Unsupported model: HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw

[Hans-Georg Thien]

Printer: HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw
OS: Linux Mint 18.2 (64bit)
hplip version: 3.17.10
Connection: LAN

Precond: HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw connected via LAN Cable

Symptom: HPLIP cannot detect printers in your network

Details: Firewall and AppArmor is deactivated.

According to the Product Specs on the HP website this printer model is supported via hplip. But obviously it is unsupported.

note: I have spent hours with chasing for network related problems. Probably it would be more convenient when hplip reports a slightly different error message for such case when a printer is found-but-unsupported. For example: "not (yet) supported: cannot use HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw".

Workaround:

  in /usr/share/hplip/data/models/models.dat ....
    - rename the section for hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m277dw to hp_colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281
    - in the renamed section change Model1 to HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

Actually, renaming an existing section is a bad idea because support for the existing model is lost.
Better duplicate the section and *then* rename the duplicate. I will attach a patch for that...

Cheers
 -Fritz

[Hans-Georg Thien (t-legiaw)]

of course you are absolutely right that renaming *after duplication* is the correct solution.

Thank you for taking care - Hans

[Dror Cohen (drorcohen)]

thanks for the pointers. Will try at home and report. One small question. What is the difference between the different sections (ending in n,dw and c6):

$ grep mfp_m277 /usr/share/hplip/data/models/models.dat
[hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m277n]
...
[hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m277dw]
...
[hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m277c6]
...

Or should I just duplicate them all?

[Hans-Georg Thien (t-legiaw)]

Hi Dror,

I don't know exactly what the difference between these sections is. I think the "d" in hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m277dw stands for a duplex unit.

So for an M281fdw printer (which has a duplex unit) it should be enough to duplicate hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m277dw and then rename the duplicate to hp_colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281. In addition I have changed the Model1 entry in the duplicated section to "HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw". Afterwards every think seemed to be fine.

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

Like Hans-Georg said, d stands for duplexer, n stands for networked, w stands for wireless and f stands for fax.

Also: DO NOT duplicate them all!!!! (this would most likely mess up things badly)

only the lines starting with (and including) [hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m277dw]
until (and including) the next empty line.
resp. see my patch :-)

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

Meanwhile, I tested a little further with my patch and experienced two unrelated bugs in hplip which prevent proper setup after enabling some security related features using the printer's embedded web-config. (I will file separate bugs and probably fixes for those) so watch out for the following caveats (for now):

1. In the printer's web-config, do NOT enable HTTPS-enforcement
   (hplip does not handle the resulting 301 HTTP response from the printer at all and also sends and
   invalid Host header in the first place)

2. In the printer's web-config do NOT set an admin password
   (hplip does not handle the resulting 401 HTTP response at all and fax setup will silently fail)

Until those are fixed, i'd recommend instead to use the printer's firewall to restrict general access to the IP range in your local network.

Cheers
 -Fritz

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

Addendum:

You CAN set an admin password in the printer after having completed the printer's FAX setup. It does not affect normal (non-admin) operation using hplip.

[Dror Cohen (drorcohen)]

I tried the suggested method but no lock for me since I'm suffering from the following https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1697958 as well...

localhost:631 recognizes the printer but I need to manually add a ppd file (hence my original request). hplip refuses to connect to the printer (tried manual with the specific ip and tried to force the bonjour as the bug suggests). Attaching the diff, maybe I got something wrong.

While I wait for another solution - my printer has network, wifi and duplex - should I still use the renaming of the dw section or

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

Hi Dror,

Well, that other bug looks slightly different. They used hp-toolbox but I used hp-setup directly.

Also I did not even try your method of adding a print-queue via cups (localhost:631) and then adding a ppd manually, because that cannot setup full functionality (fax and scanning are NOT covered by that).

Let me help you a little bit, but not here because this is a bug report not a debugging lesson, so I will email you directly...

[Dror Cohen (drorcohen)]

My printer is defined on the system page (web UI) as "HP Color LaserJet MFP M281cdw". I used the method described by Fritz to duplicate the 277 model into my 281 model. The problem remained the same until I defined the new model as non duplex (dropped the dw from the end of the line). Attaching my working file diff to the original one to the bug. Thank you Fritz for all the off line help and the very helpful hp-setup -g (for debug) command.

