Printing to modern HP printers.

yes. to three different types of printer, and it worked flawlessly every time. Connect the printer, install cups, point a browser at\ the cups port, add printer and give it the correct type, and print away. Share the printer to have it accessible from the network.

HP are among the good guys when it comes to Linux support for their hardware.

-- mrr

That should work with CUPS and a PPD file. Just google for directions.

yes, except the m252 is rather new, and the PPD for it is not always available in older cups distros which is why I posted it here

... but among the bad guys for the bloatware that they tend to foist on Windows users by default. I've just migrated from an HP printer to an OKI one, what a relief. I uninstalled masses and masses of junk from my Windows virtual installation left there by HP installers. The OKI just installed its drivers and a little scanner app and that was all. The OKI has Linux drivers too.

Thanks for the prompt responses.

My bad, I didn't make it clear that the printer was stand alone on an Ethernet port on the network.

So the requirement is to locate the printer via IP address and then schedule print jobs to it.

Which is probably not quite the same as plugging in the USB port, unfortunately, but should be possible with CUPS (I hope).

So, has anyone connected to this or a similar printer over Ethernet?

Cheers

Dave R

Many thanks - I was forgetting that HP and Linux would be mainly aimed at

So probably not quite "straight out of the tin" then.

Cheers

Dave R

No problem for cups.

Yup. Mines networked. cant be arsed with USB ever. I use jetdirect on port. Umm. 9100?

Hint: turn off 'bonjour' or less cups will discover it and add it in to itself and then you will have TWO instances on your network. IIRC there is a web page in te printer itself that allkows yiou tio fiddle with its settings and fgove it e,.g. anstaic IP adfdress and so on

CUPS is straight out of the tinm and armed with that PPD so will getting the printer to work be. As you will see that file is not in ARM assembler - its is more or less plain text even if there's chinese in it

Make sure you have cups installed in the pi.

Then from, a browser, connect to the printer once its booted, - IIRC it dhcps itself onto your network. It should say what IP address its on, on its panel.

Set its IP to something sane and static, and turn off bonjour.

as far as cups goes, there will either be a 'install printer' utility in the Pis GUI, or you can in general hit port 631 on the pi with a browser and use the cups daemons own admin sections

The HP software is nice because it sits in the tray and allows a neat HP branded interface to cups, but it ain't necessary.

What is, is that PPD file.

If it doesn't work as cut and pasted from my post, say so an I'll post it somewhere for download

I just looked at this desktops cups via localhost:631

For connection it shows

hp:/net/HP_Color_LaserJet_Pro_M252n?ip=192.168.0.102

when you select add a printer after having logged in to cups (use root and root password) you should checke this

'AppSocket/HP JetDirect '

and then use

socket://192.168.0.100:9100

to configure the connection - unless you put the printer ip address in the hosts file in which case you can use its name.

then you have to give the queue a name and then gives the option later of 'browse for a PPD file' which you should use to select the one I posted

And that is all!!!

there's a decent tutorial on how to install cups itself and make it a local area print server, here

install HP's linux software (much better that the Windoze rubbish)

sudo apt-get install hplipc

configure printer

sudo hp-setup

I don't know this particular printer but would expect everything to work

I'll second this. It does have the option to find a network printer -- I forget how but it was fairly intuitive.

Thanks for all the info.

I haven't even worked out what "Bonjour" is yet (apart from French for "Hello") but I don't think it...........{long pause}.......oh, hang on, it looks to be on.

Lots of configuration items reported but so far I haven't found the menus to configure all the items on, off or change values.....{long pause}......

At least I have found a lot of them under "Networking->Configuration->Advanced".

There are a lot of security items buried in the menus but so far I haven't been able to locate any HP-sourced documentation about them and everything is unset at the moment. No password to configure the printer, even. You would expect basic local admin equivalent to a home router. Perhaps the basic level is aimed at the "turn it on and print from phone" users.

Some bits (such as IPP) suggest that you may be able to do "drive by printing" if the password isn't set.

It would be nice if there was a "what all these options mean" guide somewhere obvious.

Ah - hours of innocent fun ahead.

Cheers

Dave R

Bonjour is a trade name for automatic network configuration.

Google for 'zeroconf'.

is that available compiled for ARM?

"apt-cache search avahi"

Type it in, and it will tell you if it isn't.

---druck

My command of choice with extreme prejudice is

"sudo apt-get remove avahi-daemon"

going the other way, find it a pain ...

I haven't got a Pi.. ;-)(

How so?