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A brand new, PowerPC compatible printer

K

kajac123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 17, 2017
9
18
Just a tip really, if you want a budget color laser printer that is also compatible with PowerPC/Leopard.

Last year (summer 2020) I bought a brand new HP Color Laser 150nw, which is a fairly cheap color laser printer from HP. It supports network (wired or wireless) as well as USB, and mobile (android/ios).

So I wanted to try to see if I could get this printer, which was launched in mid to late 2019, to talk to my PowerMac G5, and after some fiddling about I managed to do just that.

You see, the printer is compatible with AirPrint, which seems to just be the old Bonjour renamed. So the computer can see and connect to the printer thought the network without any drivers. But it cannot print, yet.

HP do not have any drivers for this printer for any Mac system on their website. In the manual it simply states that Mac OS has the required drivers built in, which of course is the case on newer systems. Not on Leopard however. The fact that this printer does not support PostScript or PCL does not help. It uses QPDL, which was not supported by Leopard.

Luckily for us, this printer was also sold under another name some years ago; Samsung Xpress SL-C410. Looking at the printers, they look virtually identical. And that printer does support PowerPC using Mac OS X Leopard. It seems like HP, which bought Samsung's printer division some years ago, has just re-released an older Samsung printer as an entry-level product using their own brand.

So, to get this HP printer working in Leopard, you'll need this driver from HP: https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/soft...W/C410_Seriess_Mac_PrinterDriver_V1.05.00.zip. I've also attach the printer driver to this post in case the HP link stops working.

Then install the driver, and go to the Printer preference pane, choose the HP printer, select the driver manually, and choose "Samsung C410 Series".

Congratulations, you can now print from your PowerPC Mac on your brand new printer. I've only tested it through the network, but I'll assume it will work via USB as well. All settings (color, quality, etc) seems to work flawlessly as well.
 

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kajac123 said:
Luckily for us, this printer was also sold under another name some years ago; Samsung Xpress SL-C410. Looking at the printers, they look virtually identical. And that printer does support PowerPC using Mac OS X Leopard. It seems like HP, which bought Samsung's printer division some years ago, has just re-released an older Samsung printer as an entry-level product using their own brand.
Click to expand...
A few years back I bought a brand new Samsung Xpress M2020w off eBay precisely because it had Airprint capabilities. My iPhones, all my Macs, PCs and my Androids can all print to it. It's been very solid. In fact, we just replaced (again) a toner cartridge for it about a week ago. I usually get them off eBay for around $20.

The provided driver disk was SL only, but if you know where to place the drivers in Leopard it goes just fine. I created an IP printer and selected those drivers and had no issues.

So, after that we went ahead and bought a Samsung Xpress C430w color laser printer. Same thing as far as drivers. Just put them in the right spot and add the IP printer. The C430w is also Airprint. Again, this printer has been solid as well. I'm waiting for my yellow toner to completely run out before I swap in the new replacement cartridge.
 
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Ok, so I have a G4 TI 1Ghz - what printer is good to use with this ? I USE OS 9 for word processing 2001 Word and spreadsheets.
 
So specifically, in my use case, I use a HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281. This is a Printer/Scanner combo. Though the specific model really does not matter. What I was looking for when I was researching it was that it was PostScript Compatible (It uses a PostScript Emulator) and it had a built in LPD daemon that ran on the printer itself. A LPD daemon is a process that exposes a TCP/IP Port to send jobs to a spooler process that is running on the printer itself. LPR/LPD is a somewhat older spooling solution that is being supplanted by IPP but most "office grade" printers still support it.

So look for:
-LPR/LPD support
-PostScript support either natively or through emulation (PostScript Emulation is pretty good these days so I would not quibble whether or not the PostScript support is emulated or "real".)

Classic Mac OS is capable of using LPD/LPR going back to System 7.5 (As Long as LaserWriter 8.5.1 is installed) A Titanium PowerBook running either OS 9 or X by far surpasses this requirement. Just follow the instructions in the link below. They are written with 68K Macs as the primary audience but I have used them on PPC Macs from System 7.6 through 9.2.2 and it works with my printer. As a side note I was even able to get an OpenStep 4.2 VM to print to this printer using LPR/LPD since this Printer can emulate PostScript very well.

Also be aware that this also means that what ever printer you select has to be Ethernet capable. Cheap USB Printers will not cut it.


Be aware though, that I am only able to print on this printer from Classic Mac OS. The Scanner can only be used from a modern Windows or Mac machine. Again this is JUST FOR PRINTING.
 
wnlewis said:
Is there any similar way to get an older HP Deskjet 1510 printer to work with a G4 Mac?
Click to expand...

