"Unable to open initial device" after "Unable to execute /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip-hplip: No such file or directory"

Asked by Gerd Xhonneux

Hi all,

I have a Officejet Pro 8500 A910 (eAll in One) connected to my network using wifi. I could ping the printer, reach the webinterface and print from Windows. So, I'm sure the printer is working fine.

I installed (automatic) HPLIP 3.11.10 on a Debian Squeeze without problems or error messages.

Here is the output from a hp-check -t:

8<------------------------------------------------------

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.11.10)
Dependency/Version Check Utility ver. 14.3

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

Basic system information:
Linux littlecastor 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Mon Oct 3 04:15:24 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux

Distribution:
debian 6.0.3

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

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

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)...
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 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...
OK, found.

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

Checking for dependency: SANE - Scanning library development files...
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 3.11.10 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=3.11.10

[dirs]
home=/usr/share/hplip
run=/var/run
ppd=/usr/share/ppd/HP
ppdbase=/usr/share/ppd
doc=/usr/share/doc/hplip-3.11.10
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=no
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=no
foomatic-ppd-install=yes
foomatic-rip-hplip-install=no
hpcups-install=no
cups-drv-install=no
cups-ppd-install=no
internal-tag=3.11.10
restricted-build=no
ui-toolkit=qt4
qt3=no
qt4=yes
policy-kit=no
hpijs-only-build=no
lite-build=no
udev-acl-rules=no
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:
[last_used]
printer_name = Officejet_Pro_8500_A910
working_dir = .
device_uri = "hp:/net/Officejet_Pro_8500_A910?ip=192.168.1.3"

[commands]
scan = /usr/bin/xsane -V %SANE_URI%

[installation]
version = 3.11.10
date_time = 12/05/2011 17:58:12

[settings]
systray_messages = 0
systray_visible = 0

[fax]
email_address =
voice_phone =

[refresh]
rate = 30
enable = false
type = 1

[polling]
enable = false
device_list =
interval = 5

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

No devices found.

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

Officejet_Pro_8500_A910
-----------------------
Type: Printer
Device URI: hp:/net/Officejet_Pro_8500_A910?ip=192.168.1.3
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/Officejet_Pro_8500_A910.ppd
PPD Description: HP Officejet Pro 8500 a910 hpijs, 3.11.10
Printer status: printer Officejet_Pro_8500_A910 is idle. enabled since Mon 05 Dec 2011 05:42:11 PM CET
 ready to print
Communication status: Good

Officejet_Pro_8500_A910_fax
---------------------------
Type: Fax
Device URI: hpfax:/net/Officejet_Pro_8500_A910?ip=192.168.1.3
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/Officejet_Pro_8500_A910_fax.ppd
PPD Description: HP Fax4 hpijs
Printer status: printer Officejet_Pro_8500_A910_fax is idle. enabled since Fri 02 Dec 2011 10:40:37 AM CET
Communication status: Good

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

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

Checking output of 'scanimage -L'...
device `hpaio:/net/Officejet_Pro_8500_A910?ip=192.168.1.3' is a Hewlett-Packard Officejet_Pro_8500_A910 all-in-one

---------------------
| 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 0x1e1d at 004:005:

HP Device 0x171d at 003:002:

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

gerd lp uucp dialout fax cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev users powerdev scanner netdev lpadmin truecrypt

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

No errors or warnings.

Done.

8<------------------------------------------------------

When I tried to print a test page a had the following error message in /var/log/cups/error_log:

Unable to execute /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip-hplip: No such file or directory
Unable to start filter "foomatic-rip-hplip" - Success.
Stopping job because the scheduler could not execute a filter.
Filter "/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip-hplip" for printer "Officejet_Pro_8500_A910" not available: No such file or directory

I searched on the web and looked arround without founding significant informations.

The only thing I found was to make a:

ln -s foomatic-rip foomatic-rip-hplip

What I did and retried a print. I got a page with the following text on it:

"**** Unable to open the initial device, quitting"

It would be nice if somebody has an idea what to do. Thank you in advance for each hint!

