another hp problem...

Message

Berticus · #1 Post by **Berticus** » 2005-09-23 03:25

I have an HP LaserJet 4P. I don't know exactly what I have installed, but this is what is listed when I search for "printer" with synaptic:

a2ps
cups-pdf
cupsys-driver-gimpprint
cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data
cupsys-pt
enscript
foomatic-db
foomatic-db-engine
foomatic-db-gimp-print
foomatic-db-hpijs
foomatic-filters
gnome-cups-manager
gs-gpl
hpijs
hplip
ifhp
ijsgimpprint
libgnomeprint2.2-0
libgnomeprint2.2-data
libgnomeprintui2.2-0
libgnomeprintui2.2-common
libspl1
lpr
openoffice.org
printconf
python-foomatic
xfprint4
xpp

Whenever I print something, my printer prints the query instead of processing the query. When I had installed a lot of those printer drivers, uis, and all that jazz, I got a warning in the terminal that either told me a printcap was changed to fit Debian's policies or I have to change printcap to fit Debians policies... Don't remember which one. I just noted that the location of the filter had to be changed from /usr/lib/filters to /usr/lib/ifhp. However none of those lines appeared in printcap, and I didn't know where to put it.

I tried to follow the instructions at http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_print ... aserJet_4P. Well, not really instructions, more like set-up. I tried to use hpijs instead of gimp-print because of that warning at the bottom about using gimp-print. However, while setting up the printer, it didn't allow me to change the driver from gimp-print. So I downloaed the dpp, and tried the [Install Driver...] button, but it said the driver was already installed.

I've tried all sorts of things, and nothing has changed. I think I need to do something with the filter, but I want to know what I need to do. I've already wasted half a package of paper. After printing the paper becomes a little rolled, and you can't feed this printer slightly rolled paper, it tends to create a paper jam.

Harold · #2 Post by **Harold** » 2005-09-23 04:33

Berticus>I have an HP LaserJet 4P. I don't know exactly what I have installed...

do dpkg -l | less

I have hpijs installed on my computer, none of the foomatic or cupsys-gimpprint packages installed, and CUPS and my HP Deskjet get along with each other just fine. Let's see if we can do the same on yours.

# apt-get remove --purge foomatic-db foomatic-db-engine foomatic-db-gimp-print foomatic-db-hpijs foomatic-filters foomatic-filters-ppds foomatic-gui hplip ifhp cupsys-driver-gimpprint cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data

# apt-get install --reinstall cupsys cupsys-client cupsys-bsd hpijs a2ps enscript mpage

# killall -HUP cupsd -- resets CUPS server after all packages are removed / installed.

Point your web browser to localhost:631, wipe any existing printer definitions, redefine printer specifying hpijs driver, try to print test page.

Berticus · #3 Post by **Berticus** » 2005-09-23 04:57

I'm logged in as root, and I followed everything. However when I tried to print out a test page, nothing happens. The status is "idle, accepting jobs." When I go to the jobs tab, there's nothing.

I check the printer jobs, and saw that they were aborted. I tried to restart, and I got the following message:

Error:

client-error-not-possible

Am I nost allowed to print as root? If not, how do I enable root to print?

------------------------------------------Edited------------------------------------------
It's not because I was root. Same thing happened when I was logged in as a regular user.

Harold · #4 Post by **Harold** » 2005-09-23 15:30

I have a HP DeskJet 648C connected to the parallel port of my computer, and the following Debian packages are installed:
- cupsys, cupsys-client, cupsys-bsd
- gs-esp, gs-common, gsfonts, gsfonts-other
- a2ps, enscript, mpage

I have not installed any of the foomatic packages.

I download the hpijs driver tarball from http://sourceforge.net/projects/hpinkjet into /usr/src/, untar it, ./configure, make, make install, and do killall -HUP cupsd to reset the CUPS server. I then point my web browser to localhost:631, log in as root, and configure the printer.

- Name: lp
- Location: local
- Description: deskjet_648c
- Device: Parallel Port No. 1
- Driver Make: HP
- Driver: Deskjet 648c

And the printer works as advertised. Periodically, HP ships a newer tarball which I download, untar it, ./configure, make, make install, and do killall -HUP cupsd. Sometimes I have to set up the printer again after doing this; sometimes not. I see no method to the madness.

