HPLIP

OfficeJet Pro 8500A Plus only printing error pages

Asked by Matthew Monaco

Just bought my first HP printer, OfficeJet Pro 8500A Plus (910). I'm having a bit of trouble setting it up. First of all, after reading around, am I correct that I should be targeting jetdirect (as opposed to ipp or lpd) for the optimal setup? I'm also trying to us the hpijs driver and not the hpcups driver (I don't know what the difference is).

Also, I'm setting it up with an hp:/ URI as opposed to a socket:// URI. Is this correct? I've tried both and neither work.

When I print I either get a printout that says "*** Unable to open the initial device, quitting." Or a get a few pages of non-ascii characters like something wasn't converted properly. I have also printed "#CUPS-COMMAND PrintSelfTestPage".

It doesn't look like I can add an attachment... hp-check -t:

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.11.7)
Dependency/Version Check Utility ver. 14.3

Copyright (c) 2001-9 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

Note: hp-check can be run in three modes:
1. Compile-time check mode (-c or --compile): Use this mode before compiling the HPLIP supplied tarball (.tar.gz or .run) to determine if the proper dependencies are installed to successfully compile HPLIP.
2. Run-time check mode (-r or --run): Use this mode to determine if a distro supplied package (.deb, .rpm, etc) or an already built HPLIP supplied tarball has the proper dependencies installed to successfully run.
3. Both compile- and run-time check mode (-b or --both) (Default): This mode will check both of the above cases (both compile- and run-time dependencies).

Saving output in log file: hp-check.log

Initializing. Please wait...

---------------
| SYSTEM INFO |
---------------

Basic system information:
Linux pine 3.0-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Aug 30 08:53:25 CEST 2011 x86_64 AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

Distribution:
unknown 0.0

Checking Python version...
OK, version 2.7.2 installed

Checking PyQt 4.x version...
OK, version 4.8.5 installed.

Checking for CUPS...
Status: scheduler is running
Version: 1.5.0
error_log is set to level: debug

Checking for dbus/python-dbus...
dbus daemon is running.
python-dbus version: 0.84.0

------------------------------------
| COMPILE AND RUNTIME DEPENDENCIES |
------------------------------------

note: To check for compile-time only dependencies, re-run hp-check with the -c parameter (ie, hp-check -c).
note: To check for run-time only dependencies, re-run hp-check with the -r parameter (ie, hp-check -r).

Checking for dependency: CUPS - Common Unix Printing System...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: CUPS devel- Common Unix Printing System development files...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: CUPS image - CUPS image development files...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: DBus - Message bus system...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: gcc - GNU Project C and C++ Compiler...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: GhostScript - PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: libcrypto - OpenSSL cryptographic library...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: libjpeg - JPEG library...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: libnetsnmp-devel - SNMP networking library development files...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: libpthread - POSIX threads library...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: libtool - Library building support services...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: libusb - USB library...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: make - GNU make utility to maintain groups of programs...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PIL - Python Imaging Library (required for commandline scanning with hp-scan)...
warning: NOT FOUND! This is an OPTIONAL/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Some HPLIP functionality may not function properly.

Checking for dependency: PolicyKit - Administrative policy framework...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PyQt 4 DBus - DBus Support for PyQt4...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python DBus - Python bindings for DBus...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python devel - Python development files...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python libnotify - Python bindings for the libnotify Desktop notifications...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python XML libraries...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python 2.3 or greater - Required for fax functionality...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python 2.2 or greater - Python programming language...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Reportlab - PDF library for Python...
warning: NOT FOUND! This is an OPTIONAL/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Some HPLIP functionality may not function properly.

Checking for dependency: SANE - Scanning library...
error: NOT FOUND! This is a REQUIRED/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Please make sure that this dependency is installed before installing or running HPLIP.

Checking for dependency: SANE - Scanning library development files...
error: NOT FOUND! This is a REQUIRED/COMPILE TIME ONLY dependency. Please make sure that this dependency is installed before installing or running HPLIP.

Checking for dependency: scanimage - Shell scanning program...
warning: NOT FOUND! This is an OPTIONAL/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Some HPLIP functionality may not function properly.

Checking for dependency: xsane - Graphical scanner frontend for SANE...
warning: NOT FOUND! This is an OPTIONAL/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Some HPLIP functionality may not function properly.

----------------------
| HPLIP INSTALLATION |
----------------------

Currently installed HPLIP version...
HPLIP 3.11.7 currently installed in '/usr/share/hplip'.

