PC Peripherals Help setting up USB Print Server

MarioBros

MarioBros

Forerunner
Hey Folks,

I have a HP LaserJet 1020 Plus printer at home, it's a fantastic printer and been serving me for over 8 years now, still works flawlessly for my printing requirement which is not on daily basis.
The only downside is, this printer does not have network support and USB connectivity is the only option, every time I need to print I would need to move the printer near my desk because of space constraint.

I have been reading about solutions to get USB printer enabled for network connectivity via a print server installation on a RPi or VM or even some routers support it. (I have a Openwrt router)

Please share your inputs on how to enable this printer for network sharing ?

Main issue is that the printer is placed quite far from my Homelab server and router due to space constraint.
 
Your printer has an ethernet port so why don't you connect an ethernet cable from printer to the router? No need to get rpi or print server. You can get some local electrician to pull a cable from router to printer if you cant do it.
 
6pack said:
Your printer has an ethernet port so why don't you connect an ethernet cable from printer to the router? No need to get rpi or print server. You can get some local electrician to pull a cable from router to printer if you cant do it.
Click to expand...
no, my printer is USB only, does not have a ethernet port...

if it had ethernet, it was very simple to get it on network:D
 
MarioBros said:
no, my printer is USB only, does not have a ethernet port...

if it had ethernet, it was very simple to get it on network:D
Click to expand...
I was wrong. I saw this in google... Stupid AI overview. I double checked with HP site and even it says only usb port is available.

screen.jpeg


Edit: If you have a router with printer support
 
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Get a cheap Pi zero 2W (or Zero W). Connect it via USB and load Pi OS.

Follow this tutorial to setup CUPS and samba and voila, you're printer is now wireless (except for electricity).

Total damage to pocket - 2k (1.5k for the Pi + 300-400 for a cheap SD card + 100 for an OTG adapter + 0-100 for snacks)

But for 3.5k, you can get new ultra cheap inkjet wifi printers, so there's that.

All the best :D
 
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OK found a much easier solution which is working perfectly for now, didn't expect it to be so easy :p

- Got a 5M USB extension cable to extend the printer connectivity to my HomeLab server, since the printer is placed more than 15 feet away from the HomeLab server
- I already had a Windows (Tiny Win10) version running as a VM on Proxmox (HomeLab server)
- Did a USB passthrough of the printer to the Windows VM
- Installed Printer drivers, shared the printer on the network... and it worked perfectly.

So now, whenever I need to print, I just boot the Windows VM which hardly takes 20-25 seconds and send the print command from any local machine. :D
This also solved one major issue on Mac OS where I was not able to install Printer drivers for this HP model on latest Mac OS Sequoia, so now from my Macbook I can now transfer the required files to a shared folder on the Win VM and RDP to the same VM and Print :)

Total Cost - 500/- for the USB extension cable
 
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I had the same problem and solved it via a pi zero with samba server to be discoverable on windows and Mac. Also using cups for printing as it seems the easiest. Works on Linux as well
 
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MarioBros said:
OK found a much easier solution which is working perfectly for now, didn't expect it to be so easy :p

- Got a 5M USB extension cable to extend the printer connectivity to my HomeLab server, since the printer is placed more than 15 feet away from the HomeLab server
- I already had a Windows (Tiny Win10) version running as a VM on Proxmox (HomeLab server)
- Did a USB passthrough of the printer to the Windows VM
- Installed Printer drivers, shared the printer on the network... and it worked perfectly.

So now, whenever I need to print, I just boot the Windows VM which hardly takes 20-25 seconds and send the print command from any local machine. :D
This also solved one major issue on Mac OS where I was not able to install Printer drivers for this HP model on latest Mac OS Sequoia, so now from my Macbook I can now transfer the required files to a shared folder on the Win VM and RDP to the same VM and Print :)

Total Cost - 500/- for the USB extension cable
Click to expand...
Use a Linux VM instead of windows.. Ubuntu will do just fine
Printers shared via Linux are way more reliable and as an added benefit, you also get native airprint support on your Mac as well as direct print from ios/ android..(i.e. no need to transfer/RDP etc)
 
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superczar said:
Use a Linux VM instead of windows.. Ubuntu will do just fine
Printers shared via Linux are way more reliable and as an added benefit, you also get native airprint support on your Mac as well as direct print from ios/ android..(i.e. no need to transfer/RDP etc)
Click to expand...
oh wow didn’t know there is Aiprint support

I will try the Ubuntu VM then..

for this I should have a Wi-Fi card on my home lab server right?
or I can use any old usb wifi dongle and do a pass through ?
 
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MarioBros said:
oh wow didn’t know there is Aiprint support

I will try the Ubuntu VM then..

for this I should have a Wi-Fi card on my home lab server right?
or I can use any old usb wifi dongle and do a pass through ?
Click to expand...
Airprint sharing will happen over the existing virtual NIC you will have on your linux VM
No need for additional cards
 
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