Looks like using your PPC machine with your printer has been addressed before on this forum.

see here

forums.macrumors.com

Deskjet 1510 workaround

So my wife won a laptop (ASUS X551M), an HP Deskjet 1510 printer and an office desk today in a raffle. Currently I am updating Win 8.1 to Win 10 (free upgrade), but the printer was the real nut. Drivers are for 10.6 minimum. But, a little Googling reveals that you can use the drivers for the...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com


it looks like it involves using the driver for a similar printer.
 
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sailingdarter said:
Looks like using your PPC machine with your printer has been addressed before on this forum.

see here

forums.macrumors.com

Deskjet 1510 workaround

So my wife won a laptop (ASUS X551M), an HP Deskjet 1510 printer and an office desk today in a raffle. Currently I am updating Win 8.1 to Win 10 (free upgrade), but the printer was the real nut. Drivers are for 10.6 minimum. But, a little Googling reveals that you can use the drivers for the...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com


it looks like it involves using the driver for a similar printer.
Click to expand...
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

For the first time since I got this G4, it can print to the HP Deskjet 1510 printer that we have.

Now all I have to do is to find an antivirus package to put on the 10.5.8 install.

One step at a time.
 
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wnlewis said:
Now all I have to do is to find an antivirus package to put on the 10.5.8 install.
Click to expand...

Amethyst1 said:
Do you really need that?
Click to expand...
I'd say no absolutely not you don't need that. I wouldn't run one even on an x86 Mac. Any "virus" you may find online will almost certainly not even execute on the PowerPC architecture.

As a side note, I don't even use AVs on Windows... Unless you're my 85 year old grandmother who barely knows how to turn her computer off and on, some simple common sense will stop you from getting anything on even Windows. In 15 years I've never gotten one. I believe the only time I had virus on my own computer was when I first discovered limewire, however long ago that was.
 
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wur10 said:
My recently purchased Brother MFC-L2730DW works fine in Leopard since it supports PCL and Postscript emulation. I have not tried Tiger or Mac OS 9 yet though.
Click to expand...
Can you verify that it does or doesn't (on Classic Mac OS and Tiger) and post back? I've been looking for a universal printer for awhile. Though I wouldn't get that one specifically as I want a color printer, but I'm sure if that one works a higher end color printing model of the same series would work as well.
 
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Project Alice said:
I'd say no absolutely not you don't need that. I wouldn't run one even on an x86 Mac.
Click to expand...
Ditto. :)

Project Alice said:
Any "virus" you may find online will almost certainly not even execute on the PowerPC architecture.
Click to expand...
Yeah, most "Script Kiddies" etc wouldn't even know what PowerPC is in the first place. :D

Project Alice said:
As a side note, I don't even use AVs on Windows... Unless you're my 85 year old grandmother who barely knows how to turn her computer off and on, some simple common sense will stop you from getting anything on even Windows.
Click to expand...
This is a rare occasion where I disagree with you. Windows is so fragile and vulnerable to attack that my DD WinBox was armed to the teeth for whenever I needed to go online because there were no end of perils waiting to wreak havoc and compromise your Internet security.

Even during a session where I was visiting seemingly legitimate websites and pages, AVG warned me that it had detected and halted a virus that injected itself into Internet Explorer in an attempt to infect my computer. I soon switched to the Mozilla browser but there were situations where I needed to use IE because Mozilla didn't display all sites/pages correctly and I had to be extremely cautious.

There were also scenarios where I had to exchange files with people who were not tech savvy: and I if didn't have AV software on my computer, I would've ended up in problems. My unprotected WinBoxes are air-gapped because from my experience, the OS is far too insecure to take that kind of risk.

Amethyst1 said:
Ah, those were the days!
Click to expand...
They were indeed! I used Limewire for a while and prior to that, Gnucleus - but when I became aware of BitTorrent, I switched and never looked back. :D
 
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I still have over 1 tb of files I downloaded from LimeWire, lots of music and old TV shows that weren't available on CD/DVD at the time. After a while I went beyond that though and now I have more music than I could ever hope to listen to in my lifetime...
 
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TheShortTimer said:
This is a rare occasion where I disagree with you. Windows is so fragile and vulnerable to attack that my DD WinBox was armed to the teeth for whenever I needed to go online because there were no end of perils waiting to wreak havoc and compromise your Internet security.

Even during a session where I was visiting seemingly legitimate websites and pages, AVG warned me that it had detected and halted a virus that injected itself into Internet Explorer in an attempt to infect my computer. I soon switched to the Mozilla browser but there were situations where I needed to use IE because Mozilla didn't display all sites/pages correctly and I had to be extremely cautious.

There were also scenarios where I had to exchange files with people who were not tech savvy: and I if didn't have AV software on my computer, I would've ended up in problems. My unprotected WinBoxes are air-gapped because from my experience, the OS is far too insecure to take that kind of risk.
Click to expand...
I generally tell people that run Windows they should probably have one (an unpopular opinion is that I think the one included with Windows 10 is more than enough). I just don't use one myself. I do not however disable the one built into Windows 10 unless it becomes a burden. The only thing I use Windows for is games. Any PC portable I have gets Linux usually.

