Install Ricoh SP111 Laser printer in Ubuntu

First, let me take a moment to shower abuses on Ricoh to royally assume that Windows and Mac are the only two operating systems used by customers. I just bought a Ricoh Aficio SP 111 printer, and found that I couldn’t locate any drivers for Ubuntu, nor was one available in Ubuntu’s repositories. Thanks to the open source phenomenon, I was able to modify a ppd written by Serge V Shistarev, and available on Github. A couple of minutes later, the printer was happily churning away pages.

To install the printer in Ubuntu, first you need to install a couple of dependencies:

Install pbmtojbg and inotify-wait:

sudo apt-get install jbigkit-bin inotify-tools

Now install the cups driver:

git clone [email protected]:droidzone/ricoh-sp100.git

All credits to Serge V Shistarev for the original PPD for Ricoh SP 100

Copy the file pstoricohddst-gdi to the directory containing cups filters:

sudo cp pstoricohddst-gdi /usr/lib/cups/filter/
sudo chown root:root /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstoricohddst-gdi

Now open the Printers applet:
Add Printer
Choose Ricoh SP 111
Choose ppd file (RICOH_Aficio_SP_111.ppd)

Note: If you’re unable to select the ppd file by the above steps, try the following:

To add printer from the ppd file:
In your web browser, navigate to http://localhost:631/
CUPS for Administrators > Adding Printers and Classes
Printers > Add a printer
Enter your root username and password

When your printer is connected and switched on Ubuntu should detect it and assign it a name. Select that printer right now. Click next a couple of times until you reach the section where you’re asked to select the ppd file.

At this point, choose the file RICOH_Aficio_SP_111.ppd which should have got cloned by github. Click next and it will say your printer is successfully installed. Check by giving a test print.