Incorrectly Detects HP Fax device

[Lukas Sabota]

I'm running the lastest edgy on x86. When I choose to add a new printer, I am presented with the printer wizard, as normal. However, The "Use a Detected printer" radio button is selected by default. In this list, there is one item: "HP Fax". I have no "HP Fax" device on this machine, but rather a Samsung ML-1740.

I am ready and willing to provide more information to diagnose and fix this bug.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Is your Edgy up-to-date, especially CUPS, foomatic-db, and HPLIP?

Can you post the output of "lpinfo -v" (your printer must be connected and turned on)?

[Jon Kapla (jon-kapla)]

I have the same problem but for a HP LaserJet 6L on a "from scratch" installed edgy knot 3 fully updated to latest.

jon@elefantbajs:~$ lpinfo -v
network socket
network beh
network bluetooth
direct hp:/no_device_found
network http
network ipp
network lpd
direct parallel:/dev/lp0
direct hpfax:/no_device_found
direct canon:/dev/lp0
direct epson:/dev/lp0
network smb

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Lukas, Jon, can you tell how you connected your printer to your computer (USB, parallel, ethernet, ...)?

If your printer is on the parallel port, have it turned on while booting and run

cat /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport*/autoprobe*

If you do not have output, do (printer must be connected and turned on):

sudo rmmod lp
sudo rmmod ppdev
sudo rmmod parport_pc
sudo rmmod parport
sudo modprobe lp

Please post the screen output of each command here and continue even if a command gives an error message.

Repeat the command

cat /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport*/autoprobe*

Check your BIOS. Is your parallel port in a bi-directional mode?

If your printer is on USB, post

/proc/bus/usb/devices

and the output of

sudo lsusb -vvv

and

sudo lsmod

Lukas, can you also post your "lpinfo -v"?

What you see are two problems:

1. Your printer is not auto-detected

2. A non-existing HP Fax device is detected (to see that this is independent, turn off/disconnect your printer and the HP Fax still gets detected).

So in reality this bug report should be split into two.

(2) is fixed upstream by HPLIP 1.6.9. I am currently waiting for the Debian folks picking it up.

[Jon Kapla (jon-kapla)]

Thanks for the quick response.

My printer is connected through the parallel port:

jon@elefantbajs:~$ cat /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport*/autoprobe*
CLASS:PRINTER;
MODEL:HP LaserJet 6L;
MANUFACTURER:Hewlett-Packard;
DESCRIPTION:Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 6L Printer;

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Jon, can you set up your printer by manually choosing the parallel port and the model "HP LaserJet 6L" in the gnome-cups-manager or in the web interface of CUPS (http://localhost:631/)?

[Jon Kapla (jon-kapla)]

I tried that before, and I couldn't get it to print the test page. But now, manually adding the printer with the suggested driver works.

No auto detection though.

(side note: the printer has been auto detected fine in all releases of ubuntu since warty)

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

What is the output of "lpinfo -l -v"?

Does the web interface of CUPS auto-detect your printer model? Or does it also only show that you have one parallel port but not what is connected to it?

[Jon Kapla (jon-kapla)]

--------------------------------------------
jon@elefantbajs:~$ lpinfo -l -v
Device: uri = socket
        class = network
        info = AppSocket/HP JetDirect
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
Device: uri = beh
        class = network
        info = Backend Error Handler
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
Device: uri = bluetooth
        class = network
        info = Bluetooth printer
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
Device: uri = hp:/no_device_found
        class = direct
        info = hp no_device_found
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
Device: uri = http
        class = network
        info = Internet Printing Protocol (http)
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
Device: uri = ipp
        class = network
        info = Internet Printing Protocol (ipp)
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
Device: uri = lpd
        class = network
        info = LPD/LPR Host or Printer
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
Device: uri = parallel:/dev/lp0
        class = direct
        info = LPT #1
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
Device: uri = hpfax:/no_device_found
        class = direct
        info = no_device_found
        make-and-model = HP Fax
        device-id =
Device: uri = canon:/dev/lp0
        class = direct
        info = Parallel Port #1
        make-and-model = CANON
        device-id =
Device: uri = epson:/dev/lp0
        class = direct
        info = Parallel Port #1
        make-and-model = EPSON
        device-id =
Device: uri = smb
        class = network
        info = Windows Printer via SAMBA
        make-and-model = Unknown
        device-id =
-----------------------------------------
The cups web interface seems not to be able to detect my printer, the dropdown list shows more or less the same info as lpinfo -l -v.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

What are the permissions/ownerships of your parallel port devices?

Do

sudo ls -l /dev/lp*
sudo ls -l /dev/printers/*
sudo ls -l /dev/parallel/*

and post the output.

[Jon Kapla (jon-kapla)]

jon@elefantbajs:~$ sudo ls -l /dev/lp*
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 2006-09-28 20:02 /dev/lp0

jon@elefantbajs:~$ sudo ls -l /dev/printers/*
ls: /dev/printers/*: No such file or directory

jon@elefantbajs:~$ sudo ls -l /dev/parallel/*
ls: /dev/parallel/*: No such file or directory

[David Lechón (dalequi)]

I had the same problem with the HP Fax showing, only I have an Deskjet 840C. I pointed my web browser to 127.0.0.1:631 (the CUPS interface) and assigned the printer to LPT1, and selected the right driver. Good luck.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

The problem of the HP Fax device always showing up in printer setup tools is fixed in HPLIP 1.6.9 which made it into Edgy yesterday.