HPLIP

Installed HPLIP 3.9.6b now no duplex option in print dialogs

Asked by Scott McMahan

I installed HPLIP 3.9.6b to fix the Best Quality setting problem. Now I can't use the duplexer! The common print dialog doesn't let me. This is in OpenOffice and Evince, so it's not just a rogue application. It's the whole system.

Under the Layout tab in the print common dialog (which has been totally shuffled since the last version), the Two-sided: drop-down has only One-Sided as an option. No Long-edge.

I went to the Printer Properties for this printer, to the installable options left-menu (was this UI designed by schizophrenics? the print dialog has tabs, this one has a menu on the left like OS/2) and duplexer installed is checked. So the print system knows there is a duplexer. The default setting in the HP Device Manager for this printer is two-sided. The duplexer option under Installable Options is on, and grayed out so it can't be changed.

I may have to uninstall 3.9.6b, because I need the duplexer this weekend to print a 1000+ page document, if there's no quick fix for this.

This is the same A809 that's caused all the other issues I've reported recently, btw... Same Fedora 10, etc.

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Scott McMahan
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Revision history for this message
Scott McMahan (scott-skwc) said : 		#1

Followup: I found the old PPD and put it back in place of the new one, and duplex is available in the common print dialogs, so this almost has to be something in the PPD. The printer settings are fine, and putting the old PPD back fixes the problem.

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Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#2

Scott,

We haven't been able reproduce. Goto http://localhost:631/printers

Be sure that duplex is enabled and that the paper type you select is 'Letter Autoduplex', otherwise duplex will not work.

Hope this helps.

Aaron

Revision history for this message
Scott McMahan (scott-skwc) said : 		#3

Sorry, but this DOES NOT WORK.

I did find the settings. (This does not follow the principle of least astonishment, and I don't know how anyone would figure out that the duplexer is activated by the paper size. I have never had to change the paper size before. The duplexer was always independent of paper size before this last change.)

I went to OpenOffice and tried to print a page duplexed, and had the paper size set to Letter AutoDuplex, and went back to the Page Setup and selected Long Edge, and the printer printed out two separate pages.

I can keep using the old PPD, at least duplexing works with it. I don't really need the Best Quality setting since there's a separate setting for photo paper. But I think this PPD is badly broken now.

Revision history for this message
Scott McMahan (scott-skwc) said : 		#4

I have the old PPD back and working now ... if I'm the only one who has problems with the new PPD, I'm happy with the old one since I don't need the Best Quality setting. I will close this issue.

In the future you might have problems with the new PPD, because it seems broken. But if no one else uses the A809 with Linux, it doesn't matter. As long as I can print normally, I'm happy.

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hyperaesthetic@gmail.com (hyperaesthetic) said : 		#5

I am happy to report that my HP Officejet Pro 8000 is functioning correctly with CentOS 5.3. I just followed the instruction listed for CentOS and manually installed hplip.

I did have a problem selecting duplexing option prior to reading this thread. I was able to set it the way I wanted on CUPS managing printer section, but when I tried to change the print option to, say one-sided printing, in Openoffice or text editors, then the print dialog would give an error message saying that the changed option I am trying to make was conflicting with current options and I needed to change it in 'advanced tab,' which I still have no idea where this 'advanced tab' is. Anyway, after changing the option to 'Letter Autoduplex,' on my CUPS manage printer section, I can change individual options in the programs I use.

Thank you,

Hyper