deskjet 2050 all-in-one doesnt scan on linux

Hi Siward de Groot,

Thank you for using HPLIP.
To perform scan and Fax operations, needs to install HPLIP software as mentioned in below site.
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install.html

Once installation is completed,
1) needs to run xsane in command line, this will show scanning UI.

Please let us know if you need further information.

Thanks & Regards,
Amarnath

Yes, i still need information,
because hplip is already installed on my system :

5350CF84:/root$ dpkg -s hplip
Package: hplip
Status: install ok installed
<i snipped the rest of that output>

Running xsane does not produce result,
first it says "scanning for devices",
and a few seconds later it reports "no devices available".
(probably xsane does find the usb device of the printer,
but how would it be able to tell that it can also scan ?)

I also tried 'scanimage --help --device-name hp:/dev/bus/usb/001/004'
(to get list of all options for this device),
but it said 'open of device hp:/dev/bus/usb/001/004 failed: Error during device I/O'.

Hi Siward de Groot,

As per the hp-check output, there are many dependencies are missing. so that's the reason I requested to install again the hplip latest version, which is available in http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install.html website.

once installation is completed,
if you still face the problems, please post hp-check -t again.

Thanks & Regards,
Amarnath

That output does indicate problems,
but they seem to be all compile-time problems,
because when i do 'hp-check -r -t' (as root), i get :

5350CF84:~# hp-check -r -t

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.10.6)
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 5350CF84 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Fri Sep 9 20:51:05 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux

Distribution:
debian 6.0.2
Checking Python version...
OK, version 2.6.6 installed

Checking PyQt 4.x version...
OK, version 4.7.3 installed.

Checking for CUPS... Status: scheduler is running Version: 1.4.4
error_log is set to level: warn

Checking for dbus/python-dbus... dbus daemon is running.
python-dbus version: 0.83.1

------------------------
| RUNTIME DEPENDENCIES |
------------------------

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

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

Checking for dependency: PIL - Python Imaging Library (required for commandline scanning with hp-scan)...
OK, found.

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 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: Reportlab - PDF library for Python...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: SANE - Scanning library...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: scanimage - Shell scanning program...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: xsane - Graphical scanner frontend for SANE...
OK, found.

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

Currently installed HPLIP version...
HPLIP 3.10.6 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=3.10.6

[dirs]
home=/usr/share/hplip
run=/var/run
ppd=/usr/share/ppd/hplip/HP
ppdbase=/usr/share/ppd/hplip
doc=/usr/share/doc/hplip-doc/HTML
icon=no
cupsbackend=/usr/lib/cups/backend
cupsfilter=/usr/lib/cups/filter
drv=/usr/share/cups/drv

# 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=no
hpcups-install=yes
cups-drv-install=yes
cups-ppd-install=no
internal-tag=3.10.6.15
restricted-build=no
ui-toolkit=qt4
qt3=no
qt4=yes
policy-kit=yes
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 |
--------------------------
                                                                                     Device URI Model
  --------------------------------- ---------------------------
  hp:/usb/Deskjet_2050_J510_series? HP Deskjet 2050 J510 series
  serial=CN07E2J2BF05D1

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

Deskjet-2050-J510-series
------------------------
Type: Printer
Device URI: hp:/usb/Deskjet_2050_J510_series?serial=CN07E2J2BF05D1
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/Deskjet-2050-J510-series.ppd
PPD Description: HP Deskjet 2050 j510 Series hpijs, 3.10.6 Printer status: printer Deskjet-2050-J510-series is idle. enabled since Wed Sep 28 20:01:37 2011
Communication status: Good

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

'hpaio' in '/etc/sane.d/dll.conf'...
'hpaio' in '/etc/sane.d/dll.d/hplip'...
OK, found. SANE backend 'hpaio' is properly set up.

Checking output of 'scanimage -L'...
No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something different,
check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and detected by the
sane-find-scanner tool (if appropriate). Please read the documentation
which came with this software (README, FAQ, manpages).

---------------------
| 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...
OK, found.

-----------------
| USB I/O SETUP |
-----------------

Checking for permissions of USB attached printers...

HP Device 0x8711 at 001:004:
    Device URI: hp:/usb/Deskjet_2050_J510_series?serial=CN07E2J2BF05D1
    Device node: /dev/bus/usb/001/004
    Mode: 0664

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

error: User needs to be member of group 'lp' to enable print, scan & fax.
error: User needs to be member of group 'lpadmin' to manage printers.

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

No errors or warnings.

Done.
.................................................................................

The warning about permissions doesn't apply because i am root
(and my normal user account is member of lp and lpadmin groups).

I do not intend to ever compile hplip
because Debian's hplip maintainer(s) do that already
(and know far more about it than me),
so all i expect to need to do is to install the Debian binary package.

Should it be your opinion that,
despite the comforting output of 'hp-check -r -t',
something is wrong with my installation of hplip,
then i would file a bugreport on the Debian hplip package,
so in that case it would be nice if you could also provide some pointers as to what might be wrong.

If, on the other hand, hplip is installed correctly,
then i wonder whether there is any backend that can communicate with the 2050 to make it scan,
because i read that the officejet protocol is no longer being used in new products.

So, i still do not know whether this is a user configuration error
(seems unlikely because i didn't configure anything),
or an error in the Debian hplip package,
or an error in upstream hplip,
or a feature that is not supported, and perhaps even not intended to be supported.

I hope you would continue to provide the benefit of your expertise to shed some light on this matter.

Hi,

Thank you for the "hp-check" output. As per the logs, Scanning is not happening because required plugin files are missing.
--------------
[plugin]
installed=0
eula=0
------------
plugins for 3.10.6 version is not available since "http://openprinting.org/download/printdriver/auxfiles/HP/plugin" site is down.

Hence please install the latest hplip versions (3.11.10) from "http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install.html"
during "hp-setup" command, plugins will be installed automatically.

Thanks & Regards,
Amarnath

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I found that Debian does not install these plugins because they are unfree and insecure,
that is : their licence does not allow Debian to distribute them,
 and does not allow Debian's security team to inspect them.

If i install them, i would compromise the security of my system
(i expect that hp software has the same high quality that other large computer firms provide, such as microsoft).

Therefore i will instead buy a canoscan lide 110
(currently for sale, and supported by sane),
which fixes my problem.

So, on one hand, thanks for providing support that makes my printer print (which it does well, and works out of the box),
and on the other hand, i believe you are mistaken if you think that supporting linux can be done by providing non-inspectable and/or non-distributable drivers,
because that would be good for a windows user who has accidentally gotten a linux box,
but i think that for linux users
(all of whom go through extra trouble to have a more secure and less buggy system)
this is not an acceptable option.

I am left wondering why Hewlett-Packard chooses this ?
I think for a scanner the difficult part is to get all the tiny dots in the right places,
and the communication protocol does not need to be anything special.

Thanks again for telling me that it are the missing drivers that are the cause.
This has really helped me.