[Solved] Installing a HP parallel port printer

[bigal]

I am running Mint 17.2 Cinnamon on a 32 bit machine. I want to be able to use my HP Deskjet 9670 that is connected to my machine via the parallel port. When I go to “System Settings> Control Centre> Printers” and selecting “Add Printer” the parallel port connection is not visible, nor therefore, is the printer.

A search on the forum revealed this:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... er#p895926

Following advice about Googling for "change parallel port permissions linux" I found this
https://pubs.vmware.com/workstation-9/i ... 683C7.html

I also wondered if HPLIP was configured properly so ran

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 # hp-check -

(Note the "#", It means that I had changed to root. (to change to root enter su - > the hyphen is important))

The output threw lots of errors

Missing Required Dependencies
-----------------------------
error: 'libdbus-1-dev' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'libcups2' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'python3-dev' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'openssl' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'libcups2-dev' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'cups-bsd' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'cups-client' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'libjpeg8-dev' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'libsnmp-dev' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'snmp-mibs-downloader' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'libsane-dev' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'libcupsimage2-dev' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'python3-pyqt4' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'build-essential' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'libusb-1.0.0-dev' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'build-essential' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'libtool' package is missing/incompatible

Missing Optional Dependencies
-----------------------------
error: 'xsane' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'python3-notify2' package is missing/incompatible
error: 'python3-dbus.mainloop.qt' package is missing/incompatible

Total Errors: 17
Total Warnings: 2

The output then suggested this
Run 'hp-doctor' command to prompt and fix the issues.

I looked a little further and found this

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/in ... xmint.html

I seem to be getting in very deep here and as I already have a large Canon printer installed (CLC3200)
via a dedicated Canon driver that took ages to get working I am VERY unwilling to make what appears to be major changes to my system.

I am way out of my depth here. Can anyone offer a more simple solution please?

[andalen]

I am way out of my depth here. Can anyone offer a more simple solution please?

Use the USB port?

[bigal]

Hi andalen. It doesn't have a USB port, just a parallel one hence my post. The cable is at maximum parallel length as well Not so sure that a USB cable, if there was one, would reach that far.

Cheers
BigAl

[andalen]

Sorry. I had a quick look at the specs and they indicated that there should be a usb port. That may be a newer model.

[bigal]

Hi again.

Actually it is a old version. Can't remember for sure but somewhere around 12 to 15 years old. I'm probably wrong but I have certainly had it for many years. When I bought it I was running XP Pro then four or five years ago went over to Mint. When I bought it there was a network card available but I didn't buy that because the additional price was nearly 40% of the printer cost. That decision has been regretted many time. It is an excellent 2 sided A3 printer and works hard for me - up until recently when I had to do a re-installation of Mint.

Cheers
BigAl

[bigal]

Bump

[bigal]

Problem sorted. Printer now installed and working.

The solution turned out to be very easy. Change to root by entering

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su -

and enter your admin (user) password. Note that it does not show up on the screen while you type so just press 'Enter' once you have typed it. For text editing I always use 'gedit'. It comes by default with Cinnamon, so at the command prompt type

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gedit /etc/group

A fairly long list of settings will result. You only need to change one line so be careful it is the correct one. On my system it was nearer the top than the bottom of the list. The line you are looking for is:

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lp:x:7:

(That is a lower case letter 'L' at the start of the line) You need to add your own username at the end together with another colon. My username is alan so I changed the line to read

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lp:x:7:alan:

For the change to take effect you will have to reboot the computer so, while you are root simply type

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shutdown -r now

The -r tells the system to reboot. If you just want to power down and switch off completely substitute -P for the -r. Once the machine restarts you will be able to add your parallel printer. I hope this helps someone.

bigal

[alban]

Thanks! This helped me install an old PP scanner. I found that leaving the colon off at the end of my user name made it work. Now I, as user, can be a member of the lp group which made SANE work with my scanner which it could only see when looked for as root but not as a user. Also had to remove # in front of pp_mustek file and dll.conf in files/etc/saned to enable my specific scanner in SANE (for anyone else who comes here with same probs!).

[bigal]

Hi alban, I'm glad you got it working.