OS X :: Apple's Snow Leopard To Load Printer Drivers On Demand?
Feb 9, 2009
As part of Apple's plans to help trim the footprint of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the new system will cease the customary installation of several gigabytes of printer drivers and instead load only the files necessary for existing devices, relying on Software Update to obtain new drivers in the future as needed.
Prepared for anything
Back in the late 80s, Apple began bundling PPD files for various PostScript printers with its System Software. The files identified features specific to each model, making it simple for users to take full advantage of each model. However, as the consumer market for printers expanded, expensive PostScript licensing was left behind for simpler and cheaper alternatives that relied on custom driver software unique to each printer manufacturer.
Microsoft began installing lots of third party printer drivers with the installation of Windows to make it simpler for users to install their printer without needing to obtain printer software themselves, a practice Apple also adopted. However, as printer manufacturers have expanded their printer software offerings to differentiate their hardware with special software features such as ink management and other add on utilities, the size of driver software has expanded rapidly.
Additionally, printer drivers are being updated more frequently and new printer models are appearing quickly enough to make it hard for operating system releases to stay current. Both Apple and Microsoft now support the ability of printer installation software to search for new or updated drivers online; Leopard began handling updates for HP drivers in 2007.
Just in time downloads
With the release of Snow Leopard this spring, Apple will put an end to the default installation of tons of drivers, according to people familiar with the latest test releases of the software. Instead, it will only install a select subset of drivers, including support for any currently attached printers or those that had been installed on the same Mac under previous versions of Mac OS X.
Sources say the system will review devices attached via USB and will scan the network for any printers advertised as available via Bonjour in order to create a short list of drivers that need to be installed. Any new printers that are attached after the installation of Snow Leopard will cause Software Update to check for drivers online.
This new policy will shave several unnecessary gigabytes from the Snow Leopard footprint, compounding the savings related to the new HFS+ file compression for compacting read only files and the compression and/or removal of unnecessary NIB files that will result in a greatly reduced size of applications on the new system.
Skinny new software
A similar practice has been put into place in GarageBand 09, which offers a series of free video instructions for learning how to play instruments. Rather than installing all of the videos by default, the new app allows users to download just the lessons they want, saving considerable disk space.
The same policy could also be applied to foreign language localization files and fonts, which currently consume lots of disk space but are only used by relatively small portions of the Mac OS X user base.
While software developers have historically relied on the luxury of constantly expanding, cheap hard drive space to ignore any need to be conservative in the amount of files loaded during installation, Apple's interest in deploying systems that use more expensive but faster SSD devices has resulted in new efforts to make Snow Leopard smaller and leaner than the system it replaces.
I have just upgraded to Snow Leopard and at the end of the upgrade the printer drivers failed to load. I have since updated them myself (Epson BX305) but still get an error message 'rasteroescpll failed'. I have an IMac previously running 5.8.0 and now running 6.3.0.
Apple this week released new drivers for HP printers in its latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The file, labeled version 2.2., is a 383MB download available from Apple. A number of HP printers, including Photosmart, OfficeJet, DeskJet and LaserJet models, are affected by the driver update. A complete list with numerous HP printers is listed on Apple's Web site. The update requires Mac OS X 10.6.1 or later.
Since the release of Snow Leopard, Apple has advertised new printer-related features in the operating system upgrade. Apple's Software Update will automatically provide you with third-party printer software and updates, "Nearby Printers" is a list of available printers that will appear right inside your printer dialog box, and you can simply connect a USB printer and the print queue will be automatically created.
I know this is probably a stupid question. I'm about to set up windows 7 on my iMac. I've recently updated to Snow leopard. My question is once I have windows 7 installed do I have to use the snow leopard disk, or the disk that came with my computer to load drivers?
I just installed Snow Leopard successfully, but it doesn't know my HP2600N network laser printer. It's not in the support document and the closest printer, a 2605N is supprted. But HP's site says "HP LaserJet - Software Information for Mac OS X 10.6" and "Obtain Software", but there's nothing there. Any idea of when HP will support the 2600N? (All other upgrades had no problem with the 2600N).
After I installed Snow Leopard, I installed all of the printer drivers on the disc. It was a rather hefty size, over 1GB. Is there a way, manually or automatically, to delete all the ones I don't need? I've done a search, and a couple of places (possibly outdated) have pointed me to Library > Printers, and that all the printer drivers should be there. When I do that, I only see the application for my own printer.............
If drivers for your printer do not show up in Snow Leopard, and there is no option for a generic driver (that you can use until original ones arrive), then you might be in luck if you've got your Leopard disc handy. Insert your Leopard disc, and then click on Optional Installs. Then in the next window you might have to click on Optional Installs again. From the new Window, select Printer drivers. Select the appropriate brand, and then install. So really, we're trying to use Leopard drivers here, moved from your Leopard disc onto Snow Leopard. If you're in luck, usable drivers might show up in your System Preferences, or perhaps a generic driver that will work.
I have two printers hooked up. An Epson Stylus Photo Pro 3800 and HP 5440 Deskjet. I want to determine what the version # is for my active drivers, but can't figure out how to. Also, where can I find the drivers in my hard drive and what would be the format of their file names?
For whatever reason, when I installed Snow Leopard it did not automatically install the updates for the printer drivers already installed in my computer.
