no such thing as open source printer firmware? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ixfd64
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2013, 03:08:26 am
content: One thing I've noticed is that there currently doesn't seem to be any open source printer firmware in existence. I did quite a bit of searching, and the only relevant result that came up was a blog post about the lack of said software:http://carstenknoch.com/2009/10/open-sourcing-the-inkjet-scamThis seems strange, considering that open source router firmware (DD-WRT) and printer drivers (Gutenprint) have a wide audience. So I'm wondering: is there really no such thing as open source printer firmware? If that's the case, then what would be the cause? Lack of demand? Technical barrier too high? Legal issues?

author: apelly
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 16, 2013, 03:51:40 am
content: I believeRichard Stallman, RMS, who could probably be described as the father of the GPL/open source movement, was originally inspired by hacking on some Xerox firmware to overcome some printing banner or notification issue or something.I would speculate that printer hardware changes so regularly that it is just too difficult to keep up. openWRT works because the chipset it runs on was used in a very popular router (that already ran embedded linux i believe) and, subsequently, other hardware iterations. That said; I would be amazed if you couldn't find a smorgasbord of stuff on github. People are hacking old inkjet printers for all sorts of things from printing on food to t-shirts.When I'm in the market for a new printer I always check for linux drivers, and the cpp, but firmware hacking never occurred to me before. I guess if the first two options are OK then the firmware will be good enough. There's a bunch of better things to do with my life than spend even more time dicking around with a printer that won't work. Especially if it's my fault!

author: ixfd64
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2013, 04:33:20 am
content: I can think of one reason to hack printer firmware: according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, some printers allow the government to identify their users by adding microscopic dots to the document:https://www.eff.org/issues/printersThe EFF has been trying to decode the dots but has not had much success:https://www.eff.org/wp/investigating-machine-identification-code-technology-color-laser-printersItmightbe possible to help out the EFF by extracting the firmware and reverse-engineering it. Of course, using our own firmware would prevent the printer from tracking us in the first place.

author: apelly
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 16, 2013, 04:49:24 am
content: Quote from: ixfd64 on October 16, 2013, 04:33:20 amThat is averygood point! In that light I'm surprised there isn't quite an effort going into this. Manufacturers might be quick with take-down notices about it, because I have seen nothing on the topic recently. There was also some interesting commentary on Dave's recent bill validator tear-down with regard to identifying bank notes to prevent scanning. Less of an issue, but you should be able to do whatever you want withyourdevice!disclosure: I make these comments without googling anything, on the assumption that my regular geek news intake will keep me up to date. I have been wrong before!

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2013, 12:08:44 pm
content: I think another reason, besides the huge variety of models, is that the interests of hobbyists tend not to stray into the area, and those that do like hacking printers are more mechanically inclined than electrically - thus you can find the print-on-not-paper mods, CIS systems, etc. but not much about the firmware.This is probably the closest I've found:http://www.eddiem.com/photo/CIS/inkchip/chip.htmlI admit I have an old Epson board lying around waiting for its PROM to be dumped and disassembled... just haven't gotten around to it because of more interesting things to work on.