I have been trying to install a rongta f11 a4 thermal printer. I have been using AI to help get me going but even it gave up in the end. I don't see the printer when I plug it in (USB) and lsusb it does not appear. I have the install from Rongta and have run it. The problem is that it does not appear in lsusb. I try to install in cups but fail as there is no connection. Any help would be great. I am a recent convert from windows 11 after being windows since dos. Best move ever...learning a lot. BTY I am on a desktop PC.
Hi and welcome.
I usually can assist with run of the mill printers and A.I.O. devices but thermal has led me to break my A.I. aversions to searches.
Using Mojeek which offers alternative search engines, with Brave search engine without the need to install the browser gives the following (I used Ubuntu 24.04 in the search criteria as Zorin 18 is a fork of that.) You may find it useful to install Synaptic Package Manager first with:
sudo apt update
then
sudo apt install synaptic
then
sudo synaptic
to launch. Launching this way after install means you won't have to enter your login password after the first use of sudo. Search for the two packages given in the answer Brave A.I. provided, mark them for installation by right-clicking on the small square to the left of the packages then click on Apply.
Just as in that other OS, you need to install the driver before connecting. Because of its design, your printer will not show up as you have found out by using `lsusb'. Here is what Brave comes back with:
"To install the Rongta F11 A4 thermal printer on Ubuntu 24.04, you must manually install the driver because the system does not auto-detect it. First, download the specific driver from the Rongta Tech official website or Manuals+ by locating the driver for the A4 Portable Printer model.
Next, follow these installation steps:
Download: Obtain the Linux driver package (usually a .zip or .tar.gz file) from www.rongtatech.com or the RONGTA A4 Portable Printer Installation Guide.
Extract: Unzip the downloaded file to access the installation script or driver files.
Install: Open a terminal, navigate to the extracted folder, and run the installation script with administrative privileges (e.g., sudo ./install.sh). If the script fails, edit the first line to #!/bin/bash and ensure you have cups and cups-pdf packages installed.
Connect: Plug the printer into your system via USB and turn it on.
Configure: Open the Printers settings in Ubuntu. If the printer does not appear automatically, go to Administration > Add Printer in the CUPS web interface (http://localhost:631) and select the installed driver or PPD file from your disk.
For image printing capabilities, avoid using the "Generic (text-only)" driver; instead, ensure the correct Rongta driver is selected to support full thermal receipt and A4 paper handling.
AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."
Please keep us posted.
Just downloaded and extracted the .zip file on my phone. You need to make sure that cups-pdf is installed first before proceeding.
You need to navigate to the extracted folder and once you have navigated to it in the terminal enter:
sudo ./install.sh
once it has completed, then attach the printer and use CUPS administration link on http://localhost:631
if it never shows in lsusb then cups is a dead end for now. the kernel isnt even seeing the device.
try another usb port/cable first (a lot of these cheap printers are picky about power). then dmesg -w while you plug it in and see if anything shows up at all. if dmesg is silent, its usually cable/port/hardware, not a driver package.
also check if the windows installer left some windows-only usb filter expectation. on linux you basically need the device to enumerate before any vendor .deb matters.
Slight amendment to the sudo command in my first post (from the manual):
The manual is a bit of a joke as the download is a .zip file not a .tar.gz file. Clearly they haven't either updated the manual or different models have different compressed files.
@nite_route there are no .deb files.
Hi and thanks....I think with all the attempts I have made I have files that are preventing the install to work correctly.....here is the output from install.sh
Driver installer
Searching for ServerRoot, ServerBin, and DataDir tags in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
ServerBin tag not present in cupsd.conf - using default (this is one I am not sure of)
DataDir tag not present in cupsd.conf - using default (this is one I am not sure of)
Copying rastertoRtPortable filter to /usr/lib/cups/filter
Not Debian. (this is one I am not sure of)
Copying model ppd files to /usr/share/cups/model/RongtaLable (this copies all Rongta ppd files)
Restarting CUPS
Stopping cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
Starting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
Install Complete
Go to http://localhost:631, or http://127.0.0.1:631 to manage your printer please!
I am still a little shakey with the file system....
