Have you tried unpacking the deb/rpm and copying the driver inside to where cups looks for them? that might just work
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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CachyOS
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Are you sure you need a driver at all? Most somewhat recent printers will work via CUPS driverless protocol. Basically, modern printers all are able to interprete postscript in the same way monitors can handle video frames. "Drivers" are usually just required to read toner status etc.
I just need it to print and scan some multi page documents into a PDF. As a recent install, CachyOS recognizes the printer through USB but I have no means to communicate with it to fulfill those two basic requirements. The driver program I used when I was still on Windows provided a basic GUI with that functionality.
UPDATE: I followed the CUPS terminal manual that sent me to localhost: 631. From there it was pretty straightforward until I couldn't find the MF212w model. I suspect since it's so old it's no longer supported. I'd hate to toss out such a perfectly good laser printer just so I could have less hassle setting up a way to communicate with it.
Have you tried running that Windows program in WINE?
have you tried the opensource drivers? check archwiki printer
No luck for this model from what I can tell.
You could try something like this, although I haven't used it before. Back in the dark ages I would occasionally use the Debian command alien to work with rpms. That's not what you were asking though. Searching a little more, I see the debtap command which seems the Arch way of doing it.
There's also a tarball available from the link you posted. You should be able to get that working.
I'll try deb2arch soon. For now though what can I do with a tarball? I thought tar.gz just meant a compressed file by tar = tape archive and gz being the gzip program used to compress it. From my limited knowledge, this just looks like a compressed file with the files needed to run in either a fedora or debian environment.
Tarballs let you compile the driver yourself.
https://linuxvox.com/blog/install-tarball-linux/
How are you on an Arch based distro but don’t know what a tarball is? That seems crazy to me.
Because I've tried some of the more "beginner friendly" distros that don't offer the things I'm looking for. Proper Nvidia drivers, access to VPNs, and a few other basics I need aren't easy to install in the other distros I've tried like Mint or Bazzite compared to what Arch has to offer. Considering there are a few other things I want to do with my PC it makes sense to jump into the deep end and figure it out as I go along.
I meant that I found it weird that you don't know what a tarball is but use an arch based distro. Most people using a highly configurable system like that would have some experience under their belt and already know about tarballs.
More power to you though. I guess learning on the fly can be fun but I would recommend getting a linux book for basics like this. This probably won't be the last time you have to compile something from source.
After a short search I found a couple of red flags: The manufacturer massively spammed search engines (maybe to hide independent reviews?), despite not providing any support for that specific model at all, just a single page stating it was discontinued and not supported any longer (Lenin-mausoleum class red flag). It turned out to be a "multifunctional device" - so not worth the hassle, anyway. This is probably not going to be too helpful for you as you seem to have decided to waste time (and money) to keep that pile of jumk running, but it might serve as a warning for future readers.
Your mileage might vary but that MFD I got as a "present" once went straight to the duster after a two hours testing period.