Cerebro Seco

1. Installing Samsung's driver on the Mac
2. Activating CUPS web interface
3. Manually adding the correct URI in CUPS
4. Selecting the correct driver

Background

I have a simple setup at home that includes a Synology NAS for LAN-related tasks (mainly backups). While it has some problems (metallic noises due to vibration, limited support for external devices, etc.), its OS is universally praised as one of the best available on a ready-built NAS. In my case, this NAS also serves as a print server for said Samsung printer.

The problem is, this printer isn't recognised properly by the OS, even though the regular System Preferences says otherwise. Considering Apple's attitude toward the "old", I wouldn't be surprised if they just chose not to ensure their OS stays compatible with older peripherals. I can't be the only one with a perfectly fine ML-2510 at home, as this low-cost printer sold by hundreds of thousands of units, and hope this bill can be helpful.

At the same time, this printer works perfectly with a direct USB connection to Mac OS X 10.11.6. It also works fine with both USB and automatic network detection through Bonjour on Mac OS X "Snow Leopard", but since I use three different computers in different places, direct connection is simply not an option.

Samung's support chat Sergio (kudos!) tried to help as much as he could using the official tools, but didn't succeed. I thanked him for his time and patience, and looked for another solution.

Actors

Synology DS115j running DSM 6.0.2-8451 Update 1. The printer has a direct USB connection to it. It is automatically recognised and installed, with the generic name usbprinter1.

MacBook5,2, running El Capitan

MacBook8,1, running Snow Leopard

LG R510, running Ubuntu Mate

Step 1: installing Samsung's driver for the ML-2510.

This page has a driver for Mac OS X 10.3 to 10.7. Don't worry, it will work. Install the driver.

Step 2: activating CUPS interface

By default, CUPS Web interface is disabled in Mac OS X El Capitan. Open a Terminal Window (Applications > Utilities > Terminal), then type:

cupsctl WebInterface=yes

Step 3: Adding the correct URI in CUPS

Since we enabled the CUPS Web interface in the previous step, you can now log in with the Mac OS X user, and CUPS shows its home page.

Click on Administration, then Add Printer.

On the newly displayed page, you will see that the ML-2510 is incorrectly detected among "Discovered Network Printers" as a ML-1250.

In "Other Networks Printers", select IPP, then click Continue. You will now see a blank field named Connection, and some examples of valid URIs are listed below. None of these example will give you any connection to the ML-2510.

Instead, type:

dnssd://usbprinter1%20%40%20Synology._ipp._tcp.local.

usbprinter1 is the name the printer receives from DSM, Synology is the hostname I gave to the NAS. Replace accordingly with your own values from DSM. Even though I needed to access CUPS installed on another computer to get to know the correct URI, you shouldn't need to.

Click Continue

Give a name to the printer. Spaces and special characters are not allowed AFAIK.

Valid names:

Samsung-ML-2510
Samsung_ML-2510

Invalid names:

Samsung ML-2510 (has a space)
Samsung, ML-2510 (has a space and punctuation)

Click Continue

Step 4: select the correct driver

Select the brand: Samsung, Continue, then model: ML-2510

Click Add Printer

Select default options, and validate.

You can now close the browser window.

Back to System Preferences, your newly-added printer should now appear in the left pane under the same name you gave it in CUPS. You can change the name from the regular interface, but this change won't be reflected in the CUPS interface.

To test, click Open printing queue, then follow the menu: Printer > Print test page

If you did it right, a test page should be printed after a few seconds and will show the name you gave it in CUPS (NOT the friendly name you assigned in the regular interface!).

If a page doesn't print, check your settings:

You can't add a printer twice; if you tried several times without success, remove the other printer, and start over.

Check address outlined in step 3: Synology should be replaced by the hostname you gave it. If you have many printers connected to the NAS, usbprinter1 may have to be replaced with whichever name was assigned to the ML-2510.