This section contains instructions for setting up Lexmark printers supported by Lexmark's proprietary printer drivers. These instructions have been tested on Ubuntu 6.06 LTS and are current as of July 27, 2006.
Note that many, but not all, Lexmark printers have Linux drivers, and most of these drivers are proprietary and closed source. These instructions should work with all Lexmark monochrome and color laser printers, most or all multifunction printers, but will probably not work with inkjet or all-in-one printers.
I have also been told that the printers that work with the Lexmark proprietary drivers can also be set up as generic postscript printers, but I am not sure how that works or the appropriate protocol to use to communicate with a networked Lexmark printer. http://linuxprinting.org/ might have more information if this is how you want to access your printer. See also HardwareSupportComponentsPrinters/LexmarkMultifuncPrinters, which contains also information not specific to multifunction printers.
Get the Lexmark printer drivers for Linux
The linux drivers for Lexmark printers can be download at:
http://downloads.lexmark.com/
Choose a model (the "C510" worked for me) and choose the driver for "Debian GNU/Linux". Ubuntu is currently not in the list of supported OS's, but the Debian driver works.
Installing the drivers and setting up a printer
The driver package can either be installed by navigating with Nautilus to its location and double clicking on the icon or from a terminal with the following command:
$ sudo dpkg -i print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86.deb
where "print-drivers-linux-glibc2-x86.deb" should be replaced with the path and filename of the downloaded package if you saved it under some other name.
After driver installation, you will need to setup up lexprint, the Lexmark printer management system. Execute the following command from a terminal and follow the onscreen instructions:
$ sudo /usr/local/lexmark/setup.lexprint
The default settings should work fine for most users. Make sure to select cups as the printing system and create symlinks to lexprint so it is easy to execute.
After installation, the lexprint printer management program should be run to setup a printer. To add printers, execute from a terminal window:
$ sudo lexprint
To add a printer, you must first create a device and then associate a print queue with that device. For the print queue settings, I recommend using automatic language determination (i.e. setting up both PCL and PS print queues), as I have had difficulties using just one or the other.
The lexprint software can also be accessed via Applications->System Tools->Lexmark Print Drivers (you may have to restart gnome to see this menu entry), however this will run lexprint without administrative privileges. Without administrative privileges, lexprint can be used to list already setup printers and change printer settings (which cannot be changed via the normal Gnome printer interface) for the current user, but will not allow you to add devices or print queues.
Permission problems
When I initially installed the drivers and tried to setup a printer, I had problems associating a queue with a printer device. Each time I tried, lexprint would say "Creating print queue Lexmark failed.". This was because the permissions on the /etc/cups/interfaces directory would not allow lpadmin to work properly when run by lexprint. This problem was resolved via the following command:
$ sudo chown cupsys:lp /etc/cups/interfaces
If /etc/cups/interfaces does not exist then create it and change the group to lp
$ sudo mkdir /etc/cups/interfaces
$ sudo chown root:lp /etc/cups/interfaces
$ sudo chmod g+w /etc/cups/interfaces
If you have trouble using lexprint to add printers, then try this fix.