Current contents of '/etc/hp/hplip.conf' file:
# hplip.conf. Generated from hplip.conf.in by configure.

[hplip]
version=3.11.7

[dirs]
home=/usr/share/hplip
run=/var/run
ppd=/usr/share/ppd/HP
ppdbase=/usr/share/ppd
doc=/usr/share/doc/hplip-3.11.7
icon=/usr/share/applications
cupsbackend=/usr/lib/cups/backend
cupsfilter=/usr/lib/cups/filter
drv=/usr/share/cups/drv/hp

# Following values are determined at configure time and cannot be changed.
[configure]
network-build=yes
pp-build=yes
gui-build=yes
scanner-build=yes
fax-build=yes
dbus-build=yes
cups11-build=no
doc-build=yes
shadow-build=no
hpijs-install=yes
foomatic-drv-install=yes
foomatic-ppd-install=yes
foomatic-rip-hplip-install=yes
hpcups-install=yes
cups-drv-install=yes
cups-ppd-install=no
internal-tag=3.11.7
restricted-build=no
ui-toolkit=qt4
qt3=no
qt4=yes
policy-kit=no
hpijs-only-build=no
lite-build=no
udev-acl-rules=yes
hpcups-only-build=no
hpijs-only-build=no

Current contents of '/var/lib/hp/hplip.state' file:
# hplip.state - HPLIP runtime persistent variables.

[plugin]
installed=0
eula=0

Current contents of '~/.hplip/hplip.conf' file:
error: Could not access file: No such file or directory

--------------------------
| DISCOVERED USB DEVICES |
--------------------------

No devices found.

---------------------------------
| INSTALLED CUPS PRINTER QUEUES |
---------------------------------

hp8500a
-------
Type: Printer
Device URI: hp:/net/Officejet_Pro_8500_A910?ip=192.168.27.85
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/hp8500a.ppd
PPD Description: HP 910 hpijs, 3.11.7
Printer ready to printr hp8500a is idle. enabled since Fri 02 Sep 2011 09:55:23 PM MDT
No log handling enabled - using stderr logging
Created directory: /var/net-snmp
Created directory: /var/net-snmp/mib_indexes
Communication status: Good

----------------------
| SANE CONFIGURATION |
----------------------

'hpaio' in '/etc/sane.d/dll.conf'...
error: '/etc/sane.d/dll.conf' not found. Is SANE installed?

---------------------
| PYTHON EXTENSIONS |
---------------------

Checking 'cupsext' CUPS extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'pcardext' Photocard extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'hpmudext' I/O extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'scanext' SANE scanning extension...
error: NOT FOUND OR FAILED TO LOAD! Please reinstall HPLIP and check for the proper installation of scanext.

---------------
| USER GROUPS |
---------------

root bin daemon sys adm disk wheel log

-----------
| SUMMARY |
-----------

error: 8 errors and/or warnings.

Please refer to the installation instructions at:
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/install/index.html

Done

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
HPLIP Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Srikanth (srikanth-lokare) said : 		#1

Hi Matthew,

First of all sorry for the delayed response. Currently HPLIP stopped supporting HPIJS. We support only printing from HPCUPS. From the log I can also see that lot of dependencies are not installed. Can you please re-install latest HPLIP 3.11.7 release. But before that please delete all the existing print queues. Re-configure the print queue after HPLIP installation, using "hp-setup" from the terminal and make sure you select hpcups ppd and not the hpijs ppd. Please let us know if the problem still persists.

Thanks for using HPLIP.

Thanks and Regards,
Srikanth Lokare

Revision history for this message
Matthew Monaco (dgbaley27) said : 		#2

It's working well with the hpcups driver. I had tried it before, I don't know why it's working now. The options are a little less organized though. I liked having options for draft/normal/hq and color/grayscale in the same dropdown. I also don't understand how US Letter, US Letter Borderless, and US Letter Autoduplex interact with one another. I want duplex printing, but I think I also want borderless - if I print a PDF with it's own margins, I don't think I need the paper type to have a border...

Revision history for this message
Srikanth (srikanth-lokare) said : 		#3

Hi Matthew,

Definitely we will consider the suggestion. On the other hand the reason for having 3 US Letter is to serve the feature of AutoDuplex printing, Borderless printing and Normal printing.

Thanks and Regards,
Srikanth Lokare

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Matthew Monaco for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.