How to install a printer driver

OfficeJet == InkJet... D'oh! Sorry. Glad you got it working. I agree about the drivers... but things have come a long way from when I started several years ago. I think CUPS (the printing system) still needs a bit of improvement. I honestly hate having to print or install printers or anything with Cups. Whenever I hit the print button, it's like, "OK... what obnoxious print dialog is this application going to give me?

Woohoo! I figured it out. I hadn't noticed the letter 's' on the end of 'hpij' so originally, I'd typed this:- sudo apt-get install hpij I now added an extra 's' on the end, like this:- sudo apt-get install hpijs and something got installed and now it works!! At the risk of ranting, I must say that driver installtion is a really big weakness in Linux. The ones that get installed during installation seem to work okay - but it's a nightmare if you need to install some drivers later. Whether it be a graphics driver, sound card driver, printer driver, driver for my broadband modem or whatever, I think I've pretty much had 100 percent failure record. Yes, you can get things working eventually but this always takes days - if not weeks!! No Windows or Mac user would put up with this. Thanks to everyone who helped out... :-)

Okay - I just tried both of those links. The first one (running foomatic-rip by hand) seemed to produce no errors - except that I expected to see a job in the printer's job list but I didn't. Nothing got printed, of course (could this be due to the lack of hpij?) Next I tried to print the test page manually using:- lpr /usr/share/gnome-cups-manager/xd2-testpage-letter.eps This produces the error:- bash: lpr: command not found

Those links look interesting so I'll spend some time with them today.... BTW:- " FWIW, you shouldn't need hpijs. That's for ink jets. " The OfficeJet-G85 *IS* an inkjet, so maybe that's part of the problem too.

FWIW, you shouldn't need hpijs. That's for ink jets. Does this help any? Basically, they tried running foomatic-rip by hand and got a more descriptive error message. In that message, they were missing a library. Or possibley this: here? In that message, the test page was the problem. HTH

Hi gabrbedd - ACAFCT those packages weren't installed. I typed apt-get install hpoj which seemd to do something. Next, I tried apt-get install hplip (which also seemed to do something) but apt-get install hpij produced an error saying the package couldn't be found. Carrying on regardless, I next tried running hp-setup. This took me through a set of instructions for setting up the correct (USB) port (where a G85 printer was successfully detected) and finally, I ended up with a new (i.e. 3rd) OfficeJet G85 printer icon. I made this the default and tried to print a test page. No luck... :-( Next I removed the other two printer icons and tried again - but still nothing comes out of the printer. However, if I open the properties dialog, at least I can see what looks like a sensible status error:- "Failed to open device. Will retry in 30 seconds". Still can't get any data to go to the printer though... :-( [Edit...] Oh, BTW - here are the most recent entries from the error log:- E [06/Jul/2008:16:04:18 +0100] cupsdAuthorize: Local authentication certificate not found! E [06/Jul/2008:16:04:18 +0100] cupsdAuthorize: Local authentication certificate not found! E [06/Jul/2008:16:05:23 +0100] [Job 11] /undefined in ESPwl E [06/Jul/2008:16:05:23 +0100] PID 8501 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip) stopped with status 3!

Foomatic converts the postscript to the native language for the printer. So, if it failed it's probably because it didn't have the right driver installed or something. Look at /var/log/cups/error_log for clues. Make sure that you have the hpoj and hpij packages like this: $ dpkg-query --list hpoj hplip | grep ^ii ii hplip 1.6.10-3etch1 HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (HPLIP) ii hpoj 0.91-12 HP OfficeJet Linux driver (hpoj) $ If you don't have them, apt-get them. As root, run the hp-setup: $ sudo hp-setup --gui This is a wizard to help you set up your HP printer. HTH.

No improvement really.... I tried the new procedure which produced a 2nd printer of the same type as the original one (slightly different name but the same properties dialog). After trying to print those documents the Properties->General tab was showing this error status:- Printing: /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip failed I pressed the button marked 'Become Administrator'. This changed the status to 'Ready' but I still can't print any documents.... :-(

Hi! The normal procedure doesn't work for my printer either. Unlike yours my model (HP Deskjet 3650) is not listed in step 2 though. Anyway, the following have worked for me and I hope it will work for you too: Search for your printer at http://openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi Download the PPD Again in your web browser type http://localhost:631/ Add printer, select the default device and provide the PPD file you previously downloaded Go to printers tab and set printer options Print test page Try with a document. If you have success you'll see your printer up and running at the gnome printing manager too. I hope this helps Pablo

Thanks for your help guys, As Quentin might remember, my experience of Linux tends to be that everything looks like it's going to work - but very little of it actually does. I usually get things working eventually but almost nothing works 'out of the box'. Porisija - typing that command into a terminal window produced this output:- 4453 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd 5146 pts/0 R+ 0:00 grep cupsd I don't know whether that means anything - but that's what I get. Quentin - I went through your procedure and ended up with a new printer icon called:- Officejet-G85---CUPS+Gutenprint-v5.0.0 I selected it as the default printer and tried to print some documents. Here's what I observed:- 1) The printer icon says 'Ready' regardless of whether the printer is online or not. 2) If I try to print a document (in this case, a PDF page) it 'goes through the motions' but nothing gets printed. The document gets listed in the 'print jobs' page and eventually disappears (as though it's been printed) but nothing comes out of the printer. In fact, I can tell from the display that no data is even getting sent to the printer. 3) If I open the printer's 'Properties' dialog and ask it to print a test page, the test document appears in 'print jobs' list but its status is 'stopped' (and it can't be re-started). Does any of that get us anywhere??

Your printer seems to be supported according to this site: http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-OfficeJet_G85 Try to find out if CUPS is running in your system (open a terminal: alt-F2 - gnome-terminal): ps ax | grep cupsd If this command returns a line with cupsd, the printing system (Common Unix Print Daemon - CUPS) is running and should have loaded your printer driver. If not, try as root: /etc/init.d/cupsd start Installing a driver after main installation is somewhat pointless because if CUPS is installed it includes all available drivers. HP ink jet driver (hpijs) is a generic driver that supports most HP products.

If you open the gmome menu, click Desktop --> Administration --> Printing. The printing dialog opens, and asks for root password. open "New printer" In the dialog select local printer, and then select your printer in the list, and install. Should work after that...