Yesterday my HP Envy 4520 printer was working. I just upgraded my laptop to Mint 20 (from 19.3) and now the Envy isn't working. I use the printer with a direct connection, not wifi. I am able to see the printer (under Printers), Mint seems to recognize the printer but when I try to print something, I get a "Device communication error". A bit later I get a "HP Envy printer may not be connected." message.

I have tried deleting the printer and reinstalling it multiple times (rebooting in between). I also installed HPLIP Status Service thinking it would help. I also read lots of forums about HPLIP. I ended up being quite confused - do I need HPLIP for this printer or don't I need it? Do I need to download a newer version of lplip? I am currently running 3.20.3+dfsg0-2 (not sure what the last part of that means) - in response to typing $dpkg -l hplip

I have been using Linux for a few years but still consider myself a newbie for the most part.

Any thoughts?

KG789,

Download hplip-3.23.5.run from this link and then run the automatic installer:

https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-i.../install/index

At Step 11, select USB.

Thanks beachboy2. I tried downloading hplip-3.25.5.run and ran the automatic installer via the link you provided. I found that there were 6 files missing:
1. cups-devel
2. cups-image
3. python3-devel
4. libnetsnmp-devel
5. sane-devel
6. libavahi-dev

Then ENVY-4520 printer would work initially (once or twice) and then spawn some variation (ENVY_4520_series_TH5831K05Q0660) as in there would be two ENVY-4520 printers. That one would work for a while and then say, “Getting printer information”_and would never get the printer information. i tried deleting the printer(s) and rebooting to see if that would work. it didn't.

So then I went back to the HP Developers Portal (link you provided) and for ha-ha's thought I'd try the Advanced Users' option of manual installation. I determined that my python version is 2.6 or greater, so I downloaded /hplip/3.23.5/hplip-3.23.5.tar.gz

and followed theinstructions:

$sudo apt-get update

$sudo apt-get install

$cd ~/Desktop

$tar xvfz hplip-3.23.5.tar.gz

$cd hplip-3-23-5

$./configure --with-hplip.3.23.5=/usr/share/ppd/HP --libdir=/usr/lib64 --prefix=/usr --enable-udev-acl-rules --enable-qt4 --disable-libusb01_build --enable-doc-build --disable-cups-ppd-install --disable-foomatic-drv-install --disable-foomatic-ppd-install --disable-hpijs-install --disable-udev_sysfs_rules --disable-policykit --enable-cups-drv-install --enable-hpcups-install --enable-network-build --enable-dbus-build --enable-scan-build --enable-fax-build

$make

$sudo make install

The last command I tried was
$su -c "usermod -a -G lp,lpadmin $USER"

but I didn't set up this laptop I'm using and don't know the root password so that came back with "su: Authentication failure"

I found info on that same HP Developer's Portal (https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-i...ep4/cups/local),
that said to go to website: http://localhost:631/ I got stuck where I needed the root password

So that's as far as I've gotten. I'm not really sure what to try at this point.

Not sure what that means, did someone install for you? Mint by default doesn't use root but uses sudo which means the primary user should have root permissions. If you don't know the primary user password, you can change that. The link below explains the process.

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/change...-using-passwd/

To clarify, I bought the computer with linux mint 19.3 installed, which is why I don't know the root password. It sounds like I don't need to do the su commands (I listed)?

Anyway, I am still stuck with a printer that doesn't work...