Monthly Archives: October 2012

Working with Lexmark S300 printers on Ubuntu

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It took a bit of time and digging but I have managed to get my wireless Lexmark S301 multi-function color printer to work on Ubuntu. I also configured my Ubuntu box with Samba network printing so that guests will be able to print too! It’s nice because I have my choice of printing text documents through my laser printer or pictures through the inkjet without swapping out USB cables or turning on a particular laptop to print blah blah blah.

Lexmark provides surprisingly good driver coverage for many flavors of Linux. I happen to use Ubuntu. I believe the drivers are cross compatible with other Lexmark printers.

I found this list of Lexmark Ubuntu drivers. These are the files I needed. Your needs will vary, depending on your hardware and version of Ubuntu.

  • lexmark-printer-utility-1.0-2.i386.deb
  • lexmark-inkjet-legacy-1.0-1.i386.deb.sh.tar.gz
  • lexmark-scan-legacy-1.1-1.i386.deb

After downloading these I installed them through Synaptic package manager. Alternatively, if you’re running headless I believe you can run “dpkg -i <driver name>” but there are some settings that I can tweak where having GUI access is very useful.

With the packages installed you will have new options in your Admin menu.

  • System > Administration > Lexmark Printer Utility — To setup the wireless capabilities
  • System > Administration > Lexmark Printer Toolbox — To monitor ink supplies.

Reference

Net10 not working with iOS 6

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(Original title: Getting Net10 to work with iOS6, but I never could get it to work!)

Summary:

I haven’t been able to get any of these methods to work for me but a lot of people on the web say that these things work.

  • A guy on hacker news says that he has data working but he just rants without offering a solution to fix the problem.
  • Does not work: Everybody says that unlockit.co.nz fixes the problem but it does not work for me.
  • Does not work: This jgmedia guide for getting data to work on StraightTalk is detailed but does not work for  me.
  • Does not work: In the Apple support forum a post by armymedic2 is also straightforward but does not work for me.
  • Does not work: When I did a iTunes restore on my phone it magically started working for about one day but it stopped.
  • Don’t be fooled by the Net10 support forums. It may look like the customer service people are assisting people on the forum but my customer service person just told me at the end that my phone is not unlocked. (Even though it is).

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I am working on getting Net10 internet and MMS configured on my unlocked iphone 4 (formerly AT&T). It has been tough to find instructions because the net10 support forums are total b.s. because people ask for help and the net10 representatives take the conversation offline. I suspect they take it offline because the methodology may involve doing a jailbreak on the phone.

Another problem is that all of the instructions that you see on the web involve navigating the iPhone settings tree to a path that does exist!

Most instructions tell you to follow this path:

Settings > General > Network

However, that is not available with Net10/Straight Talk/Tracfone SIM cards. I found a good set of instructions but have not gotten them to work sucessfully yet.

Update:

Apparently other people did the same thing I did but with a more scientific method. I lucked into getting the data to work but it stopped working after one day. Here are reproducible steps to get things working, as found on a Macrumors thread.

I tried the plist editing method for APN and MMS and my phone would reboot 4-5 times and then lose the changed settings. I tried the sim swap method and it worked. Here are the steps. The phone was unlocked by ATT. It has lasted after a few reboots and I will update if it stops.

1.) Get a T-mobile micro sim card
2.) Start Iphone and let boot up. Then take out ST sim card
3.) Place the T-mobile sim card in and let it connect to network
4.) Under general and cellular there is cellular data option
5.) Under cellular data you see fields for Data APN an MMS
6.) At this point double hit home button at the bottom to open camera or some other app
7.) Then take out T-mobile sim and place ST sim card into phone
8.) Right away, double hit home key and pick settings button at the bottom
9.) The Data APN and MMS settings window should pop up. Let it connect to Straight Talk Network. Enter in the info below after that:

data apn: att.mvno
user:
pass:

mms apn: att.mvno
user:
pass:
mmsc: http://mmsc.cingular.com
MMS proxy: 66.209.11.33:80
Max Size of Message: 1048576
UAProf: http://www.apple.com/mms/uaprof.rdf

10.) After click back upto and it should store the settings. You can click cellular data to check if the settings are in.
11.) I had to repeat the process twice before it took.

Also some APN configuration corrections via Net10 customer service posted recently 9/25/2012.

 

iPhone(R) 4S 16GB for AT&T – Black (GameStop Premium Refurbished)