hplip installation error

[Blair Nicodemus]

Package: hplip or hplip-base (not sure)
Version: 0.9.5-2ubuntu2

Overview: HP DJ855 printer installation on Ubuntu v5.10 did not work when using
CUPS. Traced issue to hplip and cupsys startup sequence issues. Since Ubuntu
sources many packages from Debian, I have alredy logged a defect at Debian as
well, as I am not sure whether this defect must be fixed in debian, in Ubuntu,
or both.

Details: Installed CUPS, hplip and hplip-base. In troubleshooting the printing
problem, I found the following document on my system:

/usr/share/doc/hplip/hplip_readme,html

This document is authored by HP. In section 6, Installation, there is a Caveats
subsection. Caveat #5 states "The HPLIP startup script must be executed before
the CUPS startup script at boot time".

To confirm this was indeed the actual configuration, I opened the /etc/rc2.d
folder on my machine where I found the following 2 init scripts:

S19cupsys
S19hplip

These were default settings resulting from the standard CUPS installation
process and the standard hplip installation process.

In a normal boot sequence, S19hplip will load *subsequent* to S19cupsys, rather
than *prior* to S19cupsys, resulting in unknown problems.

Recommendation: Confirm with HP that load process dependency is still valid. The
point of contact at HP is David Suffield (<email address hidden>) and is
identified at the very end of the Readme file. If the dependency is still valid,
modify hplip/hplip-base installation package to install a file into the
/etc/rc2.d folder named S18hplip, rather than S19hplip.

If I can be of any assistance or provide additional information, please feel
free to contact me.

thanks,

Blair Nicodemus
<email address hidden>

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

What is the bug number of the Debian bug you filed?

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Forwarding this, since it was erroneously sent to me rather than to
Launchpad.

----- Forwarded message from <email address hidden> -----

Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2006 01:24:11 +0000
From: <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Bug 26570] Re: hplip installation error

Matt;

I'm sorry but I don't know for sure. I had it written down on some scrap paper,
but no longer have the information as this was ~2-3 months ago. I searched
Ubuntu bugzilla on hplip and reviewed all the bugs there. It appears that #3841
is the issue I raised.

FYI, I did also file the bug with Debian as Debian is Ubuntu-based and I was not
sure if the bug was in Ubuntu-specific code or in Debian-specific code. I
receive a highly critical response from a Debian developer, (whose name I don't
recall) slamming me for filing a bug in both places. Since I was using Ubuntu
his position was that the bug should have been filed with Ubuntu only, and the
Ubuntu team would escalate it to Debian as needed and as appropriate. Now I know
the process and have had my hand slapped, I won't make that mistake again.

Anyways, in his response, he indicated that it wasn't a defect. Specifically I
indicated that hplip must start before cupsys in order for cupsys to find hplip
and use it correctly but if you look at /etc.rd you can see that hplip is
starting after cupsys. My basis for my claim of what the correct start order
must be is that I read in one of the hplip release note documents on sourceforge
that this was a requirement. The document was written by HP so I assume it is
authoritative.

A digression: I was having nothing but trouble trying to get 3 different HP
printers working with Ubuntu when linuxprinting.org said all should work just
fine out of the box. That caused me to really dig into info on hplib and hpijs.
That's where I found HP documentation which I read VERY carefully. I also
searched my filesystem and found the file:

/usr/share/doc/hplip/README.Debian file

I believe this is the file where I found the startup sequencing notes. this is
what caused me to submit the bug.

That said, the Debian developer said that even though I was correct in noting
the actual service load order, that it appeared to him that code in hplip was
actually causing cupsys to restart, thus the actual start sequence is
cupsys-hplip-cupsys, i.e. the official startup sequence is cupsys followed by
hplip, but then hplip restarts cupsys.

I have no way of verifying if what the Debian developer said is true, as I'm not
that Linux-savvy.

All that said, this never did solve my problem, I never hot the HP printers
working and ended up using a Brother printer that actually worked.

It was incredibly frustrating to me that I was unable to get any of 3 different
HP printers that all should have worked flawlessly out of the box to work with
Ubuntu. If you search the Ubuntu forums on my posts (blair) or hplip, you will
find tons of posts by people with HP printers that linuxprinting.or says should
work perfectly, yet literally hundreds of users are saying it doesn't. And if
you look at all
the dozens of suggestions on how to make the printers work, A) none of t...

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

fixed in hplip (0.9.6-1ubuntu7) dapper