This repository allows you to install the Samsung Unified Linux Driver via apt (or aptitude, Synaptic, etc.). These pages also provide information about installing the Unified Driver directly from Samsung, but the main purpose is distribute of .debs. The .deb packages should work fine in any recent Debian-based distribution (see below). It should also be possible for use alien to install these packages as .rpm or other formats for Fedora, Suse, etc., but I have not attempted to do so. (You can access the .deb files directly to try this here.
You should also visit the Ubuntu Forums thread on this topic for detailed instructions on actually installing/removing the Samsung Unified Linux Driver, or working with Samsung (or related Xerox-branded) printers without using the Unifed Driver at all. These pages focus more on the details of the driver and related software, rather than step-by-step instructions. Note that I do not have a multifunction Samsung printer, nor do I use any of the Samsung software except the driver itself, so my ability to directly support more complex setups is limited. Finally, the Samsung Unified Linux Driver is only available for i386 and amd64 architectures; because the driver is not open source, I have no control over this limitation.
These pages are still very simple, I will (probably) make them prettier at some point in the future.
NOTE: The GPG key was updated on Oct 18, 2009; if you have an older key, you will need to download the key and install it (as per below for first-time use).
Using the Repository
Add the following line to your /etc/sources.list, by editing the file as root (or using sudo), or by using Synaptic or other GUI to add a repository:
deb http://www-personal.umich.edu/~tjwatt/suldr/ debian extra
Add the key file to your keys via Synaptic, other GUI, or by (as root or using "sudo"):
apt-key add suldr.gpg
(If you skip this step, you will get warnings about installing unauthenticated packages.)
Refresh your repository listings (apt-get update or in a GUI), and then you should see the [i]samsungmfp-*[/i] packages corresponding to the Samsung Unified Linux Driver.
Very important: you must have completely removed all prior installations of the Unified Linux Driver before using the .debs in this repository. See the page for your driver or the Ubuntu Forum thread for details.
Note that once you have a working driver, you are probably best off leaving well enough alone. I will periodically update the driver files in the repository, so to avoid updating to a newer (potentially buggy) version, you should consider disabling the repository by commenting it out of your /etc/sources.list or disabling it in Synaptic or other GUI. You can safely use this repository in conjuction with printers that are automatically installed by your distribution, Samsung or otherwise.
The current package version is 3.00.37-2.
Samsung has released drivers v3.00.43 for selected printers, mainly the newest CLP-, CLX-, and SCX- models. The changes in the driver are much greater than the small version numbering change would suggest, with a complete overhaul in the library files and connections to sane, and so updating the packages is non-trivial. Since the new version updates and adds support for several printer models, I will get around to packaging it, but only after extensive testing to determine the impacts of the major changes.
Selecting Packages to Install
You can probably read the package descriptions and decide which need to be installed, and all dependencies should automatically resolve, but here's a quick summary:
The samsungmfp-data package provides the ppd/cms files needed to control the printers, and is pretty much required to do anything at all
The samsungmfp-driver package provides all the binary files for the driver itself (printing and scanning)
You will need to manually add printers via standard interfaces
The samsungmfp-scanner package connects the scanning driver to to sane, enabling scanning support
The samsungmfp-parallel package should only be installed if your printer is actually connected via a parallel port
The samsungmfp-lpr package activates the custom Samsung lpr (in a much safer manner than the method used by Samsung), which provides additional features but mandates a GUI interface and additional interactions for programs printing via lpr
The samsungmfp-configurator packages provide all the custom Samsung Configurator and related software, compiled with either Qt3 or Qt4
You will need to add users to the "lp" group to enable them to use scanning
None of the packages are localized, so all are based on the drivers distributed by Samsung USA; I am not sure how much localization Samsung does anyway, but if you can read this webpage then the Configurator will probably work fine for you
The only difference between the Qt3 and Qt4 configurator packages is the visual appearance (Qt4 is prettier), the library dependencies (Qt4 has more), and the size (Qt4 is larger)
The libstdc++5 package will be pulled in if not available through your distribution for all of these packages
Which Distributions These Packages Work With
These packages are .debs, so will only install directly into Debian based distributions (including all Ubuntu and Ubuntu variants, Linux Mint, Mepis, etc.). However, I discourage use of these packages with distributions released prior to 2006 (e.g., Debian Sarge, non-supported Ubuntu releases), as I cannot promise that something won't be broken.
The samsungmfp-configurator-qt4 packages will only work with more recent distributions due to necessary libraries. The Qt4 version will not work in Debian Etch (4.0) or Ubuntu Dapper (6.06), and will only work in Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) with backports enabled. The Qt4 version should work in Debian Lenny (5.0) or newer, or Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10) or newer. The Qt3 version should work in any distribution.
It is possible that for distribution releases prior to 2008 (e.g., Debian Etch or Ubuntu Fiesty), the USB support will be quirky or broken using these packages; I have not directly tested this nor had it confirmed either way at this point, and this is due to limitations in the way the Samsung drivers themselves work.
Additional Samsung Utilities: Smart Panel and Printer Settings Utility
Certain Samsung printers have the option of using the Samsung Smart Panel & Printer Settings Utility. I have not packaged these and you should download them directly from Samsung if you wish to use them. However, read the following before you do so.
The packages in this repository are compatible with the Samsung utility packages. These utilities appear to only come in Qt3 compiled versions. However, you should note that as of v2.00.42 (Smart Panel) and v2.00.17 (Printer Settings Utility), these utilities still require the use of setuid root (i.e., they run as root regardless of who executes them) and so represent a security risk. In addition, by default the installer will create the /opt/Samsung/... directories with world-write access, another security risk; you can solve this by a "find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;" in the "cdroot" folder before installing to reset folder permissions. Non-executable files are also marked as executable by default in /opt/.../bin and /opt/.../share/, a small but real security risk. The way the installers deal with menu entries, menu directories, and autostart is also highly non-standard, but does not appear to be anything other than slopppy. Both utilities also install local (in /opt) copies of the Qt3 libraries, which could potentially cause conflicts but is unlikely to be a significant issue. Finally, because one of the two Smart Panel executables is 32-bit only, the installer tries to copy both the 32-bit and 64-bit libstdc++5 libraries onto the system on 64-bit installations; this is a problem on Debian-based systems, because the method used to check for those files fails due to the symlinking of /usr/lib64 to /usr/lib, and so only one of the two libraries will be installed (I don't know the consequences of this, but any resulting instability/bugs probably only affects the Smart Panel).
In general, I discourge you from installing these tools for the security reasons above. Please do not ask me to package either; I am unable to test them with my printer and unwilling to distribute a package that requires setuid, especially when unable to test it myself. In addition, both utilities come in a wide variety of versions on the Samsung website, and the printers supported by individual versions varies, so I would have to package multiple versions of each for specific printers. (It is possible that the multiple versioning issue is just sloppiness on Samsung's part, but since I am unable to test this I cannot resolve the issue.)