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

Dror,

Just to clarify:

The naming of the sections has NOTHING to do with the human readable name of the Printer model name aka Description (which DOES contain the various "feature characters").
Instead the naming of the sections is derived from the value of the printer MDL variable, reported by the printer itself during the initial query via SNMP which happens to be
"HP ColorLaserJet MFP M278-M281" and can bee seen in the hex/ascii dump when running hp-setup -g.

In particular, it does NOT mean that this is a "non duplex, non wireless" model.
The system page (web UI) doe NOT show the actual MDL variable but the DES variable (Description).

-Fritz

[Dror Cohen (drorcohen)]

Thanks for sharing the knowledge,

Dror

On Sat, Nov 4, 2017 at 14:01 Fritz Elfert <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Dror,
>
> Just to clarify:
>
> The naming of the sections has NOTHING to do with the human readable name
> of the Printer model name aka Description (which DOES contain the various
> "feature characters").
> Instead the naming of the sections is derived from the value of the
> printer MDL variable, reported by the printer itself during the initial
> query via SNMP which happens to be
> "HP ColorLaserJet MFP M278-M281" and can bee seen in the hex/ascii dump
> when running hp-setup -g.
>
> In particular, it does NOT mean that this is a "non duplex, non wireless"
> model.
> The system page (web UI) doe NOT show the actual MDL variable but the DES
> variable (Description).
>
> -Fritz
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1724151
>
> Title:
> Unsupported model: HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1724151/+subscriptions
>

[Thaodan (theodorstormgrade)]

Since launchpad doesn't support flyspray:
Reported the bug to arch:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/57683

[Thaodan (theodorstormgrade)]

Patch applied.
Still not commit to upstream.

[Karl (klequis)]

The workaround, copying and renaming the section in models.dat, worked for printing but not scannin
Ubuntu 18.01

[fredbcode (fredbcode)]

@karl I added a comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1745835
It fixes the scan issue

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

Apparently, launchpad is unable to fetch the bug status from RedHats bugzilla. That bug is fixed for some time now

[brian_p (claremont102)]

@fredbcode.

The root of *your* problem is described in LP #1797501. Your solution is probably the only one available unless you explicitly use the scanner's URI (which is known) with a frontend.

--
Brian.

[Romain Rivière (net+launchpad)]

I don't know what happened to the fix that was committed a year ago, but the initial bug is still present in hplip 3.19.11 as downloaded and installed today. I found the following entry in models.dat:

[hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m278-m281]

and had to change it to

[hp_colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281]

manually so that my printer could be detected and setup by hp-setup.

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

> Romain Rivière (net+launchpad) wrote on 2019-11-30: #23
>
> I don't know what happened to the fix that was committed a year ago ...

The reported commits are for ArchLinux and Fedora packages. No commit has ever been reported here at upstream.

[Romain Rivière (net+launchpad)]

> The reported commits are for ArchLinux and Fedora packages. No commit has
> ever been reported here at upstream.

I see. Any particular reason why the fix was not committed?

[Fritz Elfert (felfert)]

Romain Rivière (net+launchpad) wrote 49 minutes ago: #25

> Any particular reason why the fix was not committed?

I am not an upstream developer so I don't know. This bug is UNASSIGNED, so NONE of the developers have looked into it.

The last active upstream developer is this guy:

https://sourceforge.net/u/nagasamrat/profile/

At least according the activity log on SF he has worked on the release notes of 3.19.11. So I suggest you ask him.

[Romain Rivière (net+launchpad)]

> So I suggest you ask him.

Done, thanks for the heads-up.

[linkx (link-mustbuilddigital)]

Thank you everyone for this thread. Gave me hope. Looking forward to having this committed.

[linkx (link-mustbuilddigital)]

The patch in #6 applied cleanly for me on ElementaryOS 5.1 Hera (Ubuntu 18.04 variant) and I can confirm that my HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw works great with this configuration.