Gerd

Question information

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HPLIP Edit question
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Solved by:
Gerd Xhonneux
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Revision history for this message
Gaurav Sood (gaurav-sood) said :
#1

From hp-check output it seems you are using hpijs PPD's instead of hpcups. Remove the existing hplip package and install it again by downloading it from the following link

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/downloads.html

Revision history for this message
Gerd Xhonneux (gxhonneux) said :
#2

Hmm, strange. I'll try it this evening.

Do I have to uninstall the package as described here? http://hplipopensource.com/node/188

Do I have to reinstall hplip in the same manner (automatic) as I did before or do I have to choose something special to ensure that hpcups is installed?

Revision history for this message
Gaurav Sood (gaurav-sood) said :
#3

For uninstalling the package that link is perfect

For installing just download the package and run it using the following command

sh $package_name

and choose automatic installation

Revision history for this message
Gerd Xhonneux (gxhonneux) said :
#4

OK, I did what you suggest but the result is absolutly identical. :-(

I saw that the automatic install used the following options:

--disable-hpcups-install --enable-hpijs-install

Is that ok, because you wrote that "it seems you are using hpijs PPD's instead of hpcups"?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Revision history for this message
Gaurav Sood (gaurav-sood) said :
#5

Did you downloand the package from debian repository or from the link which I provided you above. If you are using package from debian repository it is very much possible that 'automatic' install comes with option "enable-hpijs-install" otherwise 'automatic' option install with "enable-hpcups-install".

Revision history for this message
Sarbeswar Meher (sarbeswar-meher) said :
#6

Hi Gerd,

   From the log, you are using Debian 6.0.3 which is not yet supported by latest hplip-3.11.10. We'll support it in the next release 3.11.12. So auto installation will not work, you need to do manual installation.

Please download the tarball from http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/manual/distros/debian.html and follow the setup procedure mentioned. It should take hpcups path.

Let us know if your issue is solved.

Revision history for this message
Gerd Xhonneux (gxhonneux) said :
#7

No, as suggested (and as I did the first time too), I took the package from http://hplipopensource.com. Not the one from the Debian repos.

And I'm *sure* that I saw after launching the install the options --disable-hpcups-install and --enable-hpijs-install. That's why I asked if it is okay.

May I ask you to verify that? Imho my problem comes from there because in the manual installation instructions I see the following:

./configure --with-hpppddir=/usr/share/ppd/HP --prefix=/usr --enable-qt4 --enable-doc-build --disable-cups-ppd-install --disable-foomatic-drv-install --disable-foomatic-ppd-install --disable-hpijs-install --disable-policykit --enable-cups-drv-install --enable-hpcups-install --enable-network-build --enable-dbus-build --enable-scan-build --enable-fax-build

There is indeed an option --enable-hpcups-install and --disable-hpijs-install

Thank you in advance for your feedback!

Revision history for this message
Gerd Xhonneux (gxhonneux) said :
#8

Oh, I saw your last answer just after posting mine ...

I'll try the manual installation and keep you informed.

Revision history for this message
Gerd Xhonneux (gxhonneux) said :
#9

I followed the instructions for the manual installation from here: http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/manual/distros/debian.html

Step 1 - 3: OK

Step 4 as root: OK

Step 5 NOT as root (as described) with the following error:

