How Tos are missing vital information

I think the core of the problem is:
How should the HOWTO of your installed HPLIP version
know about the device class of a new printer model?

The current "Supported Devices" list on the HPLIP web page
provides what you are looking for:
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/combined.html
The Deskjet F380 is supported since HPLIP version 0.9.9
via the DJ3600 printer device class.

Now there is a little trick which is not obvious for a normal user:
One cannot click on "DJ3600" but one must manually go to
"Technical Documentation" -> "Printer Device Classes"
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/tech_docs/device_classes.html
to get the list of some more models in this class.

In particular a Deskjet F380 should work when you select
the model which matches best to the class name: "DeskJet 3600".

I think it would be very helpful if unexperienced users
can more easily find out which models belong to a class.

Perhaps additional web-pages could be generated
which list all models which belong to the same class
and on the "Supported Devices" list the class name
is a link to the matching list of models for this class.

I don't understand why you need to know the device class to use the F380.
There is a PPD file for the F380 that contains the proper print commands for
that device. Can you please explain your particular circumstance that
requires you to install using a PPD other than the matching F380 one?

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 2:22 AM, Johannes Meixner <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Question #25778 on HPLIP changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/hplip/+question/25778
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Johannes Meixner proposed the following answer:
> I think the core of the problem is:
> How should the HOWTO of your installed HPLIP version
> know about the device class of a new printer model?
>
> The current "Supported Devices" list on the HPLIP web page
> provides what you are looking for:
> http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/combined.html
> The Deskjet F380 is supported since HPLIP version 0.9.9
> via the DJ3600 printer device class.
>
> Now there is a little trick which is not obvious for a normal user:
> One cannot click on "DJ3600" but one must manually go to
> "Technical Documentation" -> "Printer Device Classes"
> http://hplip.sourceforge.net/tech_docs/device_classes.html
> to get the list of some more models in this class.
>
> In particular a Deskjet F380 should work when you select
> the model which matches best to the class name: "DeskJet 3600".
>
> I think it would be very helpful if unexperienced users
> can more easily find out which models belong to a class.
>
> Perhaps additional web-pages could be generated
> which list all models which belong to the same class
> and on the "Supported Devices" list the class name
> is a link to the matching list of models for this class.
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are a member of HP
> Linux Imaging and Printing, which is an answer contact for HPLIP.
>

--
~~~
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions.
- Frater Ravus

Hi,
If there is a ppd file, where is it? How do I get a copy? How do I use it?
When I try to configure the printer, the system goes off somewhere and after digesting some stuff, offers me various possible printers.
Maybe those are the PPDs you're talking about? F380 is definitely not listed!!!

The reason why I have a problem is that I uninstalled the HPLIP drivers and then reinstalled them, using UBUNTU's repositories. Why would I do that? I was trying to get color printing to work again.

Previously, my color ink ran out and although black ink was available, the printer was producing almost blank pages with smudges of magenta on them. I suppose it was simulating black, using colored ink and that is why it ran out of ink. Anyway, I set it to print gray scale until I got another color cartridge. Then, no matter what I did, it only printed gray scale from Firefox and Open Office Writer. However if I exported to a pdf file and used the PDF reader, I could print in color. I now realize that If I had changed the printer type, I could have reset the configuration by selecting that option.

However, I have never had this printer set up correctly, since I have never had the F380 option. I can't remember what I chose last time. Whatever I've tried this time, doesn't print I can scan though. Xsane finds and operates the device just fine.

Billy,

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

Thanks.

Aaron

Hi Aaron,

We are pusuing this thing in two places. The thread on the Ubuntu forum is more advanced, so perhaps we should do it there.
I've run your script and posted the results.

Thanks,

Billy

Billy,

Can you post the ubuntuforum thread so I can check it out?

I was probably there at some point, but I look at a lot of bugs in both places so I think I lost track of it.

Thanks!

A

Sure,
the link is:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4515477#post4515477

Billy

On Thu, 2008-03-13 at 18:03 +0000, Aaron Albright wrote:

> Your question #25778 on HPLIP changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/hplip/+question/25778
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Aaron Albright requested for more information:
> Billy,
>
> Can you post the ubuntuforum thread so I can check it out?
>
> I was probably there at some point, but I look at a lot of bugs in both
> places so I think I lost track of it.
>
> Thanks!
>
> A
>

Thanks very much.
I still think it would help to see
something telling us to setup an F380 as an F300 etc.

I'm sorry about that. I pressed the tab key, trying to make a numbered list.
Now I can't mark this as answered. Perhaps you can do it for me.

However, I still think it would help us to see
   1. something telling us to setup an F380 as an F300 etc.
   2. something on the download page telling one how to run HPLIP_whatever_RUN (eg as super user etc)
Thanx again,
Billy

Billy,

I'll try and make the install instructions link more clear in the next release.

Thanks for your support of hplip and for your time!

Aaron