Ubuntu 12.04 - Printer not recognized by USB-HELP!

[Daddyo-613]

My Host System:
O/S: Ubuntu 12.04 (precise)
Kernel: 3.2.0-32-generic-pae
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU @ 2.40GHz
VMWare Player: 5.0.1 build-894247

My Problem: My printer is an HP 6P LaserJet parallel printer connected to my system via a USB port using a converter cable.

The system used to recognize my printer but doesn't anymore.
I had uninstalled the printer and now I can't get it back.

Tests Performed: I connected a flash drive to the usb port and it is recognized right away so I know the port is working.

I've been unloading and loading printer related packages without success. I may have removed something need but I can't tell anymore.

I would really like some help to fix this. I know it can be done because this printer connected to a usb port was working before.

[offgridguy]

Please don't take this the wrong way , but is the printer turned on? I did it myself, couldn't
understand why i was getting no response.

[Daddyo-613]

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes the printer is turned on. It could happen but not this time.

[alenis]

Some printers don't work anymore with Ubuntu. I had the same problem with my Brother MFC8840D and I had to switch to Debian to make it work again, along with my webcam which stopped to work with 12.04 as well.

[Daddyo-613]

Well interestingly enough this printer "HP 6P LaserJet" did work on my system this morning. I've printed a test page from the printer itself so I know the printer is working.

Somehow, I've changed something since this morning and the system is no longer recognizing this particular printer.

I've been checking out this site https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems but I could use some help interpreting what I'm supposed to do.

Parallel Port Capability seems to be present:

~$ lsmod | grep parport_pc
parport_pc             32114  0 
parport                40930  3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp

But Autoprobe doesn't seem to exist:

sudo cat /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport*/autoprobe*
cat: /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport*/autoprobe*: No such file or directory

I think the solution is there somewhere.

[pdc]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HpAllInOne

have you had a read at this wiki

various seemingly useful commands

sudo hp-setup

Troubleshooting

sudo hp-check -r

This will summarize any installation errors.

as you would know ........from here..........

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web...serjet_6p.html

....your printer should work .........

....you presumably have hplip installed http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

[Daddyo-613]

Thanks to PDC for the message.

The "sudo hp-setup" opens a GUI to detect a usb or network printer etc.

The "sudo hp-check -r" command produced some interesting results which I've posted below. They are lengthly but seem to confirm that the required files are present.

~$ sudo hp-check -r

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.12.10a)
Dependency/Version Check Utility ver. 14.3

Copyright (c) 2011-14 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

Note: hp-check can be run in three modes:
1. Compile-time check mode (-c or --compile): Use this mode before compiling the
HPLIP supplied tarball (.tar.gz or .run) to determine if the proper dependencies
are installed to successfully compile HPLIP.                                    
2. Run-time check mode (-r or --run): Use this mode to determine if a distro    
supplied package (.deb, .rpm, etc) or an already built HPLIP supplied tarball   
has the proper dependencies installed to successfully run.                      
3. Both compile- and run-time check mode (-b or --both) (Default): This mode    
will check both of the above cases (both compile- and run-time dependencies).   

Saving output in log file: hp-check.log

Initializing. Please wait...
 
---------------
| SYSTEM INFO |
---------------

Basic system information:
Linux stephen-P5K-Office 3.2.0-32-generic-pae #51-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 26 21:54:23 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Distribution:
ubuntu 12.04

Checking Python version...
OK, version 2.7.3 installed

Checking PyQt 4.x version...
OK, version 4.9.1 installed.

Checking for CUPS...
Status: scheduler is running
Version: 1.5.3
error_log is set to level: warn

Checking for dbus/python-dbus...
dbus daemon is running.
python-dbus version: 1.0.0


------------------------
| RUNTIME DEPENDENCIES |
------------------------


Checking for dependency: CUPS - Common Unix Printing System...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: GhostScript - PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PIL - Python Imaging Library (required for commandline scanning with hp-scan)...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PolicyKit - Administrative policy framework...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PyQt 4 DBus - DBus Support for PyQt4...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python DBus - Python bindings for DBus...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python libnotify - Python bindings for the libnotify Desktop notifications...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python XML libraries...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python 2.3 or greater - Required for fax functionality...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Reportlab - PDF library for Python...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: SANE - Scanning library...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: scanimage - Shell scanning program...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: xsane - Graphical scanner frontend for SANE...
OK, found.


----------------------
| HPLIP INSTALLATION |
----------------------


Currently installed HPLIP version...
HPLIP 3.12.10a currently installed in '/usr/share/hplip'.

Current contents of '/etc/hp/hplip.conf' file:
# hplip.conf.  Generated from hplip.conf.in by configure.