/bin/bash ./libtool --tag=CC --mode=compile gcc -DPACKAGE_NAME=\"HP\ Linux\ Imaging\ and\ Printing\" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"hplip\" -DPACKAGE_VERSION=\"3.11.10\" -DPACKAGE_STRING=\"HP\ Linux\ Imaging\ and\ Printing\ 3.11.10\" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"3.11.10\" -DPACKAGE=\"hplip\" -DVERSION=\"3.11.10\" -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_MEMORY_H=1 -DHAVE_STRINGS_H=1 -DHAVE_INTTYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_STDINT_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DHAVE_DLFCN_H=1 -DHAVE_LIBDL=1 -DHAVE_PTHREAD_H=1 -DHAVE_JPEGLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_UINT32_T=1 -DHAVE_LIBHPIP=1 -DHAVE_LIBHPIP=1 -DHAVE_LIBCRYPTO=1 -DHAVE_LIBNETSNMP=1 -DHAVE_NET_SNMP_NET_SNMP_CONFIG_H=1 -DHAVE_CUPS_CUPS_H=1 -DHAVE_USB_H=1 -DHAVE_PYTHON2_6_PYTHON_H=1 -DHAVE_DBUS=1 -I. -Iip -Iio/hpmud -Iscan/sane -Iprnt/hpijs -I/usr/include/python2.6 -g -O2 -MT cupsext_la-cupsext.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/cupsext_la-cupsext.Tpo -c -o cupsext_la-cupsext.lo `test -f 'prnt/cupsext/cupsext.c' || echo './'`prnt/cupsext/cupsext.c
mkdir .libs
 gcc "-DPACKAGE_NAME=\"HP Linux Imaging and Printing\"" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"hplip\" -DPACKAGE_VERSION=\"3.11.10\" "-DPACKAGE_STRING=\"HP Linux Imaging and Printing 3.11.10\"" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"3.11.10\" -DPACKAGE=\"hplip\" -DVERSION=\"3.11.10\" -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_MEMORY_H=1 -DHAVE_STRINGS_H=1 -DHAVE_INTTYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_STDINT_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DHAVE_DLFCN_H=1 -DHAVE_LIBDL=1 -DHAVE_PTHREAD_H=1 -DHAVE_JPEGLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_UINT32_T=1 -DHAVE_LIBHPIP=1 -DHAVE_LIBHPIP=1 -DHAVE_LIBCRYPTO=1 -DHAVE_LIBNETSNMP=1 -DHAVE_NET_SNMP_NET_SNMP_CONFIG_H=1 -DHAVE_CUPS_CUPS_H=1 -DHAVE_USB_H=1 -DHAVE_PYTHON2_6_PYTHON_H=1 -DHAVE_DBUS=1 -I. -Iip -Iio/hpmud -Iscan/sane -Iprnt/hpijs -I/usr/include/python2.6 -g -O2 -MT cupsext_la-cupsext.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/cupsext_la-cupsext.Tpo -c prnt/cupsext/cupsext.c -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/cupsext_la-cupsext.o
prnt/cupsext/cupsext.c:1919: fatal error: opening dependency file .deps/cupsext_la-cupsext.Tpo: Permission denied
compilation terminated.
make: *** [cupsext_la-cupsext.lo] Error 1

Could you give me an advice what to do? Thank you!

Revision history for this message
Gerd Xhonneux (gxhonneux) said :
#10

Just for your information: The file .deps/cupsext_la-cupsext.Tpo doesn't exist, so it's normal that I have no permission on it.

In this folder aren't *.Tpo files at all. I just have a .deps/cupsext_la-cupsext.Plo

Revision history for this message
goutam kodu (goutam-hplip) said :
#11

Hi Gerd,

I tested the instructions provided in the http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/manual/distros/debian.html.
I am not able to reproduce this error in Make. And also i did not see in the Make output any connection with the cupsext_la-cupsext.

Can you please provide us the configure command and the options with it that you used.

Also, can you just try running the below configure command:

./configure --prefix=/usr

After that try running "make" command.
And see if you can reproduce the error again.

Let me know on the same.

Thanks,
Goutam Kodu

Revision history for this message
Gerd Xhonneux (gxhonneux) said :
#12

Hi,

after a retry the build worked without error. Don't know/understand where the error came.

I had an advice and help from a friend (thanks Nicolas!). He said that it is better under Debian to use official packages then compiling manualy.

Because the HPLIP from the current repos wasn't new enough for my printer, the backports from Wheezy were used:

hplip_3.11.10-1_i386.deb
hplip-cups_3.11.10-1_i386.deb
hplip-data_3.11.10-1_all.deb
hplip-doc_3.11.10-1_all.deb
hplip-gui_3.11.10-1_all.deb
pyppd_0.4.9-6_all.deb
libhpmud0_3.11.10-1_i386.deb
libsane-hpaio_3.11.10-1_i386.deb

(All in /usr/src)

The configure options recommanded by HP were used.

I tried a print and it worked fine!