DeskJet D2660 prints calibration, then nothing else

[El Senator]

Driver: hpijs 3.10.x (I've tried 3.10.2, 3.10.5, 3.10.6 and 3.10.9, all contain the same problems)
OS: Ubuntu 10.10

My DeskJet D2660 declines to physically print anything other than the calibration sheet. When I print a test page afterwards, it tells me that a print job has been started, and then it tells me that the very same print job has completed, but nothing prints on my printer.

I have tried this with pretty much all of the 3.10.x versions and they all behave the same.

I have tried with 3.9.12, which works, but it declines to use the black cartridge, so it isn't really a solution for me as all blacks then gets printed in this mushy brown because it uses only the color cartridge. Also, the colors look weak when using the 3.9.x branch.

I have also tried the hpcups driver, which works just fine, but it won't allow me to calibrate, so everything I print have shadows because of missing print head calibration and I can't seem to find a way to calibrate when using hpcups.

So, basically, I have the hpijs driver which allows me to calibrate but not print other stuff. And then i have the hpcups driver which works just fine, but won't allow me to calibrate.

If you need any log files, please let me know which ones and I will attach them.

[Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla (samrat-hplip)]

can you please let me know what do you mean by missing print head and how are calibrating?

[El Senator (elsenator)]

I'm not sure I understand the question, but I am referring to the calibration of the ink cartridges which is found in the HP printer GUI. When using the hpijs driver i can click a "calibrate" button which then prints a sheet of paper with calibration lines on them. I then have to choose the best instance of each line and fill them in in the drowndown boxes in the GUI. This should ensure that the ink cartridges are aligned correctly so the black and color cartridges print correctly.

When using the hpijs driver this calibration sheet prints just fine, but when I am done with calibration, my printer won't print anything else no matter what software I try to print from. When printing something, the HP info box appears telling me that a print job has been started and then, a few seconds later, a new info bos appears telleing me that the print job has completed successfully, but nothing prints on the printer.

I tried the same thing with the hpcups driver, which seems to work, but this driver won't allow me to calibrate the ink cartridges, so it prints shadows when it uses both the black + color cartridges.

I hope this cleared it up a bit. I will gladly give you any information you need regarding debugging this problem. I might be a bit slow with answering when it comes to giving you output of log files and such, as the printer in question isn't mine, but is placed at a friends house, whos computer I administrate. Thanks.

[El Senator (elsenator)]

drowndown boxes == dropdown boxes, sorry.

[Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla (samrat-hplip)]

as you mentioned in the comments, you are selecting the best instance from the printed document is "alignment of cartridges". for this operation driver is not required. then, hpijs is not at all working.
hpcups, is independent from "alignment" operation. looks like hpcups is working fine.

can you please run "hp-check -t" and post the output.

Thanks,
Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla

[El Senator (elsenator)]

Yes, here it is.

[Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla (samrat-hplip)]

Installation went wrong. please install the latest version of hplip-3.10.9.
once downloaded hplip-3.10.9.run file from http://sourceforge.net/projects/hplip/files/hplip/
apply the patch given at https://answers.launchpad.net/hplip/+faq/1356

remove all your old printer queues. and add new printer queue using hp-setup.

Thanks,
Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla

[El Senator (elsenator)]

I installed the patched version of 3.10.9, removed all printer queues and reinstalled the printer using hp-setup. This seemed to work just fine.

When checking for which driver the printer uses, it listed the hpcups driver 3.10.9 as the one being used. This driver seemingly still does not use the black cartridge when printing, so unfortunately my problem persists.

I then decided to check for the hpijs driver, but this driver was only available as an old 3.10.2 version which I installed several weeks ago just prior to submitting this bug report. Is it correct that the 3.10.9 hplip package does not install a hpijs driver with a corresponding version number?

I have no idea where to go from here. I don't quite understand the difference between the hpcups driver and the hpijs driver. Are they both part of the hplip package? And is one of them getting obsolete?

Thanks for your help.

[El Senator (elsenator)]

I decided to run "hp-check -t" again, so here's the output.