I then tried to manually install the printer drivers using the SL disk and still no luck. The printers that I use are both wireless and work when they are connected with USB. Am I missing something? I'm reading all over about how people have made the upgrade with no problems at all so I'm there's got to be something I'm not doing.
In grad school renting a furnished apt for the summer, and trying to hook up HP printer (4215) to my Macbook that runs Lion. I've noticed on the discussions there are weird things that go on with HP and Lion, so I followed the advice of another discussion and downloaded the software/drivers noted for HP from the Apple website (software update did not detect).
Now, when I go into system preferences to add the printer, the printer shows up to be added, but forces me to click "add" to add and download the software - which I don't need, having already downloaded it. As other people have mentioned, this results in an error "this software is not currently available?
Is there something stupid I'm missing? It's a USB connection, printer is recognized by the computer, but the automatic software won't download and I'm not sure what to do with the software I DID download to get it to be recognized.
I need the drivers to run my printer....but am unable to find them online.This is in India and the printer is at least 8 years old but running beautifully.
I recently installed the 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate operating system onto my MacBook Pro 13 inch. I have the most basic Macbook Pro 13 inch with nothing fancy added. Whenever I load up the Windows 7 OS on my Macbook, it never utilizes or even realizes that I have the NVIDIA graphics card in my laptop. It instead believes I have some integrated graphics card that cannot even run the most basic of PC games. I know my laptop can run these games because on OSX it runs multiple games with higher requirements than these games I am trying to run on Windows.
Basic question: How do I get bootcamp or whatever else to make Windows 7 realize I have a NVIDIA card and drivers. Sorry if I am coming off as stupid or confusing.
I use three Macs. This is an IMac 24 on Leopard. But the problem also happens on the other Macs, one of which is on Tiger and the other Snow Leopard. I repeatedly get a Mail propt to give my password. If I give it or if I just hit "cancell" the problem continues. If I hit cancel and immediately hit "get mail," everything works. I should also note that this has been happening the last three weeks. Before that I had no trouble, but earlier still I had this same problem. I did nothing to cause it to go away. Our Ipads have no difficulty.
Hi, my brand new iMac 21.5" (just 2 weeks old) does not have the appropriate driver for my printer. My printer is a Samsung CLX-3160fn. The iMac has lots of other Samsung drivers, including one that's close (for the 3170 series), but the close one does not work.
Went online to search for driver but was not able to find one for Mac. Does this mean my printer is just not compatible with my iMac?
I got a Windows XP partition working on my MBP under Tiger and Boot Camp (Beta), but the Apple drivers for Keyboard, trackpad, IR and bluetooth did not work. The built-in keyboard and trackpad worked with default Windows drivers, but no Mac-specific key functionality (like brightness, volume, etc). I was hoping Boot Camp 2.0 in Leopard would have better drivers, but they still didn't work. I don't know if this is a MBP-specific problem or not.
I have just upgraded my Macbook 2.2GHz Intel with 2 GB RAM and 250GB HD from 10.5 to 10.6 My Epson stylus photo R1800 printer has stopped working. I have downloaded the 'drivers & utilities combo package' from the Epson website, installed, restarted etc but still nothing being printed.
SL has included drivers for HP devices, but the scan features are limited (Preview or Image Capture.) Past versions of the drivers could be set to automatically open Adobe Reader upon scan completion. This no longer seems to be possible. Has anyone found a work around?
I went a couple weeks ok with the Scanner and Image Capture. And then kaput, it doesn't work. I thought about it some and it seemed to stop working after I did Software Update on March 17th, 2012. In that update was a "Digital Camera Raw 3.1.0" update. Which makes me very suspicious. Here is the error I get when I open Image Capture: So, it recognizes the scanner but can't do anything in Image Capture or the with the scanner buttons. I ran Software Update again, just to see if there was a new updated scanner driver but nothing came up. I really want to avoid using the manufacturer's SW drivers etc.
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB Ram, 250 GB HD
I just noticed, that the built-in video-cams on two iMacs (one white 20" and one aluminum 24") do not work.
System Profiler is not detecting a video-cam. I guess, this probably confirms that this is not the GM build. Does anyone have a solution to enabling the video-cams?
I had problems with my wireless mouse after upgrading to SL. This solved all my problems. This update is good for their wireless keyboards also. The snow leopard release date caught logitech by surprise. This works for 64 and 32 bit . This is version 3.1 [URL]
I have a new 21.5 Imac (with the ATI Radeon HD 4670) on which I have just installed Windows 7 32 bit version. Everything worked great and upon starting Windows 7 for the first time my network is working, the ATI 4670 drivers seem to be installed automatically and also sound drivers seem to be there, everything of this Windows 7 did automatically. So my question is: why do I need the Bootcamp drivers from the Snow Leopard disk, what extra value will they provide? Can it hurt my computer all togehter if I skip the drivers from the Snow Leopard disk? will it perhaps have drivers other than above that are absolutely needed for the system to function properly?
I noticed that my GPUs fans (either ATI 3870HD or 4870) in my MP 1,1 are considerably louder nonewithstanding nothing CPU/ GPU taxing is running. Anyone else noticed this? Are the GPU drivers not finished yet or is it due SL keeping them under load for Open CL/ Grand Central?
