CUPS dependency and hplip SOLVED

[jannister]

Hi there
I'm new to Linux and my experience with pc's goes back to DOS days. (remember the Sinclair ZX 81?) I'm trying to solve a problem with my new HP deskjet 2320. I keep getting a message about CUPS dependency not being installed when I run "sh hplip-3.20.11.run" from a terminal. I know that CUPS is there but nothing I do solves the problem. Looking at the list of CUPS packages via the synaptics package manager I can see that some elements have a red spiral next to the square box on the left hand side. Can anyone tell me what this symbol means before I press on with the problem?

[antikythera]

Which release version of Mint or LMDE are you using? You may be running something too old to provide the CUPS library version required.
A red spiral is the Debian logo by the way

[jannister]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I'm using Mint 19.2. My old HP printer used to work fine before it got into a mess so I bought a non-wifi low end printer/scanner to get me out of a hole for the time being. The CUPS spooler message started to appear before my old printer had a melt down.

[Moem]

Hello Jannister, I've moved your topic out of the Chat area, because it seems to me that you'd actually like some help and that's not what Chat is about.
Best of luck, and welcome!

[kc1di]

Most likely you need a newer hplip package this page may be of help.
https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/20 ... -released/

[jannister]

Hello again
If you've moved my question out of the chat area where will I see any answers to me plea for help? I have clicked on the link to the HPLIP download page as suggested in the last reply to me and it takes me to the Sourceforge site for hplip version 3.16.7. I have downloaded this from the link and when i try to install etc I get a message saying it does not support Mint 19.

[Moem]

If you've moved my question out of the chat area where will I see any answers to me plea for help?

Right here in this very thread!

To easily find your own posts, no matter where they are: find the Quick Links menu at the left hand top of the page, open it and click Your Posts.

[jannister]

Many thanks for your patience

[kc1di]

Hello again
If you've moved my question out of the chat area where will I see any answers to me plea for help? I have clicked on the link to the HPLIP download page as suggested in the last reply to me and it takes me to the Sourceforge site for hplip version 3.16.7. I have downloaded this from the link and when i try to install etc I get a message saying it does not support Mint 19.

It's true that it takes you to a sourceforge page but the very first download in the list is hlip3.20.11 not 3.16.7 So your not downloading the right driver.
Try again.

[jannister]

Don't know if this post went before but it's not shown on my thread so forgive me if it's there somewhere.

I managed to remember how to get to the correct version of hplip in the Sourceforge page but after downloading hplip 3.20.2.run I still get the error message about CUPS dependency missing and to load manually.

BTW I have been able to confirm that my printer is shown in the hplip list of devices.

Could it be that since hplip is in my Downloads folder and CUPS is somewhere else on the system, the two components can't find each other?

[antikythera]

Running the script from your download folder installs hplip if it can find the right dependencies, CUPS doesn't have to be in the download folder. CUPS needs to be installed which it should be already.

Can you post the exact error message you get please, not just describe it? You can copy and paste from the terminal window into this forum.

[jannister]

This is where the system first warns about CUPS
I ran "sh hplip-3.20.2.run" to get this output. All the text before this seemed to be as expected for a successful run.



INSTALL MISSING REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
-------------------------------------
note: Installation of dependencies requires an active internet connection.
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: cups (CUPS - Common Unix Printing System)


CHECKING FOR NETWORK CONNECTION
-------------------------------
Network connection present.


RUNNING PRE-PACKAGE COMMANDS
----------------------------
sudo dpkg --configure -a (Pre-depend step 1)
sudo apt-get install --yes --force-yes -f (Pre-depend step 2)
sudo apt-get update (Pre-depend step 3)
OK


DEPENDENCY AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
----------------------------------
Running 'sudo apt-get install --assume-yes libcups2'
Please wait, this may take several minutes...
error: A required dependency 'cups (CUPS - Common Unix Printing System)' is still missing.


RUNNING POST-PACKAGE COMMANDS
-----------------------------
OK


RE-CHECKING DEPENDENCIES
------------------------
error: A required dependency 'cups (CUPS - Common Unix Printing System)' is still missing.
error: Installation cannot continue without this dependency.
error: Please manually install this dependency and re-run this installer.

[antikythera]

try this (copy and paste into terminal):

Code: Select all

sudo apt install cups cups-bsd cups-client cups-common cups-core-drivers cups-daemon cups-ipp-utils cups-ppdc cups-server-common libcups2 libcups2:i386 libcupsimage2 cups-browsed cups-filters cups-filters-core-drivers libcupsfilters1 libfontembed1 cups-pk-helper

restart afterwards and then try installing your hplip download again. If you encounter any more errors with either step please post them in full.

[jannister]

Same error report as before. Same wording, same place in text output.

[antikythera]

in that case it's not going to be resolvable without an operating system upgrade because the build of hplip you are trying to install is meant for Ubuntu 20.04 and not Ubuntu 18.04 which Mint 19 is based on. It's looking for newer CUPS than you can install on your machine with Mint 19.

[jannister]

I regularly run sudo apt update followed by sudo apt full-upgrade. I have a prompt when I open my computer from standby saying that Mint Tricia is available but I heard on the grapevine that it's a bit buggy and the last thing I need is to make more trouble for myself.
What to you suggest?

[antikythera]

I suggest you bite the bullet and upgrade following the Linux Mint blog instructions or do a clean install of Mint 20.1 after backing up your important files.

Tricia has been out over a year so 99.9% of the grapevine issues are resolved but Ulyssa is also a decent build.

Upgrade to Tricia: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3838
Tricia to Ulyana (64-bit machines only): https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3946
Ulyana to Ulyssa: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4020

[jannister]

I'll give that a go later on. I'll post about my level of success afterwards.
Thanks for all your help so far.

[jannister]

Hi there.
Today I upgraded my system to Mint 19.3 from the welcome screen but still no CUPS working. I've tried running "sh hplip-3.20.11.run" and "sh hplip-3.20.2.run" without any improvement.
I have a laptop running Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS and since my printer works with that (apart from the scan option) I loaded the Synaptics package manager and compared the CUPS listing with what is shown on my main computer. Two components were listed but not loaded (bluez-cups and printer-driver-hpcups) and two were listed on my laptop but not shown on my main computer (libfontembed1 and cups-common).

I highlighted the two which were listed for installation and clicked "Apply", re-ran the hplip versions but still ended up with the same problem.

Any suggestions. Are the two unlisted components critical for the CUPS to run properly?

When I check the printer status I get "printer service not available start service on this computer or connect to another server" with the option to "connect" highlighted. Clicking that button brings up another window "Connect to CUPS server" with "/run/cups/cups.sock" highlighted in green and the option to click the connect button. Doing so gives the final screen showing "CUPS server error. There was an error during the cups operation: 'failed to connect to server'".

[jannister]

I just found an earlier post from Brian_p who suggested the following:-

backup /etc/cups/cupsd.conf:

Code: Select all

mv /etc/cups/cupsd.conf /etc/cups/cupsd.conf-orig

and do

Code: Select all

cp /usr/share/cups/cupsd.conf.default /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

followed by

Code: Select all

systemctl start cups

He later remembered that the commands should be preceded by "sudo".

I have run these commands and I now have my printer listed in the menu when I try to print a document so none of the previous messages about CUPS. Progress but not there yet because I can instruct a print and it goes through the motions and even informs me that the document has finished printing. Problem is nothing comes out of the printer so where the heck is it?