1.0) ... dpkg: error processing icaclient (--install): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2 Processing triggers for menu ... Errors were encountered while processing: icaclient

Not only that but would not let me install anything else initially to at least fix my problem about installing other packages I used this command:
sudo apt-get remove icaclient

Which then allowed me to install other programs later I tried re-installing but would get the same problem so I searched and found this page: http://www.unixmen.com/issue-installing-citrix-client-for-ubuntu-64-bit/
but when trying to do this comand:
sudo vim /var/lib/dpkg/info/icaclient.postinst

would tell me I do not have vim. As vim is just a word processor I then just used this instead:
gksudo gedit /var/lib/dpkg/info/icaclient.postinst

Which opens a text editor and the did what the instructions said which is - find:
echo $Arch|grep "i[0-9]86" >/dev/null

Pay attention that it says exactly the same as above and replace with:
echo $Arch|grep -E "i[0-9]86|x86_64" >/dev/null

save  and exit, then use this command:
sudo dpkg --configure icaclient

it may appear to do nothing but it worked now it was installed and I could also install other programs after that. So though I was done.... well NO! I wen to the website to open the citrix app and would tell me the following: Entrust.net Certification Authority (2048)", the issuer of the server's security certifcate (SSL error 61). Tried this:
sudo cp /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/* /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts suggested by this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CitrixICAClientHowTo and this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CitrixXenAppPlugin to import certificates, but none worked. So I think you could skip this step, but keep it in  mind.

Then searched more which got me to this page: http://techcell.chaseoriginal.com/technotes/install-citrix-receiver-on-64bit-ubuntu/ and used the following command:
sudo apt-get install nspluginwrapper

but the result of that told me it was already installed. Also I did not put the libmotif4 as the other had installed a libmotif. So not sure you need this step, but keep it in  mind.

I also used this:
sudo apt-get install libmotif4 flashplugin-installer curl nspluginwrapper ia32-libs libmotif4:i386

Which installed some more stuff, but did not fix the security issue. So I think you could also skip this step, but keep it in  mind.

Then went back to this page https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CitrixXenAppPlugin which I had tried before and used again this commands but with these commands I ONLY used sudo where is written (initially tried with all the commands and did not work):

SOURCE_URI="https://www.entrust.net/downloads/binary/entrust_2048_ca.cer"
SOURCE_URI="https://www.entrust.net/downloads/binary/entrust_2048_ca.cer"
SOURCE_FN="$(basename ${SOURCE_URI})"

On this howto it suggested to use this command but it was not working therfore figure out that on my install the citirix client must have gotten placed somewhere else. Therefore looked for the folder/directory where ICAclient (citrix was installed) using this comand:
sudo find / -name 'ICAClient'

Got this:
/opt/Citrix/ICAClient

Then I made sure that the folder /keystore/cacerts existed within ICAclient and then put that on the following command:
TARGET_DIR="/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts"

Then
TARGET_FP="${TARGET_DIR}/${SOURCE_FN}"
sudo wget -c -O ${TARGET_FP} ${SOURCE_URI}

This following cmd is to list where the certificate was installed:
sudo ls -al ${TARGET_FP}

Then went to try again and it worked! so hope it works for you too, good luck! If this instructions helped and you feel like it you can donate! (see link on the side)

Install Xerox workcentre 5755 in ubuntu 12.04 lts

Howto install Xerox workcentre 5755on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Installed Xerox workcentre 5755 by going to Xerox WorkCentre 5735/5740/5745/5755 Support & Drivers:

(http://www.support.xerox.com/support/workcentre-5735-5740-5745-5755/downloads/enus.html?operatingSystem=linux&fileLanguage=en)

Then going to the Printer Model Package:

http://www.support.xerox.com/support/workcentre-5735-5740-5745-5755/file-download/enus.html?operatingSystem=linux&fileLanguage=en&contentId=118162&from=downloads&viewArchived=false

Then after download extract in the folder or a new folder (whichever) and that folder will have the ppd file needed to install. Then go to Ubuntu Dash Home type printing select printing

then go to add printer

select find network printer, then put the ip address of YOUR workcentre, select AppSocket/HP JetDirect, select Forward

Then select PPD file and browse to the folder where you extracted the downloaded file look for thee ppd folder then find the ppd file for your printer, myself I used the 5733 for the 5755.

Then this appears select what the printer options are if in doubt leave what the defaults are

Select Forward, this will show:

Rename as you wish, if you get some menu that states there are conflicts, I think is due to selecting options the printer does not have. At the end will ask you if you want to print test page and hopefully it will work for you as it did for me!