I’m following this guide and trying to print anything, a jpeg, a webpage, results in this format page and then 100’s of blank pages.
Why does everything on Linux have to be so hard?!
Printers might actually be the hardest part about switching to Linux. Took me almost an entire day to get my Dell printer working.
The main issue is that printer manufacturers often neglect printer drivers.
As others have said in this thread, I would probably avoid Bazzite for now. If you need to change anything its a huge pain, and it often gets reverted in an update. I would only use Bazzite if I were using the device solely as a gaming PC or a media center PC.
Bazzite might not install
printer-driver-brlaserby default. If you ranrpm-ostree install printer-driver-brlaserin a terminal what does it say? If you get an “already provided by” error than disregard this but, if it does install it then reboot.That guide is definitely not going to work on Bazzite.
I’m on Fedora Silverblue and that package is installed by default. My printer (HL-2395DW) was automatically detected and required no configuration.
So I keep hearing this phrase “this isn’t going to work on bazzite” in your opinion, what OS would you hear that with the least? I don’t care about immutability, I just got that because this is my fiancee’s PC and I wanted it to be easy for her
What’s the most widely compatible Linux OS?
I’m not an expert but Fedora or Mint.
Bazzite is more suited for gaming than general use, as I understand it.
Thanks I’ll give mint a try on my laptop
Bazzite is atomic fedora with steam and other stuff installed. If you like it try fedora with a KDE desktop otherwise mint should be good too. If you want a non atomic gaming distro I hear cachy is great but that is arch based not fedora. I personally use bazzite for my home theatre/gaming rig and it has been fantastic
In my experience fedora has just worked more than Ubuntu, I don’t remember if I tried mint
On Linux, it is just more important that guides be written for the distro you are using or at least related ones. So, more popular long-standing distros just end up with more guides or better documentation.
Hello. I’m not here to talk about bazzite or printers.
But I am here to talk about blatant generalization in IT, since I really hate it.
Why does everything on Linux have to be so hard?!
This is really an annoying attitude. Especially for people trying to help. It’s also not true - have you recently used your phone or a website? 99% chance it worked just fine and easy with Linux as base. And no, you’re not even talking about Linux but ranting about gpl software you’re interacting with.
Having options makes things hard sometimes. But you could pick another distro that maybe better caters to your needs.
You know what an annoying attitude is? “Just switch to Linux” that’s a generalization I’m pretty damn sick of hearing
Not from me, but that’s an easy evade. But yeah you’re right with that.
If you want the easy expensive client road, imo go to macos but that has degraded too.
I’m still playing on windows myself but just because the pain isn’t enough yet and it’s only a gaming client and I’m lazy.
I love using some Linux distros but it heavily depends on the use case.
So yeah, do whatever is good for you!
Unfortunately I have never seen anything like that happens before. Keep in mind that Bazzite is an immutable os, so you can’t make system changes like on other systems.
Your best option is to look for a driver on the Fedora repository (documentation).
Or you could layer that driver you found, but it would be uninstalled next time you update the system.
Unfortunately you picked a distro that doesn’t allow much customization. This is the price you pay for a system that is almost impossible to break.
But…
Why does everything on Linux have to be so hard?!
As a counter example, I installed Bazzite on my dad’s laptop. Previously it was Windows for games + Mint for internet and productivity; now it’s Bazzite for everything. A couple days ago he was dealing with some important documents, he had a guest that needed a print. He called me “(My name) what did you do to the computer? I can’t print anymore!”. Panic 😫 There and then, I realized I completely forgot about the printer. On Mint I had to install proprietary drivers to make it work. So I rushed there, fully prepared for a fight with the system. But no, I just pressed “Add printer”, Bazzite automatically detected it from the same network, and with a second click I added it to the system. 1 minute later my dad managed to print, the guest was happy, my dad was happy, I was happy. Bazzite is amazing.
For reference, the printer is an Epson ET-2815.
Unfortunately It doesn’t seem to find mine like that, and I’ll be honest I think I was just grumpy that this isn’t a simple, “click on the executable” system like windows, this is my fiancees PC, but issues like this are why I’m hesitant to actually switch to Linux in the first place
In that case maybe Linux is not ready for you yet. You might have to give it a few more years.
Bazzite in particular is a bit unique, so you will find even less help online. I have to agree with the other users here, maybe try with Linux Mint instead.
Or if you’d really want to insist with Bazzite, you could try with layering. But keep in mind that layers are temporary, and you have to reapply your layer every time you install a system update. Let us know if you really want to try this way, I couldn’t find an easy step-by-step guide, but someone else might be able to write one for you.
EDIT: oh another thing… printers are removed on Linux. Unfortunately printer companies do not seem to like open-sourcing their drivers, and Linux support is sometimes bad or none at all. Do not expect this many issues with everything. Linux is usually pretty nice after all.
If you layer packages with
rpm-ostree, they are not temporary. Although, I would try to keep it to only things in the distros default repos because dependency issues will just cause updates to no longer apply.I want to believe you, I really do, but I’ll have to see it first
