HP PhotosmartC4180 Recognized but won't print

[chippermon]

Hi All,

this is my first experience with pclinuxos. I have some linux experience. I use Mandriva on my laptop for two years now. Love it. I wanted PCLinuxOS for my desktop especially the GUI for my wife's sake. I have the FM Kdesktop. So far so good except I went to print a document, my printer is recognized, enabled, green checkmark, no yellow triangle but doesn't work.

When I go to control centre, hardware, configure printing, my printer is there. Right click, settings look fine, click print test page, nothing. Click on policies, under state, policies and banner, everything is greyed out. Same for access control, printer options and job options. I then go to truobleshoot and nothing happens still.

I click on the K, go to more applications, then to printing, then to HP device manager. Error message: No HP devices found. I follow the setup wizard and still get error messages.

I just don't know where to go from here. Very frustrating. Please help. Oh yes, I also wint to K, Software centre, Synaptic package manager, reinstalled hplip and cups. still nothing.

Also, when I p;ugged in my laptop to print a doc the test page from the desktop came out. ?? Whaaaa?

Please help.

Thank you

PS. this is a USB connected printer

[djohnston]

I just don't know where to go from here. Very frustrating. Please help. Oh yes, I also wint to K, Software centre, Synaptic package manager, reinstalled hplip and cups. still nothing.

Have you installed task-printing-hp and task-printing-server in Synaptic? If you have, have you opened the CUPS interface in your web browser to check the status of the printer?

[chippermon]

Thanks for the advice but it is still not working. i reinstalled task-printing-hp and task-printing-server in Synaptic. When i try to check the status in CUPS I get an error message saying I need an upgrade. Any  other ideas?

[djohnston]

What kind of upgrade? What does the error say, exactly? Is your PCLinuxOS installation fully updated?

[chippermon]

My PCLinuxOS install is fully upgraded. When I open up HP device manager it says no installed HP devices found. even thoughthe printer is recognized i the control centre. When I follow the setup wizard I get printer queue set up failed. Could not connect to CUPS server. when I click on the cups web interface button, from the hp device manager, the web interface appears but asks for a username and password. I have tried my root username and password, I have tried admin, etc. etc. No access is being allowed.

What kind of upgrade? What does the error say, exactly?

In cups i get a lot of "426 upgrade required", exactly.

[djohnston]

1. Sounds like you're still missing some packages. Check in Synaptic for the openssh-server package. If it's not installed, install it.

2. If the package is already installed, the short answer is to edit the file /etc/cups/cupsd.conf as root user. You'll need to add the line:

DefaultEncryption Never

to the end of the file and save it. Then restart the CUPS server by doing:

/etc/init.d/cupsys restart

3. If you want to access the printer securely from a remote machine, you'll need to create an encryption certificate. You'll need to run:

openssl req -new -x509 -keyout /etc/cups/ssl/server.key -out /etc/cups/ssl/server.crt -days 365 -nodes

to create a self-signed SSL encryption key and certificate. I don't know if -days 365 can be increased to a higher number. If you create an SSL key, it wouldn't hurt trying it. Otherwise, the certificate will expire after 365 days.

[chippermon]

>Check in Synaptic for the openssh-server package. If it's not installed, install it.

It is installed. I even re installed just to be sure

>If the package is already installed, the short answer is to edit the file /etc/cups/cupsd.conf as root user.

While in root user I get the message:
-bash: etc/cups/cupsd.conf: Permission denied

Still stumped

[djohnston]

Open a terminal. Enter:

su -
kwrite /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
/etc/init.d/cupsys restart
exit
exit

After entering su - enter root's password.
Make the addition to /etc/cups/cupsd.conf in the kwrite editor. Save your changes.
/etc/init.d/cupsys restart will restart the CUPS server.
exit will enter your session as user root.
exit will close the terminal.

[chippermon]

okay,

kwrite pops up. file name of the document is "cupsdconf (modified) - KWrite".

I enter   /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
I save the changes but get this message
The document could not be saved as it was not possible to write to /root/etc/cups/cupsd.conf.

[djohnston]

okay,

kwrite pops up. file name of the document is "cupsdconf (modified) - KWrite".

I enter   /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
I save the changes but get this message
The document could not be saved as it was not possible to write to /root/etc/cups/cupsd.conf.

My apologies. The command should have been kwrite /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

[chippermon]

Okay, that works.

Just a couple of things:

Thank you very much djohnston for your help.

this morning I tried to get the printer to work, with my new instructions, and failed again. In desperation I loaded the document i needed to print on a USB drive, transfered the drive to my laptop, plugged in the printer, to my laptop, and 12 test pages came out. Obviously from all of my failed attempts to load the printer profile on my desktop. As well, the document I wanted in the first place was printed. I'm telling you this because obviously something was happening here between my desktop and my printer.

Another thing. And I'm telling you this, djohnston, so it may help you in the future because I see that you are a pretty busy person on this forum. As I mentioned earlier I am new to this OS. I came with some Mandriva experience but I really know very little. I found out by mistake, tonight, that I have been trying to configure my printer through my user profile. I did use a terminal as su for all of my commands but still no reward for my effort. Tonight I logged in from the start as the root, not an option with Mandriva Gnome, which allowed me to configure with barely any effort. So simple yet so far out of my immediate grasp, and the frustration. 

I am really looking forward to using this OS. Thanks again for your help.  I appreciate all your efforts.

[djohnston]

I found out by mistake, tonight, that I have been trying to configure my printer through my user profile. I did use a terminal as su for all of my commands but still no reward for my effort. Tonight I logged in from the start as the root, not an option with Mandriva Gnome, which allowed me to configure with barely any effort.

Something is out of kilter, then. You should never login as root except as a last ditch attempt to correct a serious system problem. When logged in as any user, you should be getting prompts to enter the root password whenever root access is needed to configure something.

I'm sorry, but I don't have Full Monty installed on my computer. Maybe someone else can chime in here.

[demilord]

I found out by mistake, tonight, that I have been trying to configure my printer through my user profile. I did use a terminal as su for all of my commands but still no reward for my effort. Tonight I logged in from the start as the root, not an option with Mandriva Gnome, which allowed me to configure with barely any effort.

Never use root, unless it can't be done otherwise, then even always use the su command to accomplish the task..
You risk damage your system, security wise and stability wise! rootkits, virusses , exploids etc!
Remember we are not responsible for your actions

[chippermon]

Something is out of kilter, then. You should never login as root except as a last ditch attempt to correct a serious system problem. When logged in as any user, you should be getting prompts to enter the root password whenever root access is needed to configure something.

Well, I certainly tried. I did get those prompts but still nothing worked.

Never use root, unless it can't be done otherwise, then even always use the su command to accomplish the task..
You risk damage your system, security wise and stability wise! rootkits, virusses , exploids etc!
Remember we are not responsible for your actions

Thank you. Advice taken. Of course you are not responsible for my actions. The fact remains the su command was not working. For a simple printer installation? What the deuce?

[Cressida]

My wife is using the same printer so it can work.

I recall we used the driver for the HP Photosmart C4100 since there is not one specifically for the 4180.  You may want to watch for that driver selection or check what driver you are using now.

You can enter into the PCL Control Center and reconfig the printer if you still haven't gotten it to work.  I know it gets frustrating but there are a lot of folks here who are generous in helping newbee's so don't let the printer issue stop you.