Archives mensuelles : février 2008

Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, GNU/Linux

Ubuntu now available to Dell customers in Canada and Latin America

It’s as if these news were specially written for me. I am originally from Colombia and have been living in Montreal, Canada for the past ~20 years.

Dell announced on their blog that their systems will now be available in Canada and Latin America (including Colombia initially!).

Check the original announcement on their english blog, as well as the spanish annoucement for Latin America. It’s nice to see they have a blog for hispanic customers.

In Canada, visit http://dell.ca/open . Phone orders only in Latin America for now.

What a week!!!

 
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, Conférences, GNU/Linux

Colombian Team FLISOL 2008 meeting

This weekend the Colombian LoCo Team had a meeting to get things organized for the FLISOL 2008 in Bogotá, Colombia. The FLISOL is a huge InstallFest across LatinAmerica, this year it will be on April 26th.

The minutes of the meeting are now online, thanks to Hollman Enciso and Julián Alarcón for getting this going!

 
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, GNU/Linux

Ubuntu Community Council on Feb. 21st: don’t miss it

I missed the last Ubuntu Community Council even though I was subscribed to its wiki page. To make a long story short, I am posting this « just in case » so it gets maximum exposure 🙂

The next meeting is coming up this Thursday Feb. 21st at 20:00 UTC (so, 15:00 EST). See the agenda for more information. See you there!

ps. Keep an eye on the agenda as apparently there are other meetings conflicting, so time may change.

 
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, GNU/Linux

Installing and managing HP printers (including multi-function) in Ubuntu

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The HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) project really makes it easy to install and manage HP printers (and their extended functions like scanning and faxing) under Ubuntu. I only wish Samsung and Brother provided the same!

On Dapper and Edgy, the hplip package is available and provides command line configuration (very handy when assisting someone via ssh!). You can also optionally install the python-qt3 package if you want to use a GUI configuration.

On Feisty, HPLIP is installed by default but invisible from menus. Go to System > Preferences > Main Menu and then enable HPLIP Toolbox under System > Preferences. A bug report (now solved) details why python-qt3 is not a dependency in case you wonder:
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hplip/+bug/86893

Since Gutsy there is now an hplip-gui package that should be used when wanting full GUI love.

For network printers, from command line, first make sure your printer is visible to your workstation (either ping it or visit its management tools via web at http:// »ipaddress »).

Then:
sudo hp-setup IP_ADDRESS

and follow the prompts. The default values for each question are fine. You may reject the proposed PPD driver file and specify the absolulte path to a new PPD file you download if you wish to use one from the OpenPrinting database.

You may also configure fax headers if your printer supports faxing. You can access all the printer functions (scan, copy, fax, status, etc) using the /usr/bin/hp-toolbox GUI to HPLIP.

To scan via network from your workstation, access Applications > Graphics > XSane Image Scanner. You can also insert scanned images directly into an OpenOffice document for example: Insert > Picture > Scan > Request (‘Select Source’ should be pointing to the printer/scan device).

So, if you or a friend / relative / colleague are looking for printer suggestions for Ubuntu, you know what to recommend if you are « the Ubuntu guy » in their neighborhood 🙂

If anyone has suggestions or other printing tricks (for HPs or else), I’d be glad to hear about them.