Information About These Packages and The Repository
Dependencies
I have manually worked out the following dependencies for the packages; there may be others I have missed. These do not include the inter-dependences among the samsungmfp packages.
samsungmfp-driver depends on cups (or cupsys), ghostscript (or gs), libstdc++5, and sane; versions newer than 3.00.37 also require udev and libsnmp15.
samsungmfp-configurator-qt3 depends on libqt3-mt, libstdc++5, libtiff4, and libpng3; it also may require Java and certainly requires Xorg.
samsungmfp-configurator-qt4 depends on libqtcore4 (or libqt4-core), libqtgui4 (or libqt4-gui), libqt4-qt3support, libqt4-svg, libstdc++5, libtiff4, and libpng3; it also may require Java and certainly requires Xorg.
Xorg, Java, and udev are not actually coded as dependencies by the packages due to too much complexity, but the packages may not work if these components are not installed.
Major Differences in Installation from the Samsung Installer
I use entirely the /usr/lib/ directory instead of /usr/lib64/, as per Debian standard.
The packages do not include the installer/uninstaller pieces.
I did not include the .directory, .menu, or most .desktop files, and the .desktop entry included is filed under the normal freedesktop structure rather than Samsung-specific.
/usr/bin/lpr is left intact, the link to slpr is in /usr/local/bin so that the packages don't conflict and the standard lpr is still available.
The modprobe.conf file is not created, the proper modprobe.d/ structure is used.
A link is included to libtiff4.so when needed, such that libtiff3 is not required at all.
A link is included to libnetsnmp.so.15, so that libnetsnmp.so.10.0.2 is not required at all.
libpng3 is required to address problems that occasionally occur with the Configurator and AMD64 architectures, because an inappropriate reference to a library name was compiled in; although this does not appear to be a problem with i386, I have left the libpng3 dependency in anyway (it just creates a link to libpng12).
All the Configurator pieces are English-only, I don't know if Samsung provides alternative languages in their country-specific archives.
I did not include the duplicate ppd/cms files in /opt/Samsung/mfp/share/ppd/, as they are just a 15 MB waste of space; only the pdd/cms files in /usr/share/cups/samsung/ are needed.
I did not include any of the assorted libraries that ship with the Samsung installer purely for the install/uninstall program or that are available through some other standard package.
Making Your Own Packages
I have provided the directory structure, control files, and scripts I use to build these packages here. Basically just unpack the archive, download the 3.00.90, 3.00.65, and 3.00.37 installer archives (directly from Samsung or this site on the v3 page) and place them in the same directory as the unpacked archive (not within the archive folder structure), then run the "assemble_smfp_packages.sh" and "build_smfp_packages.sh" scripts. The assemble script would work as a starting point for building packages for non-Debian distributions, while the build script is specific for dpkg. Note that apt will not install the created .debs without having them in a repository, and dpkg won't resolve the necessary dependencies. Also note that the assemble script assumes that the libsane-smfp* and smfp.conf files are present, and will fail if they aren't, so downloading an installer associated with a multi-function printer from Samsung may be more reliable. Gdebi may be able to install the created packages locally.
Why These Packages Will Never Be Official
I don't have access to the source code, so paths are compiled in and I am constrained by them; use of /opt and the /usr/bin/lpr issue preclude ever making a well-behaved package (from an official standpoint).
No source code, so Debian (and sites for hosting software such as Sourceforge) won't touch this. Although I provide a source repository here, it is empty.
Because there's no point in "Debian-izing" the packages completely, I am not following Debian standards for changelogs or copyright files, nor did I include man pages.
The legal aspects of redistributing the Samsung drivers are a bit fuzzy, and the licensing terms are certainly not compatible with Debian guidelines.
Who Uses This Repository?
Except for people who post to the Ubuntu forums asking for assistance, I don't have any idea. I do monitor total number of downloads per file so I can track bandwidth usage, but I do not retain any specific information about users of this site.
As of August 2011, I estimate that there are approximately 5000 active users of the repository, and possibly again as many who have installed once and then not updated. This estimate is based on downloads of updated packages. There were over 25,000 total downloads of various versions of the driver files between May 2009 and August 2011, and the main page of this website receives about 2500 hits per month.
~70% of users also seem to be installing the scanner package, and about half seem to be install some version of the Configurator (mainly the qt4 version). Downloads of the lpr and parallel packages are much less frequent (15% and < 5%, respectively).
i386 packages are downloaded at almost twice the rate of amd64 packages (this ratio has been gradually decreasing as 64-bit installations become more popular).