problems installing HP Laserjet 4+ in PCLOS 2011-07 XFCE

[David_J_D]

Previously PrinterDrake has found and installed the LJ4+ correctly from the love CD, and it's been correctly setup following HD install of the OS.

I've just put PCLOS 2011-07 XFCE on one of my boxes and althought all the HP stuff (HPLIP etc) appears to be there, I cannot get the printer to show up in Control Centre--> Configure Printing and Scanning dialogs.

New Printer gives me the choice of Other and Network printer, and a box to enter the device URL.

Given that the printer ia attached to localhost, why is it not just detected and set up automatically like PrinterDrake used to do.

What's the easiest way to set up this printer?

Can I still get PrinterDrake? If so, from where? As it appears not to be in the repositories for PCLOS2011-07.

Can I get it from an old Repo? if so, which  one?

[menotu]

Could try opening Synaptic and check you have task-printing installed.

And not sure about xfce but in the KDE  Menu/Launcher > More Applications > Configuration there is the Configure Your Printer

[Steve909]

I am also having problems with my HP Laserjet 4L.  I have the problem on 2 different computers and they are two different desktops.  One is KDE4 and the other is Xfce.  The KDE computer will not detect the printer at all.  Xfce won't open a window for connecting the printer and trying to shut down Control Center will not work.  Control Center still works though.  I tried detecting the printer with the live KDE disc and it does work.  I put in a spare hard drive and loaded PCLOS on to the drive and retried control center.  It will not work and yet it does on the live CD.  The KDE CD is 2011.6 and Phoenix 20ll-07.

[David_J_D]

task-printing and task-printing-hp are installed.

As previously mentioned, The install printer dialog cannot find the printer, although PrinterDrake did on previous versions of PCLOS.

To make my life simpler (although I'd like to nail this down 'properly') , where can I get PrinterDrake and all it's friends (dependencies)?

[Steve909]

I have found that CUPS is not installed in Xfce.  It is in KDE.  I looked at the live CD and just about all the CUPS files are loaded on the CD, which is probably why it works.  Maybe.  I loaded just about all the CUPS files into Xfce and it no longer hangs up when looking for the printer, but it never reaches the window that shows the selection, or lack of, printers.  Need to look some more!

[Sproggy]

if you installed task-printing and task-scanning ... then cups is installed at that time .... you either need to start the service or reboot ...

[Steve909]

I installed task printing and it installed quite a bit with it.  I restarted the computer just to be on the safe side and attempted to load the printer.  I got the window that was searching for the printer.  It didn't hang up anyway, but it did not find the printer.  Now its just like KDE4.  Is something still missing?  Something is broken!

[Texstar]

I installed task printing and it installed quite a bit with it.  I restarted the computer just to be on the safe side and attempted to load the printer.  I got the window that was searching for the printer.  It didn't hang up anyway, but it did not find the printer.  Now its just like KDE4.  Is something still missing?  Something is broken!

Probably the HP Laserjet 4+ = too dang old and no longer supported. HP Laserjet 6P = working! yaaaa for me.  

P.S. You can get a HP3050 all in one for about 50 bucks and works perfect with Linux.

[David_J_D]

@Texstar- I've  gor a Brother inkjet all-in-one works fine, but I use the Laserjet for Mono printing as its way cheaper.
I've had it since Nov 2003 (Paid £50 for it, and £42 for a new Toner cart in 2008).

to return to my other point, is it possible to install PrinterDrake from PCLOS 2010-12-15 as this install the LJ4+ automatically?

BTW Redmond's finest (W7) still supports the LJ4+.

As a not very pretty workround, I copy stuff I want to print to the NTFS partition, boot into W7, go get a coffee, drink hlf while waiting for a desktop to appear and become functional, then print from there. I REALLY want to print directly to the HP JJ4+ from Linux.

And no, I don't want to buy another printer as this one's bulletproof.  anyway, I thought Linux was meant to support 'old' hardware pretty much indefinitely. (end of moan)

[Texstar]

Old hardware yes but ancient is another thing. Drivers get updated to work with the latest printers/scanners and eventually old stuff gets obsoleted. Old printers, old video cards, old scanners. One solution is to run an old version of Linux that still has the old drivers for the old hardware. Another solution is to find an old ppd driver file for the printer.

[AS]

@David_J_D,
@Steve909,

are your printers connected thru parallel interface ?

Another solution is to find an old ppd driver file for the printer.

Agreed, Laserjet 4+ printer use HP-PCL language, PCL drivers for LaserJet III and Laserjet4 should just work, but I'm actually suspecting some issue around the parallel port.

AS

[David_J_D]

Mine's via a Parallel to USB so the OS sees at as a USB printer.

[AS]

Mine's via a Parallel to USB so the OS sees at as a USB printer.

verify that the parallel to usb converter is correctly recognized from Linux, when you attach the USB port you should see something related at the end of the file /var/log/syslog

[DeBaas]

In PCC (updated KDE Full Monty)
Add printer:
Enter device URI:

parallel:/dev/lp0

and then there is a LaserJet 4plus

[David_J_D]

progress(of sorts)

Using a URL of USB:/dev/lp0, the printer shows up as default printer BUT...

When I try to print a test page (or anything else) I get the message
'W2 INVALID PERS' in the printer. <shift><continue> on the printer clears it back to ready.

BTW I had this problem with Mint a while back, and despite much head scratching, their gurus couldn't hep me to het any further than this.

SO: I'll repeat my other question:  Is it Possible to install PrinterDrake and it's associated drivers from a previous Live CD?

The printer WAS recognized and correctly set up automatically by PrinterDrake in PCLOS 2010-12-15 Gnome, XFC and KDE.