HPLIP

rasterizing process messing up?

Asked by gus3

Printing is very messed up on my mother's system. I believe the problem lies in the rasterization process; I can view PostScript test files on-screen just fine, using "ggv". Printing these same files never matches the screen-viewed output.

Particulars:

HP Photosmart C3140
Fedora Core 3 with necessary security updates
HPLIP 2.8.2
CUPS front-end (updated using "yum update cups")

Sometimes the printout gets bands of color (usually black or gray) around the expected printout.

Sometimes the printout contains duplicated lines.

Sometimes the printout has drop-outs, where ascenders and upward strokes disappear.

Sometimes streaks appear, whether connected to inked areas, or not.

I have put scans of these errors up at http://gus3.typepad.com/hplip_problems/2008/02/reference-image.html

Not being sure how the rasterization process works, I am guessing the following: The image is rasterized in bands. Each band is computed separately, then sent to the printer. Some streaks appear to be contained to a band (as in the "streak" example), while others appear to be a pre-rasterization concern (the "band" example looks like a command to Postscript to draw a 90% black box, then the text appears at 100%).

I have searched for the solution to this, but I can find nothing. Any help is appreciated greatly, as Linux is my mother's platform of choice. She bought the H-P printer on my advice, based on the company's stated commitment to Linux support.

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gus3
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Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#1

Please run hp-check -t and post the output.

Also it's important to note that although we try and support as many distros and versions as possible, Fedora Core 3 is rather old and has not been tested with hplip 2.x.x -- ever. So I can't promise that you wont have any problems. I'll try and get a hold of some Fedora Core 3 iso's, however it may be difficult.

But I might get more info from the hp-check and have a better idea of what's going on.

Thanks!

A

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#2

You can save your effort on the FC3 ISO's. After conferring, my mother decided to go ahead with the upgrade first. It may resolve things, or may not. I'll still post the "hp-check -t" output ASAP.

As a side note, printing *did* work for a while, using a previous version of HPLIP (1.7.x?), but then broke. The symptoms were identical to what you saw on the scans; the upgrade to HPLIP 2.8.2 was an attempt to fix it.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#3

Please update if this is still a problem. :)

Thanks!

Aaron

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Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#4

Please update if this is still a problem. :)

Thanks!

Aaron

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#5

I did the upgrade to Fedora 8, but the printing is still giving trouble. I see hints of inappropriate inking on the test pages. However, when I tried to run "hp-check -t", or just about any "hp-*" command, I got an error message indicating that it couldn't load the "hpmudext" library.

"strace hp-check -t" showed that it was finding "hpmudext.so" in /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ , so now I'm really at a loss.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#6

Please run:

su -c "tail -f /var/log/messages"

and then run hp-check -t

and send any messages in the /var/log/messages, and any results from the hp-check.

There may be two installs of hplip. You could try removing hplip using yum,

yum remove hplip

and then removing the hplip source using one of these two methods:

a. go to the hplip source directory (cd hplip02.8.2 for example )in the hplip source run "make uninstall"
or
b. run rm -rf /usr/share/hplip (this is messy, dangerous and not the best way)

and then re-install using the source from out website.

Hope this helps.

A

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#7

I'm posting this from my mother's computer, so here's the cut-and-paste:

Output from the hp-check -t command:

[ann@localhost ~]$ hp-check -t
error: HPMUDEXT could not be loaded. Please check HPLIP installation.
[ann@localhost ~]$

And this went into the /var/log/messages file:

Feb 28 14:09:03 localhost python: [12542]: error: HPMUDEXT could not be loaded. Please check HPLIP installation.

Additionally, I did the switch to Fedora 8 as an upgrade. I am strongly considering doing a "new installation" using the free space on the /home partition, just to get rid of the flotsam and jetsam from FC3. I won't have time to do that today; probably next Sunday (March 2) instead.

Thanks for helping, Aaron. I appreciate it tremendously.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#8

This is probably because there may be 2 (or more) installs of hplip trying to run which are conflicting. Are you planning on doing a clean install? If so that should resolve this, however you shouldn't have to reinstall to fix this. Simply remove hplip:

su -c "yum remove hplip"

then remove the hplip install directory:

su -c "rm -rf /usr/share/hplip"

and then re-install hplip from our source (http://hplip.sf.net)

and that should resolve this.

Hope this helps.
Aaron

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#9

Finally, here's a working "hp-check -t" result.

Notes:
1. The default queue is "Photosmart_C3100". I'm not sure where the "Photosmart_C3100_series" queue came from.
2. Notice the errors at the end relating to SANE; I did not install them; they appear to require the "hplip-2.7.12" package, again leading to the dreaded double-installation problem.
3. Mom decided to delay the clean installation of Fedora 8, although she has not ruled it out.

