HP Deskjet network printing problem
 

(BTW, I just introduced myself as a "newbie".)

On my old PC (Pentium II, Fedora 5) I have an HP DeskJet 710C on a parallel port. I recently got a new PC (E5200 dual-core, 2GB RAM, Fedora 10 x86_74). The two PCs are on a LAN behind an ADSL router, and can talk two each other fairly well (NFS, accessing each other's Apache web servers etc.), but I can't get network printing from the new to the old PC to work. If I configure the printer as "Generic" on the new PC, it works, but this only allows raw text. If I configure it as a CUSP printer and correct model on the new PC, it does not work.

The file "/var/log/messages" on the old PC contains (et al.) these lines:
localhost kernel: parport0: Printer, HEWLETT-PACKARD DESKJET 710C
localhost python: [ERROR] Unsupported model: DESKJET_710C

It would appear that Fedora 10 and Fedora 5 have different ideas as to what an HP Deskjet 710C is called. Thus, I need to change something. But where, and in what file (preferably on the old PC)?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
-- Needless to say, PCs don't come with parallel ports any more :-(

You need to set up cups on the old PC (with the printer attached to it) to allow the printer to be used from other PCs on your LAN. The settings will be in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf which is well-commented.

Restart cups so the changes are recognised.

On your new PC fire up cups with http://localhost:631

Add printer .. Network printer ...

Eventually you get to the part where it is asking for a driver. You do not need one, as the driver is on the old computer and cups on the old computer will handle everything for you. So just tick the box called "Raw Printer" and continue from there.

Network printing with cups is neat.

HP Deskjet 710 printing problem
 

Hi

I'm surprised your ever got the HP710 working under Linux as it's a solely a Windows printer. As far as I am aware their is no driver in Cups for this printer.

I had one of these years ago and it would not work at all.

Borrow a another printer to see if the problem is resolved. if it is get rid of the 710.


grabro

I think I need to expand on my initial posting.
- My HP Deskjet worked 100% under CUPS on Red Hat 7 (on my old PC).
- My HP Deskjet works 100% under CUPS on Fedora 5 on my old PC.
- It is listed as an available printer for CUPS under Fedora 10,
so it should work there as well. However, it's on a parallel port,
which my new PC does not have. It's a good printer, with quite
a bit of "wear" in it, so I'd like to keep it.

So to clarify, this is what I did, BEFORE my initial posting:
(CUPS was running on both PCs; this seems to be the default on
Red Hat/Fedora -- and I presume on all/most Linux distros.)
- Old PC (Fedora 5, IP addr 10.0.0.10), I configured the printer via System->Adminstration->Printing
Queue:lp Type:HP Deskjet 710C etc.
(This was done a long time ago, and has always worked fine.)
- Old PC: disabled firewall; modified printer "lp" to "Shared", accepting "All Host"
- New PC (Fedora 10, IP addr 10.0.0.12) System->Adminstration->Printing
Queue: Deskjet
Device URI: ipp://10.0.0.10/printers/lp
Make and Model: HP Deskjet 710C Foomatic/pnmppa2 (recommended)
- Only this driver appears as a choice so I have to take it
I click on "Print Test Page" and after 10 seconds a box pops up:
There was a problem sending document 'Test page' ...
I click on "Diagnose" and get (inter al.): Print file was not accepted
(client-error-document-format-not-supported)
Old PC: these lines were added to the end of "/var/log/messages":
<date&time> oldpc python: hpssd [ERROR] Not found
<date&time> oldpc python: [ERROR] Unsupported model: DESKJET_710C
<date&time> oldpc python: [ERROR] Device ID not available.
- New PC: another printer queue configured as:
Queue: Rawtext
Device URI: pp://10.0.0.10/printers/lp
Make and Model: Generic text-only printer
- New PC: I enter "lp -dRawtext filename" and it prints
-- but the top line and leftmost column are lost :-(
- New PC: I enter "lp -dDeskjet filename" and nothing at all happens.

BTW, I see nothing in "/etc/cups/cupsd.conf" of interest re. network printing.
And BTW, new PC: http://localhost:631" gives the same stuff as System->Adm->Printers

So, to sum up/repeat, it seems that:
1) CUPS on the old PC (Fedora 5) knows an HP Deskjet 710C as
"HEWLETT-PACKARD DESKJET 710C"
2) CUPS on the new PC (Fedora 10) knows an HP Deskjet 710C as
"DESKJET_710C".
I never entered these two strings, so they must be kept in pre-installed files somewhere (/etc/cups, /usr/share, /var ...), but (using "grep" etc.), I haven't been able to find out where..... :-(

When you get to the bit in cups, on New PC, where it is asking you to select a driver, the drivers are "selectable". But there's also a little box you can check for "Raw printer". When you check this, the list of drivers is no longer selectable, and is greyed out. This is the setting you need. See my post at #2.

CUSP Network printing solved
 

Sorry for the delay in replying, but I've been busy and only now did I get time to get back to this, and I finally resolved it. Part
of the problem is that the config (incl. http://localhost:641) seems to be different under Fedora, e.g. there's no box to tick for
"Raw printer", and you can't bypass selecting a driver.

Anyway, this is what I did in System->Admin->Printers:
New printer -> Select Device: IPP protocol
URI: ipp://10.0.0.10/printers/lp
Choose driver: Generic
Choose driver (second screen)
Models: Raw queue
Drivers: Generic Raw Queue
and the Printer Test Page CUSP v1.3.x -colour wheel etc. - prints beautifully. Printer Options are greyed out, but I can set Job Options (margins, cpi etc.) and when the same as on the old PC
the raw printing with the "lp" command yields (almost) the same output as on my old PC. - Thanks!