The printer name is not shown in the Device Manager but only the printer type

[Ralph Janke]

Binary package hint: hplip

Since there might be multiple printers of the same type in a network, it is very inconvenient not to have their names, but only their type displayed in the left sidebar. Also the titlebar only shows the printer type not the name.

[Ralph Janke (txwikinger)]

Here is a screenshot.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Don, Raghu, can you fix this? Thanks.

[dwelch91 (dwelch91)]

This was a design decision. The device manager manages devices, not printers (queues installed in CUPS). As such, printers that are of the same type will appear the same in the device list with the exception of the device URI in the status bar area. This was done because most functions and tools operate on the device as a whole, not as individual printer queues (for example, no matter how many queues there are, there is only 1 clean cartridges tool or one ink/toner display). If the device manager showed printers instead, all the tools and functions for the device would be duplicated for each printer queue that is installed for that device. There is no plan at this point to change this.

There is one workaround, and one possible enhancement that would help with this:

Workaround:
Change to the print settings or print control tabs. These tabs show the installed printer queue(s) in a combo box at the top. Also, if you know the IP address of a network printer, refer to the status bar at the bottom.

Enhancement:
Show the first printer queue for the device or a list of printer queues in a hover callout or in the status bar along with the device uri. I will look into these possibilities.

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello Ralph,
Thank you for submitting this feature/enhancement request for the hplip package. You made this request quite some time ago and Ubuntu has been updated since then.

Do you think this feature/enhancement is still needed or can we close this bug report?

Thank you again for helping make Ubuntu better.
G
[Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for hplip (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]