Print Problems

[squareyes]

Paul O'Malley wrote:

> Hi Winton,
>
> It saddened me to see you were not able to get your printers working.
>
>> From what you have put in your mail I believe that both printers should
>
> work off the bat. I take it you clicked on System -> Administration ->
> Printing and then used the new printer icon. If not trying this might
> help some. I have used this with a variety of printers on Ubuntu and it
> worked with all sorts of stuff.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Paul O'Malley
>
>
>
>  
>
Thanks for the help,
printers were both connected via parallel ports, both with Windows and 
Linux.
and have tried on 2 different computers, and with Mandrake 10, Warty, 
and Hoary,
so I doubt it could be a malfunctioning parallel port. Can this be checked?
I felt sure that the old Epson LQ 500 would work,(linuxprinting says it 
does)
but a number of far better edificated than myself couldn't get it working,
even tried changing bios settings with no luck.
I installed via System > Administration etc, will try Generic and 
postscript.
The list of available parallel ports starts at Parallel Port#1 , should 
it be Parallel Port#2 ?
I have an offer of an old  HP 1100 laserjet, on a pension, so can't 
afford a new one,
but am wary that it will also end up driving me nuts :-)

What is involved in writing a driver for a printer? I am a real
newbie with no programming experience, but would even consider taking up
a collection to get one written that would work :-)
The rest of Ubuntu is that good that returning to Windows to print is a 
real letdown.
Thanks again for the help, much appreciated.
Take Care
Winton