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I am trying to get my printer (Star Tsp-600) to work on Ubuntu 12.04. I found this page that suggested the following:

# get the cups development headers needed to compile the drivers
sudo apt-get install libcups2-dev libcupsimage2-dev

# download and extract the drivers from Star
wget http://www.starmicronics.com/Download/Drivers/starcupsdrv-3.0.0_Linux.zip
unzip starcupsdrv-3.0.0_Linux.zip
cd starcupsdrv-3.0.0_linux/SourceCode
tar -xzf starcupsdrv-src-3.0.0.tar.gz
cd starcupsdrv

# build and install the drivers
make
sudo make install

For Ubuntu 11.x and up, you need to modify the makefile, at lines 15 and 16.

In both cases, you need to correct the path for cups files...
Correct location is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

However, when I run make, I get the following error:

make: * [rastertostar] Error 1

What should I do?

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  • 2
    Thanks for the edit, that's better but you still haven't told us where you found that .tar.gz file. We need to know so we can have a look at file and see what you would need.
    – terdon
    Mar 15, 2014 at 21:00
  • @terdon is right. A cups printer driver is often just a .PPD file that you just drop in the correct place, but without more info is impossible to help you. Ah, and change the title, now is completing misleading, it should say that what you need it to install a printer driver...
    – Rmano
    Mar 15, 2014 at 21:06
  • 1
    Please stop vandalizing your question. You need to explain what you have done, not blindly copy/paste the instructions you found. Tell us where you found them and how they went. Since this is really the same issue, I included the info from your other post here.
    – terdon
    Mar 16, 2014 at 0:43
  • I did exactly as the instructions say, but i get the make error that is listed on the post.
    – Toxik-Wolf
    Mar 16, 2014 at 0:44

4 Answers 4

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The instructions you have found are telling you exactly what to do:

For Ubuntu 11.x and up, you need to modify the makefile, at lines 15 and 16.

In both cases, you need to correct the path for cups files... Correct location is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

So:

  1. Open a terminal an move into the directory where you extracted the data:

    cd starcupsdrv-3.0.0_linux/SourceCode/starcupsdrv/
    
  2. Open the makefile in a text editor

    gedit makefile
    
  3. Scroll down to lines 15 and 16, they look like this:

    @if ! (ls /usr/lib | grep libcups.* > /dev/null); then echo "libcups not available - exiting"; exit 1; fi
    @if ! (ls /usr/lib | grep libcupsimage.* > /dev/null); then echo "libcupsimage not available - exiting"; exit 1; fi
    
  4. Make them look like this:

    @if ! (ls /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu | grep libcups.* > /dev/null); then echo "libcups not available - exiting"; exit 1; fi
    @if ! (ls /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu | grep libcupsimage.* > /dev/null); then echo "libcupsimage not available - exiting"; exit 1; fi
    
  5. Save the file and go back to the terminal

  6. Run make and make install

    make && make install
    
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  • I simply nuked the lines and it compiled pretty ok ;-), easier... I fear the OP is having problem with simply editing the makefile...and the problem is he can't use the chat room yet.
    – Rmano
    Mar 16, 2014 at 2:08
  • @Rmano You posted while I was writing but I think it's a good thing to have both solutions. Especially since nuking them can cause it to compile and then fail in the case where the cups libs are not installed.
    – terdon
    Mar 16, 2014 at 2:14
  • Yep you're right. And even then the guarantees that it will install the PPD files and all the things in the right place are, well, thin...
    – Rmano
    Mar 16, 2014 at 2:52
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Ok, I downloaded the driver and checked it. I do not guarantee that it will work, but at least it will compile.

The problem is that the code in the makefile (a makefile is a file that specify how to compile programs) that check for dependencies is obsolete. So the correct solution would be to ask to the manufacturer that they update their driver.

Meanwhile, you can use a "hammer" solution: delete the dependencies check and try to compile the driver anyway.

To do that you have to change the makefile. After the cd starcupsdrv step on your question, open the file makefile with your preferred editor (for example with gedit makefile); go to this point:

lines to remove

and REMOVE the lines 14, 15 and 16, so that it's like this one:

lines removed

Now make will succeed, with some nasty warning. Then continue as instructed, I hope it works for you.

The binaries do run on my machine, so there is a quite high probability that they'll work --- if the makefile will install them in the correct place. Remember that the install phase must be done as root, so with

sudo make install

Good luck!

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Digging in the manufacturer's site, I found this FAQ. There is a link to a pdf file with instructions, but it refers to Ubuntu 8.04. Having said that, the procedure described in the pdf is fairly straight forward and it should be easily adapted.

In effect you have to do the following:

First, download the drivers (you have already done that) and then extract the contents of the downloaded file. To do that, open a terminal window with Ctrl+Alt+T, cd to the directory where your file is located, and type

tar xzvf starcupsdrv-3.0.0_linux_20090130.tar.gz

This will extract the contents of the archive to a folder. cd to that folder and type

make

This will compile and build the driver. After the successful completion of make, type

sudo make install

to install the driver on your system. You will be prompted to enter your password.

Now that the driver is installed, open a browser window and type localhost:631 in the address bar (I'm assuming here you have a working CUPS installation). The interface is pretty much straightforward. Select Add printer and fill in the fields in the forms that are presented to you.

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  • libcups not available - exiting make: *** [rastertostar] Error 1
    – Toxik-Wolf
    Mar 15, 2014 at 23:22
  • that happens when i do make
    – Toxik-Wolf
    Mar 15, 2014 at 23:26
  • its in here right? ---> root@acer:/home/aspire/starcupsdrv-3.0.0_linux/SourceCode/starcupsdrv#
    – Toxik-Wolf
    Mar 15, 2014 at 23:27
  • Well, the politically correct way would be pestering the manufacturer. This happens when you do not put your drivers in the open source pool... you are supposed to maintain them. But anyway.
    – Rmano
    Mar 16, 2014 at 1:11
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I have ubuntu xenial 16.04 i386 and star TSP-700. starcupsdrv-3.6.0 driver is for i386, so I've installed i386 version of ubuntu. For successful build of drivers I've installed packages

apt-get install libcups2-dev libcupsimage2-dev 

Then in source folder, make and make install. Additional problem was something with usb: "Printer does not have vid, pid, and serial". Solution was to add printer in cups entering device USI directly

parallel:/dev/usb/lp0

Hopefully it will save a lot of time to somebody.

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