-------------------------- BEGIN hp-check.log CONTENTS ----------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
Initializing. Please wait...
Fedora

8

scheduler is running

1.3.6

Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.23.14-107.fc8 #1 SMP Mon Jan 14 21:37:30 EST 2008 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :---------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :| SYSTEM INFO |
hp-check[11693]: info: :---------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Basic system information:
hp-check[11693]: info: :Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.23.14-107.fc8 #1 SMP Mon Jan 14 21:37:30 EST 2008 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Distribution:
hp-check[11693]: info: :fedora 8
hp-check[11693]: info: :
HPOJ running?
hp-check[11693]: info: :No, HPOJ is not running (OK).
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking Python version...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, version 2.5.1 installed
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking PyQt version...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, version 3.17 installed.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking SIP version...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, Version 4.7.1 installed
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for CUPS...
hp-check[11693]: info: :Status: scheduler is running
hp-check[11693]: info: :Version: 1.3.6
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :------------------------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :| COMPILE AND RUNTIME DEPENDENCIES |
hp-check[11693]: info: :------------------------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
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).
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: cups - Common Unix Printing System...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: cups-ddk - CUPS driver development kit...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: cups-devel- Common Unix Printing System development files...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: gcc - GNU Project C and C++ Compiler...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: GhostScript - PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: libcrypto - OpenSSL cryptographic library...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: libjpeg - JPEG library...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: libnetsnmp-devel - SNMP networking library development files...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: libpthread - POSIX threads library...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: libtool - Library building support services...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: libusb - USB library...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: make - GNU make utility to maintain groups of programs...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: PIL - Python Imaging Library (required for commandline scanning with hp-scan)...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: ppdev - Parallel port support kernel module....
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: PyQt - Qt interface for Python...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: python-devel - Python development files...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: Python 2.3 or greater - Required for fax functionality...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: Python 2.2 or greater - Python programming language...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: Reportlab - PDF library for Python...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: SANE - Scanning library...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :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.
hp-check[11693]: info: :To install this dependency, execute this command:
hp-check[11693]: info: :su -c "yum -y -d 10 -e 1 install sane-backends-devel"
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for dependency: scanimage - Shell scanning program...
warning: NOT FOUND! This is an OPTIONAL/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Some HPLIP functionality may not function properly.
hp-check[11693]: info: :To install this dependency, execute this command:
hp-check[11693]: info: :su -c "yum -y -d 10 -e 1 install sane-frontends"
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :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.
hp-check[11693]: info: :To install this dependency, execute this command:
hp-check[11693]: info: :su -c "yum -y -d 10 -e 1 install xsane"
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :----------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :| HPLIP INSTALLATION |
hp-check[11693]: info: :----------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Currently installed HPLIP version...
hp-check[11693]: info: :HPLIP 2.8.2 currently installed in '/usr/share/hplip'.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Current contents of '/etc/hp/hplip.conf' file:
hp-check[11693]: info: :# hplip.conf. Generated from hplip.conf.in by configure.

[hpssd]
# Note: hpssd does not support dynamic ports
# Port 2207 is the IANA assigned port for hpssd
port=2207

[hplip]
version=2.8.2

[dirs]
home=/usr/share/hplip
run=/var/run
ppd=/usr/share/cups/model/HP
ppdbase=/usr/share/cups/model
doc=/usr/share/doc/hplip-2.8.2
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=no
fax-build=yes
cups11-build=no
doc-build=yes
shadow-build=no
foomatic-drv-install=yes
foomatic-ppd-install=no
foomatic-rip-hplip-install=yes
internal-tag=2.8.2.10

hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :--------------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :| DISCOVERED USB DEVICES |
hp-check[11693]: info: :--------------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :---------------------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :| INSTALLED CUPS PRINTER QUEUES |
hp-check[11693]: info: :---------------------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Photosmart_C3100
hp-check[11693]: info: :----------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :Type: Printer
hp-check[11693]: info: :Installed in HPLIP?: Yes, using the hp: CUPS backend.
hp-check[11693]: info: :Device URI: hp:/usb/Photosmart_C3100_series?serial=MY64DB72MC04KV
hp-check[11693]: info: :PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/Photosmart_C3100.ppd
hp-check[11693]: info: :PPD Description: HP PhotoSmart C3100 Foomatic/hpijs (recommended)
hp-check[11693]: info: :Printer status: printer Photosmart_C3100 is idle. enabled since Sun 02 Mar 2008 05:57:10 PM EST

hp-check[11693]: info: :Communication status: Good
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Photosmart_C3100_series
hp-check[11693]: info: :-----------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :Type: Unknown
hp-check[11693]: info: :Installed in HPLIP?: No, not using the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend.
hp-check[11693]: info: :Device URI: usb://HP/Photosmart%20C3100%20series?serial=MY64DB72MC04KV
hp-check[11693]: info: :PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/Photosmart_C3100_series.ppd
hp-check[11693]: info: :PPD Description: HP PhotoSmart C3100 Foomatic/hpijs (recommended)
hp-check[11693]: info: :Printer status: printer Photosmart_C3100_series is idle. enabled since Thu 28 Feb 2008 08:23:31 AM EST

