HPLIP

HP WIreless G Print Server

Asked by neiljohnford

I'm trying to use a HP Wireless G Print Server to print to a HP4480 from my Ubuntu (Hardy) laptop.

The print server works fine on an xp laptop.

From Ubuntu, CUPS, the HP Device Manager installed with HPLIP, and the interface under System->Admin->Printers all fail to find the print server.

The print server ip is pingable though. When I Nmap the print server I get three open ports 34447, 34448 and 34450. Adding these ports to CUPS doesn't seem to work. Although I might have the syntax or protocol wrong in CUPS?

When I Nmap one of these ports in more detail I get:

neil@laptop:~$ nmap -p34450 -sV 192.168.1.60

Starting Nmap 4.53 ( http://insecure.org ) at 2008-09-29 21:00 BST
Interesting ports on Unknown-00-17-08-9d-9e-42.home (192.168.1.60):
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
34450/tcp open unknown

Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at http://insecure.org/nmap/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 110.759 seconds

I'm guessing that as Nmap can't determine the service that it's using a proprietary HP protocol - but this seems unlike HP?

Has anyone successfully set up this Print Server under Linux?

If not, does anyone know if there are plans to add Wireless G Print Server support to HPLIP?

Is there any hope or should I give up and go back to using the USB cable to connect directly to the printer?

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Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#1

Hey Neil,

I did get your other email but I'll respond here because this is more the usual place.

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

Can you ping the printer? (ping ipaddressofprinter)

The Wireless G Print Server -should- work..although we haven't tested this specific device. If we can't get you working I'll check on getting a unit that I can test with.

Thanks!

Aaron

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

Here's the output of hp-check -t:

Saving output in log file: hp-check.log

Initializing. Please wait...

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

Basic system information:
Linux laptop 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Aug 20 17:53:40 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Distribution:
ubuntu 8.04

HPOJ running?
No, HPOJ is not running (OK).

Checking Python version...
OK, version 2.5.2 installed

Checking PyQt version...
OK, version 3.17 installed.

Checking SIP version...
error: SIP not installed or version not found.

Checking for CUPS...
Status: scheduler is running
Version: 1.3.7
error_log is set to level: warn
note: For troubleshooting printing issues, it is best to have the CUPS 'LogLevel'
note: set to 'debug'. To set the LogLevel to debug, edit the file /etc/cups/cupsd.conf (as root),
note: and change the line near the top of the file that begins with 'LogLevel' to read:
note: LogLevel debug
note: Save the file and then restart CUPS (see your OS/distro docs on how to restart CUPS).
note: Now, when you print, helpful debug information will be saved to the file:
note: /var/log/cups/error_log
note: You can monitor this file by running this command in a console/shell:
note: tail -f /var/log/cups/error_log

Checking for dbus/python-dbus...
dbus daemon is running.
python-dbus version: 0.82.4

------------------------------------
| 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-ddk - CUPS driver development kit...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: cups-devel- Common Unix Printing System 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: ppdev - Parallel port support kernel module....
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PyQt 3- Qt interface for Python (for Qt version 3.x)...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PyQt 4- Qt interface for Python (for Qt version 4.x)...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: python-ctypes - A foreign function library for Python...
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 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 2.8.9 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=2.8.9

[dirs]
home=/usr/share/hplip
run=/var/run
ppd=/usr/share/ppd/hpijs/HP
ppdbase=/usr/share/ppd/hpijs
doc=/usr/share/doc/hplip-2.8.9
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
foomatic-drv-install=yes
foomatic-ppd-install=no
foomatic-rip-hplip-install=yes
internal-tag=2.8.9.0
restricted-build=no
ui-toolkit=qt3

-------------------------------
| DISCOVERED PARALLEL DEVICES |
 -------------------------------

No devices found.

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

No devices found.