[hplip]
version=3.12.10a

[dirs]
home=/usr/share/hplip
run=/var/run
ppd=/usr/share/ppd/hplip/HP
ppdbase=/usr/share/ppd/hplip
doc=/usr/share/doc/hplip-3.12.10a
icon=/usr/share/applications
cupsbackend=/usr/lib/cups/backend
cupsfilter=/usr/lib/cups/filter
drv=/usr/share/cups/drv/hp

# Following values are determined at configure time and cannot be changed.
[configure]
network-build=yes
libusb01-build=no
pp-build=no
gui-build=yes
scanner-build=yes
fax-build=yes
dbus-build=yes
cups11-build=no
doc-build=yes
shadow-build=no
hpijs-install=no
foomatic-drv-install=no
foomatic-ppd-install=no
foomatic-rip-hplip-install=no
hpcups-install=yes
cups-drv-install=yes
cups-ppd-install=no
internal-tag=3.12.10a
restricted-build=no
ui-toolkit=qt4
qt3=no
qt4=yes
policy-kit=no
hpijs-only-build=no
lite-build=no
udev-acl-rules=yes
udev_sysfs_rules=no
hpcups-only-build=no
hpijs-only-build=no


Current contents of '/var/lib/hp/hplip.state' file:
# hplip.state - HPLIP runtime persistent variables. 

[plugin]
installed=0
eula=0



Current contents of '~/.hplip/hplip.conf' file:
[upgrade]
notify_upgrade=true
last_upgraded_time=1352394638
pending_upgrade_time=0
latest_available_version=3.12.10a

[scan_plugins]
bb_marvell.so=Present
bb_soapht.so=Present
bb_soap.so=Present

[fax_plugins]
fax_marvell.so=Present

[print_plugins]
lj.so=Present

[settings]
systray_visible=1
systray_messages=0

[last_used]
device_uri="hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn?serial=000000000QQ014T9SI1c"
printer_name=
working_dir=.

[commands]
scan=/usr/bin/xsane -V %SANE_URI%

[refresh]
rate=30
enable=false
type=1

[polling]
enable=false
interval=5
device_list=

[fax]
voice_phone=
email_address=


--------------------------
| DISCOVERED USB DEVICES |
--------------------------

No devices found.

---------------------------------
| INSTALLED CUPS PRINTER QUEUES |
---------------------------------

 
lpstat
------
Type: Unknown
Device URI: No destinations added.


----------------------
| SANE CONFIGURATION |
----------------------

'hpaio' in '/etc/sane.d/dll.conf'...
OK, found. SANE backend 'hpaio' is properly set up.

Checking output of 'scanimage -L'...
 
No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something different,
check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and detected by the
sane-find-scanner tool (if appropriate). Please read the documentation
which came with this software (README, FAQ, manpages).


---------------------
| PYTHON EXTENSIONS |
---------------------

Checking 'cupsext' CUPS extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'pcardext' Photocard extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'hpmudext' I/O extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'scanext' SANE scanning extension...
OK, found.


 
---------------
| USER GROUPS |
---------------

root

error: User needs to be member of group 'lp' to enable print, scan & fax.
error: User needs to be member of group 'lpadmin' to manage printers.

-----------
| SUMMARY |
-----------

No errors or warnings.

Could it be that I have to load something that reports to the system that I have a serial or parallel port even if its only emulated?

[pdc]

is there anything in this thread of help to you?

http://vanilla.slitaz.org/index.php?...ted-in-cups/p1

[Daddyo-613]

PDC:

I opened the page you referred to above and executed the commands here are the results:

~$ lsmod | grep lp
lp                     17455  0 
parport                40930  3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp

~$ dmesg | grep par
[    0.000000] Booting paravirtualized kernel on bare hardware
[    0.000000] vt handoff: transparent VT on vt#7
[    0.373295] hpet0: 4 comparators, 64-bit 14.318180 MHz counter
[    1.000060] ahci 0000:03:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part 
[   13.850034] type=1400 audit(1352940809.290:2): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/sbin/dhclient" pid=448 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   13.850448] type=1400 audit(1352940809.290:3): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-dhcp-client.action" pid=448 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   13.850685] type=1400 audit(1352940809.290:4): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/connman/scripts/dhclient-script" pid=448 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   14.537200] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[   14.572623] type=1400 audit(1352940810.014:5): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf" pid=847 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   14.573150] type=1400 audit(1352940810.014:6): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/sbin/cupsd" pid=847 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   14.697805] type=1400 audit(1352940810.138:7): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" name="/sbin/dhclient" pid=893 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   14.698231] type=1400 audit(1352940810.138:8): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" name="/usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-dhcp-client.action" pid=893 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   14.698471] type=1400 audit(1352940810.138:9): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm/lightdm-guest-session-wrapper" pid=892 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   14.698480] type=1400 audit(1352940810.138:10): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" name="/usr/lib/connman/scripts/dhclient-script" pid=893 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   14.701608] type=1400 audit(1352940810.142:11): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5" pid=896 comm="apparmor_parser"

~$ ls -l /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport*/autoprobe*
ls: cannot access /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport*/autoprobe*: No such file or directory

~$ lpinfo -v
network https
network lpd
direct hp
network ipp
network http
network ipp14
network socket
network beh
network ipps
network smb
direct hpfax

~$ /usr/lib/cups/backend/parallel and sudo /usr/lib/cups/backend/parallel
and they both brought me back to the command line.

I presume that this tells me that "lp", "parport" and "parport_pc" modules are loaded but that there is no physical parallel port detected on my machines. This makes sense since I don't have a physical parallel port and my parallel printer is connected to my system through a parallel to usb cable.

Is this of any help?

[pdc]

others are reporting similar problems .......

eg Mr P's posts near the end of this Mint thread (Mint is derived from ubuntu)

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=109243

and here

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=116453

........I do not have the solution .......