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Essentially any printer connected to a parallel or serial port that works under DOS should work under Linux. During the installation, you’ll be asked to specify which port contains the printer. There are special programs that enhance the basic printing capabilities: HP LaserJet 4 users can grab free-lj4, a printing modes control program, at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Printing/free-lj4-1.1p1.tar.gz, while those using the BiTronics parallel port interface can grab a program at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/misc/bt-ALPHA-0.0.1.tar.gz.
The issue becomes a little dicier when dealing with XFree86 and Ghostscript, the utility used to create and print PostScript documents. Ghostscript allows you to print PostScript-formatted documents on non-PostScript printers; much of the UNIX documentation that flows down the pike is formatted with PostScript, and this capability is very handy. Ghostscript supports the following printers: Apple Imagewriter; C. Itoh M8510; Canon BubbleJet BJ10e, BJ200, LBP-8II, and LIPS III; DEC LA50/70/75/75plus, LN03, and LJ250; Epson 9 pin, 24 pin, LQ series, Stylus, and AP3250; HP 2563B, DesignJet 650C, DeskJet/Plus/500, DeskJet 500C/520C/550C/1200C color, LaserJet/Plus/II/III/4, and PaintJet/XL/XL300 color; IBM Jetprinter color and Proprinter; Imagen ImPress; Mitsubishi CP50 color; NEC P6/P6+/P60; Okidata MicroLine 182; Ricoh 4081; SPARCprinter; StarJet 48 inkjet printer; Tektronix 4693d color 2/4/8 bit and 4695/4696 inkjet plotter; and Xerox XES printers (2700, 3700, 4045, etc.). Those using the Canon BJC600 and Epson ESC/P color printers can grab a printer program at ftp://petole.imag.fr/pub/ postscript/.
NOTE: Ghostscript will be covered in much more detail in Chapter 5.
Slackware Linux right out of the box doesn’t support any scanners. However, several folks have contributed scanner drivers and programs to the Linux community, and there may be a program available on the Internet for your particular scanner. (Be warned that some of the products listed here are commercial products.) Scanners with support software available include: A4 Tech AC 4096 (ftp://ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de/pub/local/linux/ac4096.tgz), Epson GT6000 (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/ppic0.5.tar.gz), Genius GS-B105G (ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner/gs105-0.0.1.tar.gz), Genius GeniScan GS4500 handheld scanner (ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner/gs4500-1.3.tar.gz), HP ScanJet and ScanJet Plus (ftp://ftp.ctrl-c.liu.se/unix/linux/wingel/), HP ScanJet II series SCSI (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/hpscanpbm-0.3a.tar.gz), HP ScanJet family (including ScanJet 3c) (http://www.tummy.com/xvscan/), Logitech Scanman 32/256 (ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner/logiscan-0.0.2.tar.gz), Mustek M105 handheld scanner with GI1904 interface (ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner/scan-driver-0.1.8.tar.gz), Mustek Paragon 6000CX (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/muscan-1.1.5.taz), and Nikon Coolscan SCSI 35mm film scanner (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/).
Slackware Linux doesn’t support any video-capture boards right out of the box. To use such a board, you’ll need to make sure that the board has a driver, and then go out and grab that driver from the Internet. Boards with Linux drivers available are: FAST Screen Machine II (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/ScreenMachineII.1.2.tgz), ImageNation Cortex I (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/cortex.drv.0.1.tgz), ImageNation CX100 (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/cxdrv-0.1beta.tar.gz), Pro Movie Studio (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/PMS-grabber.2.0.tgz), Quanta WinVision video capture card (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/fgrabber-1.0.tgz), Video Blaster/Rombo Media Pro+ (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/vid_src.gz), and VT1500 TV cards (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/vt1500-1.0.5.tar.gz).
Slackware Linux doesn’t support UPSes right out of the box, but there are drivers available for APC SmartUPS (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/UPS/apcd-0.1.tar.gz) and general UPSes with RS-232 monitoring port (known as the “unipower” package) (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/UPS/unipower-1.0.0.tgz). Others have managed to interface Linux with other UPSes; for more details, check out the UPS-HOWTO, on the accompanying CD-ROM.
Hardware used for data acquisition is not explicitly supported in Slackware Linux, but you can grab software from the Linux Lab Project (ftp://koala.chemie.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/) to learn about supporting the following devices: Analog Devices RTI-800/815 ADC/DAC board, CED 1401, DBCC CAMAC, IEEE-488 (GPIB, HPIB) boards, Keithley DAS-1200, and National Instruments AT-MIO-16F / Lab-PC+.
If a device is connected to the SCSI card and Linux has no problems with the SCSI card, then you should have no problems with the device. This would include most CDR, WORM, optical, and floptical drives. Additionally, we’ve not heard complains with proprietary drives from the likes of SyQuest and Bernoulli.
In addition, there are other miscellaneous devices that are definitely not supported by Slackware Linux but that have drivers available on the Internet. Our favorite is a driver for the Mattel Powerglove (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/linux-powerglove.tgz); why mess with a simple mouse when you can grab Linux by the throat to make it work? Other miscellaneous device drivers include support for the AIMS Labs RadioTrack FM radio card (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/radiotrack-1.1.tgz), Maralu chip-card reader/writer (ftp://ftp.thp.uni-koeln.de/pub/linux/chip/), Reveal FM Radio card (ftp://magoo.uwsuper. edu/pub/fm-radio/), and Videotext cards (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video/videoteXt-0.5.tar.gz).
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