Sharp MX 2651 network printer - not printing - Zorin 17.1 Pro

Hi everyone!

I've installed my network printer, a Sharp MX 2651, at my office, and I believe I did it correctly since I can see the toner levels and the printer status.

The printer appears as ready, I can see the updated toner levels, and everything seems fine. However, when I try to print something, nothing happens. Zorin indicates that the printing process is ongoing and eventually completes, but in reality, nothing gets printed.

I've already tried several troubleshooting steps:

  1. Resetting CUPS
  2. Uninstalling and reinstalling the printer
  3. Trying a different driver (which resulted in printing letters and ASCII nonsense)
  4. Configuring it through CUPS

Despite all these attempts, the printer still shows as ready with a green check mark, but nothing prints.

Can someone help me with this issue? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

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How is it connected, wifi or network cable?

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via wi-fi network!

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I can only see one linux driver (PS/PPD driver for Linux, version 1.1) listed here: https://www.sharp.eu/mx-2651
Maybe that is the driver you have used.

I did try and find if that Sharp printer emulated a HP printer, but can find nothing.

Have you tried direct LAN cable connection. I realise that may not be practical, but maybe a worthwhile test.

I did read from the Sharp product descrition, that you can also print via USB.

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Thanks for Your very deep help here! My company has those printer connected to our intranet and I cannot use USB or Wired connection to get them work... Anyway I appreciated a lot Your efforts. I will update You if I will be able to fix this. Actually seems very difficult. :sweat:

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Do you know the ip address of the printer? If so use the AppSocket/HP JetDirect Option when installing the printer:

Alternatively (had to do this in GhostBSD) use

Also see if installing Gutenprint helps as it tends to contain all current drivers for most printers.

If using Cups, I would advise ensuring that you use ipps everywhere, which is what I had to do to get it working in GhostBSD.

Before I forget, if you have admin rights and can sudo, don't use Settings | Printers, instead open a terminal and enter:

sudo system-config-printer

And don't forget to stop the autodiscovery of printers, which I covered in the Unofficial Manaual for Zorin 17 Core.

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Dear Swarfendor, thank You for Your help! I've managed to solve my problems. I have used the sudo system-config-printer command and I've installed a generic PCL6 driver and not the one downloaded from Sharp. Now the printer is working. That is awesome! :slight_smile:

Edited: the printer does work, but actually it prints half page A4 in landscape... If the documents are more than one page, it put two pages horizontally on the same print. Strange behavior since I've configured vertical printing and whole page on the sheet... :stuck_out_tongue:

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This is likely due to you using a generic driver and not the Linux driver. You need to extract the driver using Ark. A .tar file in GNU/Linux is like a .zip file. I will download later and explain the process.

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Here is the tutorial video. I used a fake ip address in order to get the greyed out 'Forward' button to change so I could get to install the driver. :wink:

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I really appreciate Your effort. I watched all the video and it seems that I followed exactly this procedure. Anyway, for the sake of the last try, I will do again the installation from scratch. The only difference I noted is that You put the PPD in Your desktop. I was pointing into a folder within downloads. Please be patient, I will update the results soon.

Edit: Same results... The printer seems installed, but when I go for a print, it simply does nothing, while the system show every confirmation about it working. :disappointed_relieved:

And you put the correct ip address of the printer in that field?

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Yes, the printer is sending the correct toner values in the gui. Actually I managed to make it work (badly) with the generic PLC-6 driver. It does print 2 pages in a single page in landscape mode. Although I set it to print a single page in portrait. (and it is only black and white, while the printer is color. :interrobang:

Have you tried removing the PCL-6 driver then starting from scratch? I am just uploading a video on how to use CUPS to install network printer using ipp option.
Do you have network permissions at work to add printers yourself or is it usually an IT Helpdesk operation/Network Administrator role?

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Yes dear friend! I've installed/uninstalled many times. The only drivers that works is the generic PCL-6 but printing in half landscape page (if I select two pages, it will print in the same landscape 2 pages one besides the other). The Official Sharp Driver is simply silent. It seems going, the work process is complete, computer says printing completed but in reality nothing happens.

I will try the new ipp You said. Waiting for Your instructions.

Just to add, do you see more than one instance of the printer in Printers?
Afraid it took me a while to get to where I needed to be in video - apologies!
It was somewhat easier in GhostBSD which has ipp everywhere when I ran CUPS in that OS!

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Trying the new options in this moment. Will edit later, with results.

Edit: Identical behaviour. No print. Even with the removal of 9100... When the official driver is involved it becomes silent. :grimacing:

Try the ip address without the :9100 - this figure is the network baud rate.

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In Printers, have you marked it as 'Default'? Also have you tried rebooting your Zorin computer to see if the changes have stuck? Is the media set to the correct size? Usually most systems default to US paper of Letter - if you are using A4, this should be what is set in Settings, otherwise you won't get a print.

You made correct questions, but yes to all of the above. Also I'm not trying to print media (I've tried but with no luck) I'm trying with the test page and while using PCL-6 it prints half the landscape (both the test than the media, email or spreadsheets and websites), when using official Sharp drivers simply does nothing.

I've looked at a PS printer app which is a Snap package which lists all Sharp Printers ... except yours! Whether it would work is another matter, but you could give it a try.

Having looked at what PCL6 is it was designed for Windows use, and PCL6 is not listed in that ppd archive.

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