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

PDF
---
Type: Unknown
Installed in HPLIP?: No, not using the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend.
Device URI: cups-pdf:/
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/PDF.ppd
PPD Description: Generic PDF file generator
Printer status: printer PDF is idle. enabled since Tue 22 Apr 2008 19:12:00 BST
warning: Printer is not HPLIP installed. Printers must use the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend to function in HPLIP.
Photosmart_C4400_series
-----------------------
Type: Printer
Installed in HPLIP?: Yes, using the hp: CUPS backend.
Device URI: hp:/usb/Photosmart_C4400_series?serial=MY86KNN0DW0557
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/Photosmart_C4400_series.ppd
PPD Description: HP Photosmart c4400 series Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.9
Printer status: printer Photosmart_C4400_series is idle. enabled since Mon 29 Sep 2008 20:36:04 BST
error: Unable to communicate with device (code=12): hp:/usb/Photosmart_C4400_series?serial=MY86KNN0DW0557
error: Device not found

printer
-------
Type: Unknown
Installed in HPLIP?: No, not using the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend.
Device URI: socket://192.168.1.60:34447
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/printer.ppd
PPD Description: HP Photosmart c4400 series Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.9
Printer status: printer printer is idle. enabled since Sun 28 Sep 2008 23:11:39 BST
warning: Printer is not HPLIP installed. Printers must use the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend to function in HPLIP.

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

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

Checking output of 'scanimage -L'...
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname USB2.0 Camera virtual device

---------------------
| 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...

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

error: 4 errors and/or warnings.

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

Done.

I think I can ping the printer at 192.168.1.253 (does that sound feasible?) but not sure as my router doesn't display a printer or anything at this IP.

Thanks for your help!
Neil

Revision history for this message
neiljohnford (neiljohnford) said : 		#3

Thinking about it 192.168.1.253 might be the print server on the router - so no I don't think I can ping the printer.

Still really stumped on this! Frustrating as the kit all works really well on xp.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#4

Do you have the model number of the print server? Can you post it please?

Thanks.

Aaron

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

The product number is Q6302A. It's listed on the HP website here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=uk&product=3662206&

Product manual is here:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01471139.pdf

Thanks,
Neil

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

Neil,

I'm working on getting this unit--should have it within the next week or so and I'll have more information then.

If for some reason you don't have an update in a week please post a message.

Sorry for the delay.

Aaron

Revision history for this message
ZPedroMartins (zpedro-martins) said : 		#7

Hi,

Do you have any news concerning this thread ?

Regards,
Jose Pedro de Sousa Martins

Revision history for this message
neiljohnford (neiljohnford) said : 		#8

@Jose - As you can see above Aaron is trying to get hold of one of these to resolve the issue.

@Aaron - any luck getting that unit yet?

Cheers,
Neil

Revision history for this message
Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#9

I have finally got a device, and I'm unhappy to report that it will not function with HPLIP currently.

We've put this device on our to do list for review and may possibility add support in the future. However I can't promise that we will or when/if ever this will happen.

Sorry I didn't have better news guys!

Aaron

Revision history for this message
ZPedroMartins (zpedro-martins) said : 		#10

Hi,

Do you have any device protocol specification that can be analyzed in order to investigate if this issue can be "solved"
(or even partial solved) in any other way the using the HPLIP? [It will be better that try sniff the network packets to
try to understand how the protocol could be implemented]

Regards,
Jose Pedro Martins

Revision history for this message
Gwen Stouthuysen (gwen-stouthuysen) said : 		#11

I'm using the HP 2101nw wireless G USB print server in a mixed network: Linux Debian Etch and Windows XP. As usual from HP the installation procedure was flawless, directly working.
Now I want to hook up the Debian desktop to the print server, but HP seams to have developed a proprietary platform, no way to access the server in a normal traditonal way.

If needed I can do tests.

Gwen

Revision history for this message
Olaf Reitmaier Veracierta (olafrv) said : 		#12

I've this HP 2101nw Wireless G USB Print Server too.

It's pity that HP make it propietary platform.

Here is my actual solution to get it working with an XP virtual machine:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1134144

Olaf.-

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