Even as a teenager, I never used internet explorer. I used to keep firefox portable on a flashdrive and use it on the school computers. IE was responsible for a lot of vulnerabilities on its own.
Being tech savvy myself obviously, I never had a problem with reinstalling Windows back when it was my DD. In fact I usually reinstalled it every year or two anyways because of "Windows rot". I never had anything I considered super important and if I did I burned it to a CD.

Also for reference, my home network is ran off a pfsense computer, that is running pfblockerng (essentially Pihole) with numerous malware and tracker blocking lists, and squid with clamAV. Google safe search is also being ran on it. So, my home network is fairly secure on it's own IMO.
 
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So, back to my question. I do have ClamX on the 10.4.11 part of the computer.

What version of that, or similar program, would work on 10.5.8 PowerPC?

The various versions of ClamX are easy to find, but determining the system requirements seems less easy to do.
 
Project Alice said:
I generally tell people that run Windows they should probably have one (an unpopular opinion is that I think the one included with Windows 10 is more than enough). I just don't use one myself. I do not however disable the one built into Windows 10 unless it becomes a burden. The only thing I use Windows for is games. Any PC portable I have gets Linux usually.
Click to expand...
Which Linux distro(s) do you use? For many years my main desktop favourite has been Linux Mint.

Project Alice said:
Even as a teenager, I never used internet explorer. I used to keep firefox portable on a flashdrive and use it on the school computers. IE was responsible for a lot of vulnerabilities on its own.
Click to expand...
Yep, I stood up and took notice in 2004 when the U.S. Govt warned users that they should stop using IE. That was my epiphany which led to a drastic change in my awareness regarding Windows and what I needed to do in order to ensure that I was not online carrying an "open sesame" sign. :)

Project Alice said:
Being tech savvy myself obviously, I never had a problem with reinstalling Windows back when it was my DD. In fact I usually reinstalled it every year or two anyways because of "Windows rot". I never had anything I considered super important and if I did I burned it to a CD.
Click to expand...
Brings back memories! Reinstalling Windows has never been pleasant for me and eventually I developed a routine where every installation was imaged with Norton Ghost or sometimes Acronis True Image so that I wouldn't have to endure the hassle of reinstalling the drivers and recreating my preferred configuration whenever I ran into problems.

Project Alice said:
Also for reference, my home network is ran off a pfsense computer, that is running pfblockerng (essentially Pihole) with numerous malware and tracker blocking lists, and squid with clamAV. Google safe search is also being ran on it. So, my home network is fairly secure on it's own IMO.
Click to expand...
That's interesting, it appears that we think along similar lines. :D I went with Smoothwall Express on a (wait for it!) 1996 P133 with 32MB RAM, 500 MB HDD and of course, 2x 3COM PCI NICs and put my XP box behind it. I've been meaning to replace it with a P4 ThinkCentre that someone very kindly and thoughtfully dumped in the vicinity of my home. ;)
 
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repairedCheese said:
Is anyone even updating any PowerPC compatible antivirus software? Because if not, then all it would be is the illusion of security, which is worse than no security at all.
Click to expand...
ClamX does have the definitions updated every day for even 10.4.11 Tiger. There is no guarantee that all new viruses will be covered (especially not since PowerPC on G4 such as mine is 32 bit).
 
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wnlewis said:
I prefer protection, even if minimal, than removal. I've done removal and it is either, 1.) not pleasant and time consuming, or, 2.) involves wiping everything down, losing everything (if not backed up), AND time consuming.
Click to expand...
Can you elaborate please? I'm curious to know more about your experiences - did this involve situations where infected files were passed from the Mac to a Windows computer?
 
wnlewis said:
I prefer protection, even if minimal, than removal. I've done removal and it is either, 1.) not pleasant and time consuming, or, 2.) involves wiping everything down, losing everything (if not backed up), AND time consuming.
Click to expand...
The reason for all the questions is that people are saying you don't need A/V on these old systems. To date there's been only one virus encountered in a browser. This was several years ago, the browser was TenFourFox and the payload failed to launch because the code was for Intel only.

You feel that some protection is better than none. That's fine, but what people are saying is that you don't even need that. As a percentage of the Mac market, PowerPC doesn't even represent 1%. Very, very few malicious coders are writing viruses for hardware/software that's 15 or more years old. The chances of actual gain from doing that are small. Better to go after the bigger fish running Intel Macs or PCs.

You mention that you've had to remove viruses? Was that on Mac? If so, when, and was it an Intel Mac?

Of course it's your Mac, so you can do what you want with it, no one is suggesting you can't. We just don't get a lot of users wanting to run A/V around here.

As far as your earlier question about which version of Clamshell for Leopard, I can't really say. I haven't used it for a very long time.
 
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