cannot disable low ink warning

[Russell Sears]

I have an HP printer, and it reports low ink when the cartridge still has a month or two of ink left in it. (By 'reports low ink', I mean it turns on a warning light for the cartridge, and the built-in diagnostic test page and hpilp report a ink level of zero). The printer has 4 cartridges, and I don't replace them all at once, so they have varying levels of ink (the current reported ink levels are "0%", 50%, 75% and 99%).

Anyway, I can't remember the last time all of the low ink warnings were off. Interestingly, the printer disables itself when it actually runs out of ink. It'd be nice if that error condition were reported by gnome (in fact it might be...)

I know there's nothing ubuntu can do to fix the ridiculously early low-ink warnings, but I wish I could make it stop reporting low ink *every time* I print a document. Ideally the setting could be made via a gui on the ubuntu machine with the printer plugged into it. I appreciate the other printer warning messages gnome reports, but the low ink one is really driving me nuts.

(I'm using ubuntu intrepid. I see the low ink warning on the print server, and two laptops...)

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in cups.
For future reference you might be interested to know that a lot of applications have bug reporting functionality built in to them. This can be accessed via the Report a Problem option in the Help menu for the application with which you are having an issue. You can learn more about this feature at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Thank you for your bug report.
I am moving it to hplip package, which seems to be more related to ink level problems than the general cups
package.

What is the model of your printer?
I mostly ask, to check if it is listed in:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/fastFaqLiteDocument?lc=en&dlc=lt&cc=lt&docname=buu01850

It also happens that the hplip project have it's bugs integrated with the same bug tool as Ubuntu.
The following bug seems related, although the problem did disappear for the bug reporter:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/255103

[Russell Sears (sears)]

Thanks for responding; it's not clear the printer drivers are doing
anything wrong, so this might belong with hplip. The bug report
probably belongs to whatever package owns the gnome notification bubble;
I think everything underneath the hood is working properly.

Unless there is a way to tweak the factory settings for the ink-level
detector, hplip is doing the best possible thing. The printer's
hardware levels are poorly calibrated, and hplip agrees with the
printer's diagnostic page (there's a led on the printer and a button
that prints out current status, etc...)

I checked the hp faq; my printer's not on the list. Unlike bug 255103,
it never prevents me from printing, and it is reproducible.

Thanks again! Honestly, this is a minor annoyance, but I'd love to turn
that message off...

-Rusty

Paul Dufresne wrote:
> Thank you for your bug report.
> I am moving it to hplip package, which seems to be more related to ink level problems than the general cups
> package.
>
> What is the model of your printer?
> I mostly ask, to check if it is listed in:
> http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/fastFaqLiteDocument?lc=en&dlc=lt&cc=lt&docname=buu01850
>
> It also happens that the hplip project have it's bugs integrated with the same bug tool as Ubuntu.
> The following bug seems related, although the problem did disappear for the bug reporter:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/255103
>
> ** Changed in: hplip (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: cups => hplip
> Status: New => Incomplete
>

[flowbot (flowbot)]

I, too, would love to see the ability to turn off the "low on ink" warnings everytime I print - I refill my cartridges, so they don't often report correct ink level. Every single time I print, it says this ... it really sucks.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Adding upstream task, as the feature needs to be implemented in the upstream HPLIP package.

[dwelch91 (dwelch91)]

I'm not positive that this addresses this enhancement request, but the next version of HPLIP (3.9.4, due out soon), will have a configurable system tray icon message bubble setting (show: All, Errors and Warnings, Errors only, or None). Setting this to "Errors only", for example, should prevent low ink warnings from showing.

[Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount)]

Retest in the next release of HPLIP. 3.9.4. Not released yet but due.

Thanks for the report.

Aaron

[xq19space (tuxlux)]

We have the same problem at the office with Epson and Brother printers. The low ink light is driving us bonkers.

[R. Diez (rdiezmail-ubuntu)]

I am having this problem with a Sharp MX-4100N. I wish I could disable this kind of warning independent from the affected printer.

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello Russell,
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]