hp-info fails to detect two hp printers

[Richard Kleeman]

I have two hp printers (photosmart 7550 and laserjet 1200) on my Breezy system.
These were installed using the gnome printtool. The second printer is a
networked printer and sits on 192.168.0.150 and uses HP JetDirect. The command
hp-info

(part of the hplip-base package)

returns: HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 0.9.4)
 Device Information Utility ver. 3.0

 Copyright (c) 2003-5 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
 This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
 This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
 under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

Choose device from probed devices connected on bus(es): usb,cups:

 [ERROR]: No devices found.
 [ERROR]: Error occured during interactive mode. Exiting.

The hplip gui (part of the universe hplip package) returns a similar error.
The package should as a minimum be able to to detect installed hp printers.....

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

Got feedback from the Debian Maintainer:
> Upstream bug, there is nothing you can do. HP-info cannot reliably detect
> network stuff yet.
>
> hp-makeuri will work, but it will want the printer's IP.

[Richard Kleeman (kleeman)]

More details on the problem:

If I run hp-probe it finds the usb (local) printer. If I then restart cupsys,
the gnome printool is able to see this local
printer and if I install this using the correct driver then hplip can see this
printer and sees some stuff like inklevels.
Even this isn't working properly however because it fails to detect the photo
cartridge and in addition when a
testpage is sent to the printer it fails to print. The first issue seems likely
an upstream problem while the second I am not so sure...

I also tried hp-makeuri with my network printer ip address. This produces an
hp:// address but there appears no way to use this address.
The hp website suggests using the cups admin tool (127.0.0.1:631) but this is
disabled in Ubuntu for security reasons. I see no way within
the gnome printool of installing an hp addressed printer (hp://******) so cannot
see the network printer. This particular problem is not an upstream issue in my
view since the advice on the hp site does not work for Ubuntu.

[Manuel López-Ibáñez (manuellopezibanez)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> More details on the problem:
>
> If I run hp-probe it finds the usb (local) printer. If I then restart cupsys,
> the gnome printool is able to see this local
> printer and if I install this using the correct driver then hplip can see this
> printer and sees some stuff like inklevels.
> Even this isn't working properly however because it fails to detect the photo
> cartridge and in addition when a
> testpage is sent to the printer it fails to print. The first issue seems likely
> an upstream problem while the second I am not so sure...
>
> I also tried hp-makeuri with my network printer ip address. This produces an
> hp:// address but there appears no way to use this address.
> The hp website suggests using the cups admin tool (127.0.0.1:631) but this is
> disabled in Ubuntu for security reasons. I see no way within
> the gnome printool of installing an hp addressed printer (hp://******) so cannot
> see the network printer. This particular problem is not an upstream issue in my
> view since the advice on the hp site does not work for Ubuntu.

I have opened a bug #25630 for gnome-cups-manager regarding this. Please, post
your comment in that bug (#19513).

[Simon Law (sfllaw)]

Richard,

Is this bug still a problem in recent Flights of Dapper?

Thanks.

[Manuel López-Ibáñez (manuellopezibanez)]

Richard, you may also look the output when using the option -ldebug as in:

$ hp-makeuri -ldebug

Also, you may check that your printer is supported (and how well) by HP in http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/index.html (Yes! Unfortunately, HP sells printers without proper drivers! Sad but true!)

Finally, we thank you for your bug report, however, there is little that the Ubuntu developers can do about this, you should directly write to HP. From the HPLIP FAQ (http://hplip.sourceforge.net/faqs.html):

Question: How do I report a bug (defect) or request a feature?

Answer: You may post bug reports or feature requests to one of the mailing lists, or send an email to <email address hidden>.

[Richard Kleeman (kleeman)]

On Dapper hp-info picks up the local printer. The gnome print tool seems to pick up the local hp printer and recognizes it as such. It gives an hp or HP option for installing the printer. If the latter is used then hp-toolbox works in showing cartridge supplies etc. The gnome print tool still seems to have problems in installing an hp networked printer and the cups web interface is difficult as well (this is after using the hp-makeuri command to generate a correct (hp) network address.

[Manuel López-Ibáñez (manuellopezibanez)]

Richard, could you open a terminal and write "gnome-cups-manager 2>&1 | grep connect", then right-click in the printers and in Properties and copy the output of the terminal and paste it here?
Thanks.

[Richard Kleeman (kleeman)]

For my laserjet 1200 printer I get:

 ** (gnome-printer-view:5627): WARNING **: connect = 'socket://192.168.0.150:9100

For my Photosmart 7550 I get:

** (gnome-printer-view:5627): WARNING **: connect = 'usb://hp/photosmart%207550?serial=CN33I4116P7E'

and when I use the detected local HP printer I get:

** (gnome-printer-view:5627): WARNING **: connect = 'hp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E'

(the latter is picked up by hp-frontend)

[Richard Kleeman (kleeman)]

Sorry I meant it was picked up by hp-toolbox

[Manuel López-Ibáñez (manuellopezibanez)]

Sorry, I am getting a bit lost. Would you mind to answer a few questions?

First, can you paste your version of gnome-cups-manager and hplip? You can find it out by writing "dpkg -l gnome-cups-manager hplip" in a terminal.

Second, when you say "I use the detected local HP printer", what do you mean? Do you modifiy CUPS configuration directly (through a file or the webinterface) ?

Third, does hp-info works for both printers or only for one of them? If it doesn't work, what is the output using -ldebug? Could you try "hp-probe -ldebug" as well?

Fourth, can you currently print with both printers?

Thanks for your patience.

