hplip-3.17.4.run doesn't work on linux mint 18.1

[luke]

i'm running ./hplip-3.17.4.run on linux mint 18.1 (serena) and it has several issues

first it recognizes the os as debian-stretch/sid

error: debian-stretch/sid version is not supported, so all dependencies may not be installed. However trying to install using debian-8.7 version packages.

then it asks

Is "Debian stretch/sid" your correct distro/OS and version (y=yes*, n=no, q=quit) ? n

i choose no. then put in 10 for linux mint. then there's already an oddity about the options it shows

Num. Distro/OS Version
---- ----------------------------------------
0 Unknown or not listed
1 17 ("Qiana", Released 31/05/2014)
2 17.1 ("Rebecca", Released 29/11/2014)
3 17.2 ("Rafaela", Released 07/08/2015)
4 17.3 ("Rosa", Released 20/12/2015)
5 18 ("Sarah", Released 27/08/16)
6 18.1 ("Sarah", Released 27/08/16)

18.1 is not called sarah, but serena. this just seems like someone copied the same option and thought it works without changes for 18.1

however it doesn't.

when showing the dependencies i get:

Following dependencies are not installed. HPLIP will not work if all REQUIRED dependencies are not installed and some of the HPLIP features will not work if OPTIONAL dependencies are not installed.
Package-Name Component Required/Optional
libjpeg base REQUIRED
libtool base REQUIRED
cups-devel base REQUIRED
cups-image base REQUIRED
gcc base REQUIRED
libusb base REQUIRED
sane-devel scan REQUIRED
xsane scan OPTIONAL
dbus fax REQUIRED
libnetsnmp-devel network REQUIRED
libcrypto network REQUIRED
python3-notify2 gui_qt5 OPTIONAL
python3-pyqt4-dbus gui_qt4 OPTIONAL
python3-pyqt4 gui_qt4 REQUIRED
python3-pyqt5-dbus gui_qt5 OPTIONAL
python3-pyqt5 gui_qt5 REQUIRED
python3-dbus fax REQUIRED
python3-devel base REQUIRED
python3-reportlab fax OPTIONAL

and it errors out at libjpeg, because no package names libjpeg exists in 18.1.

$ apt-cache search libjpeg
libjpeg-dev - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library (dependency package)
libjpeg-turbo8 - IJG JPEG compliant runtime library.
libjpeg-turbo8-dbg - Debugging symbols for the libjpeg-turbo library
libjpeg-turbo8-dev - Development files for the IJG JPEG library
libjpeg8 - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library (dependency package)
libjpeg8-dbg - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library (dependency package)
libjpeg8-dev - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library (dependency package)
gem-plugin-jpeg - Graphics Environment for Multimedia - JPEG support
imgsizer - Adds WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes to IMG tags in HTML files
jp2a - converts jpg images to ascii
libjpeg-progs - Programs for manipulating JPEG files
libjpeg-turbo-progs - Programs for manipulating JPEG files
libjpeg-turbo-test - Program for benchmarking and testing libjpeg-turbo
libjpeg62 - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library (version 6.2)
libjpeg62-dbg - Development files for the IJG JPEG library (version 6.2)
libjpeg62-dev - Development files for the IJG JPEG library (version 6.2)
libjpeg9 - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library
libjpeg9-dbg - Development files for the IJG JPEG library
libjpeg9-dev - Development files for the IJG JPEG library

you have several versions
libjpeg62 - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library (version 6.2)
libjpeg8 - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library (dependency package)
libjpeg9 - Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime library
libjpeg-turbo8 - IJG JPEG compliant runtime library.

none of them is called libjpeg. i have several of them installed though. the installer still fails

INSTALL MISSING REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
-------------------------------------
note: Installation of dependencies requires an active internet connection.
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: libjpeg (libjpeg - JPEG library)
warning: This installer cannot install 'libjpeg' for your distro/OS and/or version.
error: Installation cannot continue without this dependency. Please manually install this dependency and re-run this installer.

i also tried other dist options: linux mint 18 and ubuntu 16.04 which share the same package base. didn't work either.

i'm running hplip without major problems on linux mint 17.3 so far.

---

for now i'm installing hplip from apt (i can print and scan, so it works)

i found it doesn't install all dependencies though.

i had to install

hplip hplip-data hplip-doc hplip-gui libhpmud0 libpython3-dbg libpython3.5-dbg libsane-hpaio printer-driver-hpcups printer-driver-postscript-hp python3-dbg python3-notify2 python3-pyqt4 python3-pyqt4-dbg python3-sip python3-sip-dbg python3.5-dbg autotools-dev build-essential g++ g++-5 libcups2-dev libcupsfilters-dev libcupsimage2-dev libdbus-1-dev libjbig-dev libjpeg-dev libjpeg-turbo8-dev libjpeg8-dev liblzma-dev libpci-dev libpng12-dev libsane-dev libsensors4-dev libsnmp-dev libssl-dev libstdc++-5-dev libtiff5-dev libtiffxx5 libtool libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libwrap0-dev smistrip snmp-mibs-downloader xsane xsane-common zlib1g-dev

this includes libtool (Installed: 2.4.6-0.1), still hp-check claims libtool is incompatible

Missing Required Dependencies
-----------------------------
error: 'libtool' package is missing/incompatible

Missing Optional Dependencies
-----------------------------
None

Total Errors: 1
Total Warnings: 0

[Jice (jici2)]

I have exactly the same errors with Mint-Sarah and hplip-3.17.6.run

[luke (jlw)]

I tried hplip-3.17.11.run in the meantime.

It seems most of the above issues were with using a custom python version through anaconda, which asks you at installation if it should add anaconda python binaries into your PATH variable. These then have priority ahead of the system version and that leads to non-detection of Linux Mint (instead Debian stretch/sid is detected).

The PATH should be cleared of these, i.e. `which python` should give the system python version (2.7.x on Linux Mint 18.x), not the anaconda version.

Also I had issues entering the password (it never accepted a correct password and failed at 3rd attempt) in the process when using LANG="en_us.UTF-8". Using LANG="C" made the password prompt it work.

so make sure you set

export LANG="C"
export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games

before running

sh ./hplip-3.17.11.run

Not sure yet if that works but at least a lot more seems to work as intended like this.

[luke (jlw)]

I can confirm that everything works now. Setting the PATH variable to use system python version is also necessary when running hp-scan and the likes (otherwise you get an error):

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/hp-scan", line 40, in <module>
    import scanext
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'scanext'