warning: Printer is not HPLIP installed. Printers must use the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend to function in HPLIP.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :---------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :| PYTHON EXTENSIONS |
hp-check[11693]: info: :---------------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking 'cupsext' CUPS extension...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking 'pcardext' Photocard extension...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking 'hpmudext' I/O extension...
hp-check[11693]: info: :OK, found.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :-----------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :| USB I/O SETUP |
hp-check[11693]: info: :-----------------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Checking for permissions of USB attached printers...
hp-check[11693]: info: :
HP Device 0x5611 at 001:013:
hp-check[11693]: info: : Device URI: hp:/usb/Photosmart_C3100_series?serial=MY64DB72MC04KV
hp-check[11693]: info: : Device node: /dev/bus/usb/001/013
hp-check[11693]: info: : Mode: 0666
hp-check[11693]: info: :getfacl: Removing leading '/' from absolute path names

# file: dev/bus/usb/001/013

# owner: root

# group: lp

user::rw-

group::rw-

other::rw-

hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :-----------
hp-check[11693]: info: :| SUMMARY |
hp-check[11693]: info: :-----------
hp-check[11693]: info: :
error: 4 errors and/or warnings.
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Summary of needed commands to run to satisfy missing dependencies:
hp-check[11693]: info: :su -c "yum -y -d 10 -e 1 install sane-backends-devel"
hp-check[11693]: info: :su -c "yum -y -d 10 -e 1 install sane-frontends"
hp-check[11693]: info: :su -c "yum -y -d 10 -e 1 install xsane"
hp-check[11693]: info: :
hp-check[11693]: info: :Please refer to the installation instructions at:
hp-check[11693]: info: :http://hplip.sourceforge.net/install/index.html
-------------------------- END hp-check.log CONTENTS ----------------

Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#10

2. Notice the errors at the end relating to SANE; I did not install them; they appear to require the "hplip-2.7.12" package, again leading to the dreaded double-installation problem.

This errors are not because you don't have hplip-2.7.12. They are errors because you are missing sane packages required for scanning. sane is independent from hplip--we only use the sane resources to provide scanning functionality. These packages are not required however.

Using hplip 2.8.2 are you getting different results printing?

A

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#11

> They are errors because you are missing sane packages required for scanning. sane is independent from hplip--we only use the sane resources to provide scanning functionality.

No, I meant that if I do the suggested commands (omitting the "-y" parameter), yum will list "hplip-2.7.12" as a dependency. In other words, the fix suggested by "hp-check" will cause a double-installed HPLIP.

The printing is still messing up with 2.8.2. I can print two test pages via the CUPS web interface, and it won't print the same way both times. The glitches seem to be random, although the types of glitches are fairly consistent, as in the scans I linked to in the original report.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#12

If you print the test pages from the cups usb backend do they print correctly everytime?

Have you tried doing an align/clean from the hp-toolbox tools?

Thanks.

Aaron

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#13

> If you print the test pages from the cups usb backend do they print correctly everytime?

Well, printing the test page from the CUPS web interface (localhost:631) prints incorrectly every time, and the incorrect printing is different every time as well. The printing errors seem to be random; I have no idea what is feeding into the print handling to cause the variations.

> Have you tried doing an align/clean from the hp-toolbox tools?

Yes.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#14

If you connect the printer to a different system and/or a windows system does it do the same thing?

A

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#15

I tried to connect it to my laptop, but for some reason the laptop and the printer refused to communicate. This was the case under both Slackware 12.0 (with -current updates) and Fedora 8; nothing in /var/log/messages indicated a USB plug event. I will try my old desktop system, probably next weekend.

My approach now is "start reasonably far away with something that works, then move closer and closer until it stops working". That should give a large clue as to where the problem lies (hardware, OS, drivers?). However, the only time I get any substantial amount of time to hack on this is on Sundays.

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#16

I got to try my old desktop system with the C3140 today. Slackware-current didn't work right, due to some odd thing in the startup scripts. Since this isn't officially supported anyway, I decided to just take the leap and switch to Fedora 8.

After installing the Fedora 8 Unity Spin with HPLIP 2.7.12, I was unable to get the printer to show any mis-behavior at all. Every printout was clean and error-free, whether from a printer test page, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, or Evince.

I was not able to upgrade to HPLIP 2.8.2, because the computer was not on the internet, making yum totally useless.

The current plan is to do a clean install of Fedora 8 Unity Spin, rather than an upgrade. It'll happen Sunday, and hopefully a couple days later I should be able to close this ticket.

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#17

The Fedora 8 Unity Spin clean installation did not fix the issue. In fact, printing attempts #2 and #3 stalled almost immediately.

At this point, I am strongly suspecting a hardware conflict, as all defective printing behavior is showing on Mom's desktop system (my laptop notwithstanding). I do not believe the software is at fault, but rather the hardware is getting old. Based on this, I will close this ticket.

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#18

Four days later, so far, so good. Mom has printed from several programs, and all have provided expected printouts.

Revision history for this message
gus3 (gus3) said : 		#19

Still behaving properly a month later.

Because this ticket is closed, I have locked the website referenced in the original post.