No support for HP LaserJet 4P after upgrade to lucid

[Stefan Pappalardo]

Binary package hint: hplip

Before upgrading to lucid I used the hplip driver für my HP LaserJet 4P without a problem.
Since lucid the printing is very slow and often produces garbage output.
When adding a new printer there is no choice für hplip (or hpijs).
There is no ppd in /usr/share/ppd for my driver and hplip-gui
says there is no supported device when starting device setup.
Other drivers like gutenprint cannot even print pdf output.
I can't see any working solution for the HP LaserJet 4P for now :-(

Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Release: 10.04
hplip:
  Installiert: 3.10.2-2ubuntu2
  Kandidat: 3.10.2-2ubuntu2
  Versions-Tabelle:
 *** 3.10.2-2ubuntu2 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: hplip 3.10.2-2ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon May 24 00:39:22 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
Lpstat:
 device for Hewlett-Packard-HP-LaserJet-4P: parallel:/dev/lp0
 device for HP_LaserJet_4P: parallel:/dev/lp0
 device for LaserJet_4P: parallel:/dev/lp0
MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Papersize: a4
PpdFiles:
 Hewlett-Packard-HP-LaserJet-4P: HP LaserJet 4P Foomatic/hpijs (recommended) - HPLIP 2.7.10
 LaserJet_4P: HP LaserJet 4P Foomatic/hpijs (recommended)
 HP_LaserJet_4P: HP LaserJet 4P Foomatic/hpijs (recommended) - HPLIP 2.7.10
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=bababb82-6674-4346-9214-fcfc1e9a8b09 ro quiet splash locale=de_DE
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE:de:en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: hplip
dmi.bios.date: 11/14/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1017.002
dmi.board.name: A8V Deluxe
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1017.002:bd11/14/2005:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnA8VDeluxe:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Can you run the command

sudo /usr/lib/cups/filter/parallel

in a terminal window and post the output here?

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

To the developers at HP: Can you please re-introduce support for the HP LaserJet 4P? It is missing under the supported printers of current HPLIP. With older HPLIP versions it works out-of-the-box.

Please do not remove support for old HP printers from HPLIP. Thanks.

[Stefan Pappalardo (sjuk)]

I ran "sudo /usr/lib/cups/filter/parallel" in a terminal ( there is no "/usr/lib/cups/filter/parallel" on my lucid-box). Here is the output:

direct parallel:/dev/lp0 "HP LaserJet 4P" "HP LaserJet 4P LPT #1" "MANUFACTURER:Hewlett-Packard;COMMAND SET:HP ENHANCED PCL5,PJL;MODEL:HP LaserJet 4P;" ""

[Alvin Larson (alvinlarson)]

That command doesn't run, but was able to get the printer recognized by
adding "paraport_pc" to /etc/modules.

Thanks

On 05/25/2010 01:26 PM, Till Kamppeter wrote:
> Can you run the command
>
> sudo /usr/lib/cups/filter/parallel
>
> in a terminal window and post the output here?
>
>
> ** Also affects: hplip
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> ** Changed in: hplip
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> ** Changed in: hplip (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> ** Changed in: hplip (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
>
> ** Changed in: hplip
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
> ** Changed in: hplip (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
>

[Stefan Pappalardo (sjuk)]

Do you need more information from me?

[Alvin Larson (alvinlarson)]

No, I think everything is OK. It would be nice if paraport_pc were added to the Ubuntu distribution so new users wouldn't have to hunt this fix down. Thanks very much for your support.

Al

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Alvin, the parport_pc problem is addressed in bug 369850.

Stefan, no additional info needed from you. Now HP has to add this printer to their list of supported printers in HPLIP.

[[e-mail] (ruedii)]

I know that the LaserJet 4P is supported directly by Foomatic, and I don't think it has any monitoring features.

Is there a particular reason that it needs to be supported by HPLIP?

[Stefan Pappalardo (sjuk)]

I'm not sure what you mean with "LaserJet 4P is supported directly by Foomatic".

in [system-config-printer]

+ When I want to choose the printer by vendor (HP) I only get the following offers:

 HP LaserJet 4P - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.5 Simplified [en]
 HP LaserJet 4P - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.5 [en]
 HP LaserJet 4P Foomatic/lj4dith [en]
 HP LaserJet 4P Foomatic/ljet4 [en]

The "CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.5 Simplified [en]" is out of range and gives poor quality up to failures with ps- or pdf-files.
The rest does not function at all.

+ Search driver to download gives no result für "HP LaserJet 4P".

+ At the end I've no choice for quite good printing whit my printer.

+ In the past ubuntu autodetects the printer and gave him the "hpijs" driver which ist part of the "HPLIP" project. But it seams thet they had cancelled the support for my printer for no reason.

In short: I want only to get it back to work, like the past four years.

Perhaps there is something I'm doing wrong whith the Installation.
In the past it was very easy and automagically ;-)

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz (glaubitz)]

Well, there is actually a generic PPD for the HP LaserJet 4 printer in hplip:

glaubitz@zbuild:..jessie/hplip> tar tf hplip_3.15.6.orig.tar.gz |grep laserjet_4-
hplip-3.15.6/prnt/ps/hp-laserjet_4-ps.ppd.gz
glaubitz@zbuild:..jessie/hplip>

However, the hplip Debian package is buggy and doesn't install the postscript PPDs at all - the printer-driver-postscript-hp package is basically empty.

Adrian

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

The printer-driver-postscript-hp package is not empty, it contains a file with all PostScript PPDs for HP printers inside, compressed. The file is

/usr/lib/cups/driver/postscript-hp

You see all its content via

lpinfo -m | grep postscript-hp

and especially it contains the PPDs for all variants of LaserJet 4 PostScript ptinters:

postscript-hp:0/ppd/hplip/HP/hp-laserjet_4_plus-ps.ppd HP LaserJet 4 Plus v2013.111 Postscript (recommended)
postscript-hp:0/ppd/hplip/HP/hp-laserjet_4-ps.ppd HP LaserJet 4/4M PostScript 600DPI
postscript-hp:0/ppd/hplip/HP/hp-laserjet_4ml-ps.ppd HP LaserJet 4ML v2013.003 Postscript (recommended)
postscript-hp:0/ppd/hplip/HP/hp-laserjet_4mp-ps.ppd HP LaserJet 4MP v2013.103 Postscript (recommended)
postscript-hp:0/ppd/hplip/HP/hp-laserjet_4si-ps.ppd HP LaserJet 4Si/4Si MX 600 dpi v2011.110 Postscript (recommended)
postscript-hp:0/ppd/hplip/HP/hp-laserjet_4v-ps.ppd HP LaserJet 4V/4MV PostScript

printer setup tools, like system-config-printer, find all these automatically (they find every PPD which is listed by "lpinfo -m".

[dino99 (9d9)]

This should works 'out of the box' as mine does; maybe a setting/profile problem on your side
http://www.openprinting.org/printer/HP/HP-LaserJet_4