[Richard Kleeman (kleeman)]

gnome-cups-man gives 0.31-1.1ubuntu
hplip gives 0.9.7-4ubuntu1

When I launch the gnome print tool and add a printer there are two detected printers:

hp photosmart 7550

AND

HP photosmart_7550

The second one is detected by hplip-toolbox but the first is not. I did nothing for these printers to be detected.

hp-info gives

Using device: hp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E

and much data about this printer. It does not show the network printer (laserjet 1200 on 192.168.0.150). If I add -ldebug I get the following additional lines of output:

[DEBUG]: Sending data on channel (3)
 [DEBUG]: 'msg=probedevicesfiltered\nfilter=none\nbus=usb,par,cups\nformat=default\ntimeout=5\nttl=4\n'
 [DEBUG]: Reading data on channel (3)
 [DEBUG]: 'msg=probedevicesfilteredresult\nresult-code=0\nnum-devices=1\nencoding=none\nlength=60\ndata:\nhp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E,photosmart_7550\n'
 [DEBUG]: ['hp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E']
 [DEBUG]: [<cupsext.Printer object at 0xb7a15a98>, <cupsext.Printer object at 0xb7a15b88>, <cupsext.Printer object at 0xb7a15bb0>, <cupsext.Printer object at 0xb7a1b430>]
 Using device: hp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E
 [DEBUG]: URI: backend=hp, is_hp=True, bus=usb, model=photosmart_7550, serial=CN33I4116P7E, dev=, host=, port=1
 [DEBUG]: Model/UI model: photosmart_7550/HP Photosmart 7550

 [DEBUG]: Sending data on channel (5)
 [DEBUG]: 'msg=opendevice\ndevice-uri=hp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E\n'
 [DEBUG]: Reading data on channel (5)
 [DEBUG]: 'msg=opendeviceresult\nresult-code=0\n'
 [DEBUG]: Sending data on channel (5)
 [DEBUG]: 'msg=querymodel\ndevice-uri=hp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E\n'
 [DEBUG]: Reading data on channel (5)
 [DEBUG]: 'msg=querymodelresult\ncopy-type=0\nscan-type=0\nfax-type=0\nr0-agent3-sku=58 (C6658A)\ntech-type=2\nio-support=2\npcard-type=1\nio-mode=1\nio-scan-port=0\nr0-agent1-sku=56 (C6656A)\nr0-agent2-sku=57 (C6657A)\ncolor-cal-type=3\nr0-agent3-kind=3\npanel-check-type=0\ntech-class=DJGenericVIP\nr0-agent2-type=2\npq-diag-type=0\nclean-type=1\nresult-code=0\nalign-type=1\nicon=photosmart_7550.png\nr0-agent1-type=1\nsupport-type=2\nlinefeed-cal-type=0\nstatus-type=2\nmodel-ui=HP Photosmart 7550\nio-mfp-mode=2\nembedded-server-type=0\nr0-agent3-type=3\nr0-agent2-kind=3\nio-control=0\nr0-agent1-kind=3\nmodel=photosmart_7550\n'
 [DEBUG]: Sending data on channel (5)
 [DEBUG]: 'msg=querydevice\ndevice-uri=hp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E\n'
 [DEBUG]: Reading data on channel (5)
 [DEBUG]: 'msg=querydeviceresult\ncups-printers=PhotoSmart-7550\nagent1-hp-ink=False\nagent3-hp-ink=False\nagent2-hp-ink=False\nis-hp=True\n3bit-status-name=NoFault\ntop-door=1\nin-tray1=True\nagent3-sku=58 (C6658A)\ndevice-uri=hp:/usb/photosmart_7550?serial=CN33I4116P7E\nphoto-tray=1\npanel-line1=\npanel-line2=\nagent2-sku=57 (C6657A)\nagent2-desc=Tri-color cartridge\ndevice-state=0\nagent1-health=0\n3bit-status-code=24\nagent3-type=3\npanel=0\nagent3-desc=Photo cartridge\ndev-file=\nstatus-desc=The printer is idle.\nagent3-id=11\nagent3-known=False\nagent2-id=10\nagent2-kind=3\nagent2-type=2\nagent2-level=82\nag...

[Manuel López-Ibáñez (manuellopezibanez)]

Please, correct me if I am wrong...

You can print well with both printers. And gnome printer configuration configures the USB one correctly.

Excuse me, I don't get it. Please, could you elaborte what the problem is?

The fact that the same printer is listed twice (slightly different printer names) is bug 32302.

Configuring HPLIP network printers is bug 27239.

You may subscribe to that bugs.

[Richard Kleeman (kleeman)]

Your summary of my situation is essentially correct and those two bugs (later than mine) cover most of my issues.

The remaining issue NOT covered is that I don't know how to get the networked printer to show up in the hp-toolbox frontend. This is useful because it (the frontend) shows supply levels and other detailed info on the printer.

As I understand it you need to use the uri like

hp:/net/HP_LaserJet_1200?ip=192.168.0.150

when installing the printer in order that hp-toolbox can see it.
I don't know how to do this. gnome print manager will not allow an hp:/ network address and the cups interface seems locked down for security reasons so I can't use the recipe for this situation described on the hplip webpage.

[Manuel López-Ibáñez (manuellopezibanez)]

In order to show up in the HP toolbox the printer must be configured to use the HPLIP backend (hp:/net/). Currently, this cannot be done in GNOME for network printers. That is what bug 27239 is about. You can do it in KDE. Alternatively, if you unlock the cups interface (I don't know how) you may be able to put the uri there.

Since it seems everything is covered now, I will close this bug. Feel free to keep discussing each of the issues in their corresponding bug reports.

Thanks for the bug report.