Loss of support for the HP LaserJet 5M
 

I'm running Kubuntu 11.10. I have an HP LaserJet 5M printer with a duplexing attachment, connected to my network using a plug-in module on the printer's parallel port.

Until a while ago (6 months, I'm guessing), the printer worked perfectly in Kubuntu. It still works perfectly in Windows and even in OpenSuSE 11.3. But now I can't turn the duplexing off. The information available on the Net is contradictory. According to http://www.openprinting.org/printer/HP/HP-LaserJet_5M, the printer is supported perfectly, with support provided by HPLIP (see http://hplipopensource.com/). But HPLIP does not list this particular printer as being supported.

I would guess that the best way to get the printer working correctly again is to replace the printer driver by an older version. But I don't know what specifically I need to replace, or where to find the correct older version.

This printer, while old, is still in common use.

Make a live usb install and see if you can replicate a working install maybe.

LIve USB install?
 

Could you explain what you mean by a live USB install? Do you mean running a live system, i.e., one running off the installation medium rather than the hard drive?

Do you have cups installed, then run in a browser http://localhost:631 this puts you in your cups interface setup your printer from here on socket://[ip-address-hplaserjet]:9100 with the lj4dith (grayscale, 2-sided printing) Driver
this driver works for LJ-4,5 and 6 series (same printer language).
Don't do this from the kde printer setup 9 out of 10 it fails to work

I went into the network interface of CUPS, as you suggested. I tried adding another printer as HP LaserJet 5 Foomatic/lj4dith. No luck with it. I kept getting error messages and fragmentary PCL printouts. I then tried to delete it through CUPS and wasn't able to. Specifically, I was on the screen that showed the following:

On this screen I could select "Maintenance" and "Delete Printer". The problem was that clicking on "Delete Printer" did nothing, and there was no "OK" or similar button on the screen.

There also seems to be an issue about the LJ5 versus the LJ5M. I have an LJ5M (or so I assume, since it does Postscript). The lj4dith drivers are listed for the LJ5 but not for the LJ5M.

I'm able to delete this experimental printer through Systems Settings, which is probably not the best way to do it. I wish I could delete it through CUPS but I haven't been able to.

It is pretty easy to install linux of your choice to a usb. Be careful and don't use most of the tips and tools at pendrivelinux.com. Those are not real installs. You can unplug your hard drives and boot to some similar distro to what you have. Be sure the usb is in at power off and you may have to boot to bios just to confirm that the usb is seen. Then install the OS to the usb, apply any apps and see if the printer works.

It would separate your OS from a golden install. If the problem follows then we need to look at printer maybe.

I got a LJ-6P series also with a small printserver attached to the centronics-port but some HP devices require proprietary software technologies to allow full access to printer features.
so try the HP binairy hplip version it requires that you agree with the proprietary software technologies blabla licence,
get it here: http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/gethplip.html
or even faster here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/hpli...4.run/download

About removing drivers in cups a cli method is that you rename /etc/cups/printers.conf to /etc/cups/printers.bak
after you stopped the cupsd daemon, then restart it again, all printers should be gone to start again.