USB colorlaserjet 5550 fails with invalid write_ecp_channel

[Johannes Meixner]

HPLIP 3.9.8
CUPS 1.3.9

We (i.e. Novell/Suse) investigate a currently non-public bug report
for Suse Linux Enterprise Server/Desktop 11:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=566649

Here a Color LaserJet 5550 (but perhaps other printers too)
connected as
hp:/usb/HP_Color_LaserJet_5550?serial=00000EN02T7P
does not print anything because it fails with error messages
in /var/log/messages
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
... hp[30549]: io/hpmud/musb.c 216: invalid write_ecp_channel: Broken pipe
... hp[30549]: prnt/backend/hp.c 743: ERROR: cannot open channel PRINT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Similar error messages occur for "hp-test" or "hp-testpage" like
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
... python: io/hpmud/hpmud.c 632: invalid channel_write state
... python: io/hpmud/pml.c 461: GetPml channel_write failed ret=31
... python: io/hpmud/hpmud.c 613: invalid channel_close state
... python: io/hpmud/musb.c 216: invalid write_ecp_channel: Broken pipe
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

It works fine if the generic CUPS 'usb' backend is used
(i.e. when the DeviceURI is 'usb://HP/...').
Therefore - from my non-USB-expert point of view - it looks similar to
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=462048#c23
for which we already filed this bug report:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/344571

First of all I would be interested in some information
whether or not both issues are singular special error cases
which happen for example only for a particular combination
of printer model and USB hardware in the computer
or whether the issues are a more general case.

Of course it does not happen in any case because
it works well for my HP LaserJet 1220 on my worksation
but I don't know how often such issues could happen.

Perhaps the 'hp' backend might be not yet sufficiently
robust against whatever kind of USB failures?
Or is the root cause perhaps in libusb (because
the 'hp' backend uses libusb but the CUPS 'usb' backend
in CUPS 1.3 uses the usblp kernel module)?

[Johannes Meixner (jsmeix)]

We have tried more than two different computers
with the same printer HP Color LaserJet 5550
so that the issue seems to be a more general issue
at least for this particular printer model.

[Johannes Meixner (jsmeix)]

This expired question looks similar
https://answers.launchpad.net/hplip/+question/53133
---------------------------------------------------------------------
We have several HP 4650 printers and a 4300 B&W.
Getting the same issue with ALL HP LaserJet printers
connected via USB. I also have a local OfficeJet K550
that prints just fine through USB
---------------------------------------------------------------------
which makes it look an even more general issue.

In contrast to the user there who has 64-bit
we got the issue also on 32-bit architecture.

[mario dejung (other-dejung)]

I have a similar problem with an HP Color LaserJet 5225dn using network connection...

Are there any solutions right now?