No PPD for Deskjet 6540

[Johannes Meixner]

HPLIP does not provide a PPD where the NickName
entry contains "Deskjet 6540" so that users cannot find
a matching PPD for this model, see
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=392107

For each kind of model name which is listed at
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/combined.html
there must be a PPD with a matching NickName entry.

There is no ned to have a PPD for each of several similar
model names (e.g. "Deskjet 6540", "Deskjet 6540dt", "Deskjet 6540xi",
and "Deskjet 6540d") when all belong to the same device class.

What is strange is that all those models are listed in models.dat
in the [deskjet_6500] section:
------------------------------------------------------
[deskjet_6500]
model1=Deskjet 6520
model2=Deskjet 6500
model3=Deskjet 6520xi
model4=Deskjet 6540
model5=Deskjet 6540d
model6=Deskjet 6540xi
model7=Deskjet 6543
model8=Deskjet 6543d
model9=Deskjet 6548
model10=Deskjet 6540dt
------------------------------------------------------
but the only available PPD is for the "DeskJet 6520":
-------------------------------------------------------
# lpinfo -l -m | grep -i deskjet | egrep '6500|6520|6540|6543|6548'
Model: name = manufacturer-PPDs/hplip/hp-deskjet_6500-hpijs.ppd.gz
        make-and-model = HP DeskJet 6520 Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.4.2
        device-id = MFG:HP;MDL:deskjet 6500;DES:deskjet 6500;
-------------------------------------------------------

[Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount)]

Johannes,

Thanks for the report.

Dave in the drv file I only see:

    ModelName "HP DeskJet 6520 Foomatic/hpijs"
    PCFileName "hp-deskjet_6500-hpijs.ppd"
    Attribute "1284DeviceID" "" "MFG:HP;MDL:deskjet 6500;DES:deskjet 6500;"
  }

Where it should have the other models I think?

A

[David Suffield (david-suffield)]

With HPLIP 2.8.6b we collapsed many PPDs into one since they have the same device-id. The Deskjet 6540 is in the hp-deskjet_6500-hpijs.ppd file. This PPD file has 10 "*Product:" entries including the "*Product: HP Deskjet 6540".

-dave

[Johannes Meixner (jsmeix)]

I fear CUPS may not interpret multiple "*Product" entries
as you assume and I am not sure if multiple "*Product"
entries in one PPD are really the right way to have
one PPD for several models according to the PPD spec.

In the end all what matters is if "lpinfo -l -m" shows
the different individual models or not.

The reason is that all printer setup tools which work
in compliance to CUPS use the "lpinfo -l -m" output
(and by the way "lpinfo -l -v" for device discovery)
or run equivalent CUPS library calls.

I.e. you should verify what "lpinfo" results for readymade PPDs,
drivers which generate PPDs, and backends to make sure
that usual printer setup tools can work well with HPLIP
under the current CUPS (even if there might be a missing
functionality in the current CUPS).

I think currently the best way is to list several model names
(with the same device ID) in the "*NickName" like
"HP DeskJet 6500/6520/6540/6543/6548 Foomatic/hpijs"
or something like
"HP DeskJet 6500 series (6500/6520/6540/6543/6548) Foomatic/hpijs"
so that you can omit the individual number listing "(6500/6520/6540/6543/6548)"
in the "*ShortNickName" entry which has a very limited length.

[David Suffield (david-suffield)]

Well I don't think its practical to list all models (ie: *Product) in the "*Nickname" attribute. This would make the *Nickname string too long for many PPDs. There are many PPDs with more than the 10 models listed.

For the hp-deskjet_6500-hpijs.ppd the reason we use "HP Deskjet 6500" instead of "HP Deskjet 6500 series" in the NickName is that "series" was not in the device-id MDL: field.

I can see where this could be a problem with manual PPD selection by the user, but it should not be a problem with automatic selection. Automatic selection based on the device-id MDL: field should be easy to match with the NickName.

Auto selection seems to be the norm now, not manual selection.

-dave

[Johannes Meixner (jsmeix)]

Auto selection should first try to match using the device ID field
if such a filed is provided and then fall back to some "best guess"
matching attempt based on the NickName.

"lpinfo -l -m" for the hp-deskjet_6500-hpijs.ppd results for me
(using HPLIP 2.8.4 what we provide for openSUSE 11.0,
 note the wrong model number in the NickName):
------------------
  name = manufacturer-PPDs/hplip/hp-deskjet_6500-hpijs.ppd.gz
  natural_language = en
  make-and-model = HP DeskJet 6520 Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.4.2
  device-id = MFG:HP;MDL:deskjet 6500;DES:deskjet 6500;
------------------

An auto selection tool should find this PPD for all models
where the hp backend reports a matching device-id
i.e. where the device-id in the "lpinfo -l -v" output
matches to the device-id in the "lpinfo -l -m" output.

Therefore I do not fully understand why the NickName must
match when you provide correct device ID strings?

Only if there is no device ID information available,
an auto selection tool would try some "best guess" match
using the NickName.

But even in this case I do not fully understand
how a current NickName like
"HP DeskJet 6500 Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.4.2"
with all the additional stuff after the actual model name
should match better than one more word "series" like in
"HP DeskJet 6500 series Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.4.2"

If the "best guess" match works for the one NickName,
it should also work for the other one.

The NickName is THE string which is shown to the user
and therefore it must be appropriate for human understanding.

In particular when device auto detection is not possible
for whatever reason (e.g. when the printer is connected
to another host so that the hp backend cannot detect it
or when another backend is used - e.g. when printing
via SAMBA), it is the NickName which must be appropriate
so that the user can manually find the right driver for the printer.

[Johannes Meixner (jsmeix)]

Still not solved for openSAUSE 11.1 with HPLIP 2.8.7.
There is still no PPD for a DeskJet 6540, see
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=471243

The only available PPD is now:
"HP Deskjet 6500 Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.7.3"

If the NickName was at least
"HP Deskjet 6500 series Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.7.3"
it would at least indicate to an unexperienced user
that this PPD might also work for a DeskJet 6540.

I would really appreciate it if the issue gets solved.

[Adhir K Saxena (adhir-hplip)]

Hi Johannes,

What is the device-id or USB enumeration for customer's Deskjet 6540? It seems David Suffield had asked for the same information on the link https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=471243,
The HP backend detects the model and the respective driver based on the device-id. Without this information we will not be able to proceed on this issue.

Also since this bug has remained open for more than 9 months without any activity, I would change the importance to Low.

Thanks,
~Adhir