Talk:CUPS

HPLIP Woes (M1522NF and Other Networked Printers)
Here's a quick list of bugs I ran into installing & using hplip binary stuff. Alot of this stuff mentioned here is not documented, or it is, you just need to get lucky and click the right links to find it -- even then, the instructions are not concise. The printer I'm using is a multifunction printer HP M1522NF. Documentation for HPLIP is available at http://hplipopensource.com/ by clicking the Documentation link. See http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/supported_devices/combined.html for printer specific instructions and issues.

1) YOU NEED snmp use flag enabled to allow HP tools to find the printer's device uri on a networked printer. Unfortunately, this pulls in the soon to be deprecated dbus packages.  Also, make sure the user is in the lp group (ie. "gpasswd -a lp").

2) Execuatable hp-setup creates an unacceptable device URI -- likely using the printer's serial number for CUPS device URI. Use "hp-makeuri " to create a device URI containing the printers IP address (ie. makeuri 192.168.1.27). Copy and paste the new URI's containing the IP address using CUPS web printer modify option.  Using the wrong device URI resulted only in a code 12 error with no explanations.  You should see & use Device URI's within CUPS -- similar to the following using hp-makeuri: CUPS URI: hp:/net/HP_LaserJet_M1522nf_MFP?ip=192.168.1.27 HP Fax URI: hpfax:/net/HP_LaserJet_M1522nf_MFP?ip=192.168.1.27

3) I also upgraded to masked hplip-3.10.5 as stable hp-3.9.12 has a bug with hp-plugin and a "-i" switch error, but can be worked around by manually installing -- "sh /tmp/hplip-3.9.12-plugin.run"

4) hp-check can be used to ensure you have all the dependecies required for HP Tools to run correctly. A lot of dependecies are NOT PULLED IN when they should be.  I'm sure a lot of the dependicies stated by this tool are not needed if you're a command line junky like me -- it's something you *should* be aware of though if you're having any problems!  I'm using a HP M1522nf & "net-print/hplip -minimal cups fax scanner snmp" use flags work.  See http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/supported_devices/combined.html for a graph of package dependecies.  I have no idea what is required for "Scanner button initiated scans to PC", but "PC initiated scans to PC using XSane work just fine with my install.)

5) Basic setup: Run hp-setup as user and then run hp-plugin as root. (Tons of documentation floating around, but there is no centralized howto or wiki for stating the order to run these commands and/or impossible to find.)

6) Executable hp-sendfax requires Qt to work. I gave up on trying to fax to my networked HP M1522nf device -- too many bugs and I don't see any way of doing it explicitly by command line!  My thoughts on this are, buy a modem and setup Hylafax to send faxes from the computer.  Nowadays, an external modem using a Serial to USB cable may be desirable -- avoiding the tiny winmodems.

What this all really boils down to, one only really needs HPLIP drivers on networked M1522NF printers for "Scanning to PC". Otherwise, CUPS can be configured to use it's provided postscript driver. I'm also not sure if this device automatically updates it's time while on the network -- but one other useful HP Tool is "hp-timedate -d hpfax:/DEVICE_URI" and will sync the computer's time to the FAX. Useful if you use NTP.

For scanner & XSane, simply specifying hpaio withing /etc/sane.d/dll.conf should suffice.

All these notes are likely universal for all networked HP printers using HPLIP drivers. roger 23:06, 30 May 2010 (GMT)

HP Printers PCL Printing
If you want to try PCL printing, use the generic ghostscript-gpl Laserjet PCL 5 (600 dpi) and Laserjet 6 (1200 dpi) drivers as the HPLIP PCL driver files might have issues. (See Postscript/PS Language and Print Command Language/PCL Wikipedia articles for more info. Using a HP Laserjet M1522NF, I've found comparing a test print of the "ISO 12233 Test Chart" performed as good as from the Windows drivers! ghostscript-gpl PCL 6 was slightly lighter lighter, but much better resolution then the Windows PCL 6 driver! (I'm shocked!) The printouts did appear to send and rasterize slightly faster from Windows however.

The above is within a NOTE section under HP printers on the CUPS page, while I'll also note here, the HPLIP drivers might not even really be needed at all for printing. HPLIP may be only for scanning with SANE. Additional USE flags can be enabled for other minuscule features such as FAX address book, send from PC to FAX, and initiate scan from device to PC. These later features I rarely use on my multi-function device, as such, they're turned-off along with the QT GUI stuff. roger 10:24, 4 October 2011 (GMT)

My current USE flags for net-print/hplip-3.11.7: X hpcups scanner snmp static-ppds -acl -doc -fax -hpijs -kde -libnotify -minimal -parport -policykit -qt4

hplip error for networked printers: Unable to communicate with device (code=12)
1) snmpwalk -Os -c public -v 1 ip.address.of.printer 1.3.6.1.4.1.11.2.3.9.1.1.7.0

2) if you get an error, open up a web browser and type http://ip.address.of.printer

3) click on networking tab

4) click on SNMP in left pane

5) enable SNMP read-only access

6) try the snmpwalk command again

7) you should now see your printer, be able to print, etc.