This morning, I deleted my current printer setup and wiped from my hard drive all of the HP drivers built from source, then installed Debian's hpijs package and reset the CUPS server. (Current hpijs tarball is version 2.1.4; current Debian hpijs package is version 2.1.3. Identical for all practical purposes.) I then proceeded to re-define my printer setup. When I got to the point where I select the driver, instead of seeing the long list of HP printers (including my 648C) that I am accustomed to seeing, I saw only five generic selections.

I then installed the Debian's foomatic-db-hpijs package, which also installed foomatic-db and foomatic-filters, and would have installed hpijs had it not already been installed. The Debian maintainer's notes indicate that these packages might not work unless foomatic-db-engine was also installed. ?!?!?! Foomatic-db-engine is listed as recommended, not required! Just to be on the safe side, I installed foomatic-db-engine, then reset the CUPS server and proceeded to re-define the printer only to discover... still only five generic choices of drivers!

At that point, I uninstalled all of the foomatic packages (freeing 18.5 meg on my hard drive), re-installed HP drivers from the tarball and am back to my original setup, which works just dandy.

I have also noticed that ghostscript is not a dependency for Debian's CUPS packages. This is a bad decision on the part of the Debian maintainers, since a user can install and configure CUPS and still not have a working printer. Sort of like having an engine and transmission, but no driveshaft. You can rev the engine and shift the gears, but you never leave the parking lot.

I assumed that HP LaserJets are all postscript devices and therefore ghostscript is not required. I realize now that this is not the case. In fact, hpijs may be completely worthless if ghostscript isn't installed. There are multiple Debian ghostscript packages. Those people using CUPS, which is about 99.9% of the people reading this post, want to install gs-esp, which is the version that is optimized for use with CUPS.

All-in-all, I'm not overly fond of CUPS. A print command, once issued, cannot be cancelled, and I've wasted a lot of ink because of this. I much prefer LPRng, which is LPR done properly. But the person who created LPRng has lost interest or no longer has free time to work on it or something. CUPS is now the only game in town. :-(

Berticus · #5 Post by **Berticus** » 2005-09-23 18:54

Harold, I'm trying your way. However, when I did ./configure, I was given a configuration error:

configure: error: "cannot find libjpeg support"

I know libjpeg is already installed, and I confirmed it by checking through synaptic. It's there, so what's the problem now?

Harold · #6 Post by **Harold** » 2005-09-23 19:29

When building from source, you need to have development and runtime libraries installed. libjpeg62-dev is the development library. libjpeg62 is the runtime library. Rule of thumb is that the development library name is the runtime library name with -dev tacked on the end. When you install a development library, apt-get almost always automatically installs the runtime library. When you install a runtime library, apt-get almost never automatically installs the development library.

Berticus · #7 Post by **Berticus** » 2005-09-23 20:32

I followed all the instructions, and I'm now back to where I am... printing the queries...

Harold · #8 Post by **Harold** » 2005-09-23 20:58

Has this computer/cable/printer combination worked with MS Windows or with a different Linux distro? Do the printer and cable function normally when attached to a different computer? Do you have another printer/cable that you can attach to your Debian box? I'm grasping for ideas.

Berticus> Whenever I print something, my printer prints the query instead of processing the query.

Query? I don't understand. Explain, please.

Berticus · #9 Post by **Berticus** » 2005-09-23 21:12

It's worked on Fedora Core 4 Linux, Windows NT, Windows 2k, Windows XP. It only seems to have problems with debian-based os such as debian and Ubuntu. I didn't like Ubuntu that much, so I didn't bother to fix the problem.

What I mean abou printing the query, is it prints this:

Code: Select all

%!PS-Adobe-3.0
              %%BoundingBox:  (atend)
                              %%Creator: OpenOffice.org1.1.3
                                                                %%For: root

Then it keeps spitting out blank pages. After the tray is emptied and then refilled, it just keeps going. It's not only OOo, it's everything that gets printed. Even the test page. It also doesn't matter which user. I have a regular user, which I tried printing with before root, and it failed. So I logged into root to see if I could fix the problem, and nothing worked.

----------------------------------------Edited----------------------------------------
They've all been able to use the same serial cable.

Harold · #10 Post by **Harold** » 2005-09-23 22:05

Ok, it's a Debian problem; not a hardware issue, not a generic CUPS issue. This problem needs to be posted to the Debian Printing Mailing List.