HPLIP

HPLip cannot recognize M281fdn

Asked by Rowland Barkley

I have deleted and reinstalled HPLip 3.19.11 several times in Ubuntu 19.10. No success after trying for some days. Hplip cannot find a printer that is already installed and working, except the scanner.

Can I totally purge this proprietary software and use this printer using open source drivers?

I see some people have had success by removing the latest version of HPlip and using an earlier version. But the plugin cannot find the printer not by IP address or USB.

I checked that requires ports are open. I installed the files direct from links on the HP website, and also tried by the Synaptic package manager. But in all cases HP cannot find the printer.

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Rowland Barkley
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brian_p (claremont102) said : 		#1

See https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1852169.

The poster in that that thread has given no feedback. Perhaps you could.

--
Brian

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Rowland Barkley (masterexorcist) said : 		#2

The link in the answer above says to install the plugin to scan. As I stated above, the plugin cannot find the printer. This is a critical bug. I have to leave Ubuntu and load Windows to scan with this printer, as it just does not work with HPLip.

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brian_p (claremont102) said : 		#3

The plugin is a requirement in addition to editing models.dat.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=304796&sid=ff1f0bae89f87384a70d473d8c1fe7d6

The outcome?

--
Brian.

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Rowland Barkley (masterexorcist) said : 		#4

/usr/share/hplip/data/models/models.dat
Models.dat has the following:
[hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m278-m281]
align-type=0
clean-type=0
color-cal-type=0
copy-type=0
embedded-server-type=1
fax-type=1
fw-download=False
icon=hp_color_laserjet_cm1312_mfp.png
io-mfp-mode=1
io-mode=1
io-support=14
job-storage=0
linefeed-cal-type=0
model1=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw
model2=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M279fdw
model3=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281cdw
model4=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdn
model5=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281dne
model6=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M278dn
model7=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M280nw
model8=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M278nw
model9=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M278cw
model10=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M280cnw
model11=HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M280c2
monitor-type=0
panel-check-type=0
pcard-type=0
plugin=0
plugin-reason=0
power-settings=0
ppd-name=hp-color_laserjet_mfp_m278-m281-ps.ppd
family-ppd=hp-postscript-laserjet-pro.ppd
pq-diag-type=0
scan-src=3
scan-type=5
status-battery-check=0
status-dynamic-counters=0
status-type=10
support-released=True
support-subtype=48c3
support-type=2
support-ver=3.18.5
tech-class=Postscript
family-class=Undefined
tech-subclass=Normal
tech-type=4
usb-pid=ad2a
usb-vid=3f0
wifi-config=3

I don't see a space in [hp_colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281]

No Printer found

Searching... (bus=net, timeout=5, ttl=4, search=(None) desc=0, method=slp)
error: No devices found on bus: net
warning: HPLIP cannot detect printers in your network. This may be due to existing firewall settings blocking the required ports.
                When you are in a trusted network environment, you may open the ports for network services like mdns and slp in the firewall. For detailed steps follow the link.
                 http://hplipopensource.com/node/375
^Cerror: hp-setup failed. Please run hp-setup manually.

RE-STARTING HP_SYSTRAY
----------------------

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.19.11)
System Tray Status Service ver. 2.0

Copyright (c) 2001-18 HP 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.

/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py:127: RuntimeWarning: PyOS_InputHook is not available for interactive use of PyGTK
  set_interactive(1)

Revision history for this message
brian_p (claremont102) said : 		#5

You said

> I don't see a space in [hp_colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281]

Models.dat says

> [hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m278-m281

The underbars are spaces.

--
Brian.

Revision history for this message
Rowland Barkley (masterexorcist) said : 		#6

Do I need to edit this?
 [hp_colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281]

Revision history for this message
brian_p (claremont102) said : 		#7

Edit [hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m278-m2810 to have [hp_colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281]

--
Brian.

Revision history for this message
Rowland Barkley (masterexorcist) said : 		#8

after editing out the underscore, the failure response is different.:
Failed to install Plug-in.
Either you have chosen to skip the Plug-in installation or entered incorrect Password.

Revision history for this message
brian_p (claremont102) said : 		#9

Rowland,

See Message #1 at

https://answers.launchpad.net/hplip/+question/685459

--
Brian.

Revision history for this message
Rowland Barkley (masterexorcist) said : 		#10

I reinstalled the plugin manually:
rowland@rowland-HP-Magic:~/Desktop$ sh hplip-3.19.11-plugin.run

This tme the was no incorrect message about a wrong password, and the plugin installed.

Scanning now works.

Revision history for this message
brian_p (claremont102) said : 		#11

Hello Rowland,

Thanks for the feedback. The plugin issue doesn't appear to be that unusual, but
why it occurs I do not know. It is unfortunate that you also experienced a bug in the
M281fdn section of models.dat.

--
Brian.

Revision history for this message
Rowland Barkley (masterexorcist) said : 		#12

Hello Brian,
Thanks for the help getting this going.

Hplip is the most user unfriendly software I encountered in Ubuntu. The error messages are quite unrelated to the problem. Instead of "Printer model not found", the messages were things like "password incorrect" and "ports not open" and error: Python gobject/dbus may be not installed.