When I go to System > Administration > Printer the Printer configuration applet starts. However the Settings option, used to setup a new printer is grayed out. I have a HP LaserJet 1200 plugged into a USB port on my Toshiba Satellite M45-S359 laptop. I have no problem setting up this printer when it is plugged into my desktop machine. Any help would be appreciated.

Most HP laserjet printers are supported by the hplip package. If it is installed, you could try pointing your browser at http://localhost:631 and setting up the printer via the cups web interface.
You may need to use the "sudo lppasswd" program to create the printer admin account to use, if you don't have a root account. (I'm not familiar with Ubuntu) If hplip wasn't installed, try the same printer admin program first.

you might want to swing by the openprinting.org forums. They can help you

if you havn't got it sorted yet.... just go here:
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web...ard/index.html

download the driver... install it. and your printer should now work

First of all, I want thank all of you who replied.

But I have done some additional experimentation that may shine some additional light on the problem.

First, let me describe my setup here.
I have a desktop computer and a Toshiba laptop. The printer works without any problems on the desktop.

I used Remastersys to make a bootable Live CD of my desktop system.
When I boot my laptop using the LiveCD everything works fine.

When I install the OS on the LiveCD to the hard drive of the laptop the printer problem appears. From the System > Administration > Printing is where the Settings optin is grayed out, making it impossible to install the printer.

What is strange is the fact that all is OK when running the OS from the LiveCD, but when I install that image to the hard drive the problem pops up.