How to install HPLIP on Isadora (main, x64) for Officejet.

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aehjr1

How to install HPLIP on Isadora (main, x64) for Officejet.

Post by aehjr1 »

I have an HP Officejet 6500 e709n wireless all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax. Mint detects the printer right away, of course, and sets up all required drivers, but the full HPLIP software shows ink status, scanning controls, etc. all in one place which I prefer. As my first foray into HPLIP on Gloria (Mint 7, main, 32-bit) took several tries (and failures) and quite a bit of research, I thought I'd share this success story. I hope this helps someone.

1) Go here to start the process. Selection of distribution is the key here, you must select Ubuntu/10.04--HP's support for Mint lags quite a bit and they show Mint 8 (Helena) as the latest. Fill in the printer info and click download to redirect to mirror for download, then click Back to get HP's install directions page.

2) Open a terminal and change to directory you downloaded the file. You should see one file downloaded, in my case, named "hplip-3.10.5.run" Following HP's instructions (on web site) type "sh hplip-3.10.5.run" on command line. This should create a new directory to extract the file contents to, verify the file integrity, and extract the file.

3) Select installation mode "automatic" by typing "a" and Enter. You will be prompted to close any running package application (Synaptic).

4) The installation will correctly detect you are running "Linux Mint 9" and ask for confirmation. This is where you need to say No! Type "n" to get some menus where you need to select "Ubuntu" (should be option 7), and "10.04" (should be option 13). The installer should respond the "Distro set to: Ubuntu 10.04."

5) Type in your user password when prompted.

6) Read the Installation Notes, then press Enter to continue. As I have a network printer, I disregard the statement about having to quit the installer before the printer setup stage...direct connect printers will have to actually do that, but that comes later.

7) Get some coffee, tea, etc. while dependencies are being downloaded and installed. (Note this requires an active Internet connection.) This will take anywhere from 5-10 minutes (seems longer) depending upon what's missing. My missing dependencies (I installed Isadora 5 days ago, not many updates):
INSTALL MISSING REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
-------------------------------------
warning: There are 7 missing REQUIRED dependencies.
note: Installation of dependencies requires an active internet connection.
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: gcc (gcc - GNU Project C and C++ Compiler)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: python-devel (Python devel - Python development files)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: cups-devel (CUPS devel- Common Unix Printing System development files)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: libusb (libusb - USB library)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: libtool (libtool - Library building support services)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: cups-image (CUPS image - CUPS image development files)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: libjpeg (libjpeg - JPEG library)
Wait some more for optional dependencies.

At some point, the installs complete and you will see a warning that a previous HPLIP is installed or running and the installed will run an "apt-get remove" to get rid of the components, which may or may not work. Mine failed. The installer then states the new installation will overwrite the old components.

Keep enjoying the coffee, tea, etc. as now the build/make commences.

8 ) Just about there...build and post-build compete, you get a message prompt saying "RESTART OR RE-PLUG IS REQUIRED." This is where you have to decide what to do based on what printer you're attempting to connect. READ the ENTIRE message! If using USB-connected or parallel-connected (OMG!) you will have to quit the installer and reboot your computer. If network or wireless printer, you can type "i" to ignore and continue to the setup program.

9) If you typed "i" for ignore, you get a message telling you to ensure the printer is turned on. If you rebooted, return to a terminal and type "hp-setup" (already installed in /usr/bin). In either case you get a GUI set-up window to allow you to set up the printer you likely already have set up. In my case, I chose to manually install rather than risk any goofiness with a search as that requires only the IP address of the printer--easy to get from the Control Center -> Printing panel. The installer fills the printer name string, leaving you to fill in the description and location strings. You can print a test page at this time as well.

You're done! You will probably wish to have HPLIP start up automatically: Menu -> All -> Accessories, right-click on HP Device Manager and select "Launch when I log in."

[EDIT] Of course, now that I try to find it again, it's disappeared from the menu. I found that selecting "HP Device Manager" for auto-launching starts the full toolkit--when I wanted only the systray to start automatically. This is done by going to Menu -> Control Center -> Startup Applications -> Add, then adding command "hp-systray" with the desired name and comment strings. [/EDIT]

For me, the entire process took less than 30 minutes...much less time than writing this. :lol:
Last edited by aehjr1 on Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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merlwiz79
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Re: How to install HPLIP on Isadora (main, x64) for Officeje

Post by merlwiz79 »

Why do all of that when you can just install it from Synaptic?
That's what i did and it prints fine.
Installed hpijs, hplip, hplip-cups and hplip-data.
Then I opened Menu --> Administration --> Printing and clicked add.
I then click on the HP DeskJet F4400 that is shown under the Generic CUPS-PDF Printer.
I then make sure that under Connection that HP Linux Imaging and Printing(HPLIP) is selected.(NOT USB)
I then click Forward and it searches for the printer driver.
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aehjr1

Re: How to install HPLIP on Isadora (main, x64) for Officeje

Post by aehjr1 »

Good question. The answer is (AFAIK), without going through the download and install, you do not have access to all the HPLIP functionality, including the toolkit and systray. The toolkit is an all-in-one control to monitor printer status including ink levels, control scans and copies, align print heads etc. The systray utility allows for quick access to the toolkit and also provides additional messaging of activity. There should be approximately 30 utilities listed under /usr/bin:
me@my-laptop ~ $ ls -l /usr/bin/hp* | wc -l
30
I understand if you do not have a multi-purpose device that the standard setup is quite sufficient. It was for me until I needed to run scans. If you want the additional information available through toolkit and systray, AFAIK, this is the only way to go.
Huelani

Re: How to install HPLIP on Isadora (main, x64) for Officeje

Post by Huelani »

I want to thank the author of this article for the solution. I am new to Linux and found that after installing Mint 9, my Hp Laserjet 1018 printer would not print.
I followed your detailed instructions and it worked perfectly.
user123

Re: How to install HPLIP on Isadora (main, x64) for Officeje

Post by user123 »

Hi there!

I've got a problem with step 7.
The computer can't connect to the internet and the packages that are required to install cannot
be found with apt-get or synaptic.

Code: Select all

CHECKING FOR NETWORK CONNECTION
-------------------------------
error: 
The network appears to be unreachable. Installation cannot complete without access to
error: distribution repositories. Please check the network and try again.
What should I do now?

ps.: My printer is connected via usb to the computer and is quite old (officejet v30)!
aehjr1

Re: How to install HPLIP on Isadora (main, x64) for Officeje

Post by aehjr1 »

Ouch! Unfortunately, you will need to get that internet connection working first. If you note, instruction 7 does state you need an active internet connection; that is due to the dependencies which get satisfied during that step.
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