InkJet printers that work well with NixOS

Help
1

I’m in the market for a new all-in-one printer/scanner for light home use. While it was certainly educational to figure out how to get my MX-700 working on NixOS, I’d rather have a smoother experience – and support a company that provides more first-class Linux support – this time around.

The reviews I’ve read have said good things about HP’s 87xx series, so I’m hoping someone has a positive experience to report with one of those, but I’m interested in hearing about experiences with other models as well.

Thanks!

1 Like
2

Can not make a suggestion, but printers that are also covered by the gutenprint project might work better out of the box.
I had in the past good experience with hp printers.

3

I’m happy with Epson (esp. the new L series which has inks in tanks instead of cartridges). I used to be a HP die-hard fan when it comes to printers, but they let me down in the past decade too often, and Epson’s Linux support has grown quite a bit.

Make sure to use ESC-CPR drivers and SANE in order to scan and print (over WiFi).

 services.printing =
    { enable = true;
      drivers = [ pkgs.epson-escpr ];
    };

	systemWide = false;
      };
      sane =
        { enable = true;
        };
     };

I am also in lp, scanner and plugdev groups just in case.

4

Brother MFC all in one should work fine (currently using MFC7860DW):

  services.printing = {
    drivers = with pkgs; [
      brgenml1cupswrapper
    ];

  hardware.sane = {
    enable = true;
    brscan4.enable = true;

    brscan4.netDevices = {
      livingRoom = { model = "MFC-7860DW"; nodename = "BRW0080927AFBCE"; };
    };
  };

and then simply configure it through the cups web interface with lpd://BRW0080927AFBCE/binary_p1.

Most hp printer should also work fine (am actually using HP LaserJet 400 colorMFP M475dw):

  services.printing = {
    drivers = with pkgs; [
      hplipWithPlugin
    ];
  };

note that configuring those through the cups web interface does not seem to work well. I however had success using the provided hp-setup tool.

2 Likes