hi

i own an HP Deskjet 5650 which has in patches been working in linux with no problems whatsoever. Occassionally CUPS would 'stop' the printer and i would have to restart it, but nothing major.

recently however i have been having more serious problems. the printer wouldnt work unless i turned it on whilst looking at the cups 631 menus a while back, but now the kernel wont assign it an lp device file. it should be /dev/usb/lp0 but cups says it is "not a directory".

Printer State: processing, accepting jobs.
"Unable to open USB device "usb:/dev/usb/lp0": Not a directory"
Device URI: usb:/dev/usb/lp0


i compile my own kernels and currently have a 2.6.11.12 running that is fine apart from this problem. my usb webcam works and is detected on boot up, and i have compiled in all the pertinent modules i could see in the kernel (ohci, uhci, ehci, usblp, usb-core and a few others, including one for USB printers - is there a list anywhere?). i have tried other USB ports, switching it on and off, starting linux with it switched on, starting it, stopping it, installing the HP drivers and running the hpijs command as a daemon, modprobing usblp etc but with no sign of improvement

what is wrong?

I am not quite sure, but is lp0 not a parallel port device (unless it is linked)?
Is the printer perhaps under /dev/sda or sdb, being falsely recognized as just another device on the userial bus? In that case just link the /dev/usb/lp0 file to the /dev/sda, see what happens...

this is really starting to irritate me now. why is it that you can start linux, type a few commands and something works. then, you reboot do exactly the same commands TO THE LETTER, and it doesnt work?

last time i worked out that if i removed the /dev/usb file and modprobed usblp it worked like a charm (created /dev/usb/lp0 as well). so i rebooted to make sure the problem was totally fixed, typed the same commands and ... nothing happens. how does that make sense?

sorry for being annoyed but it just doesnt conform to standard rules of logic! everything else works under linux now which i am grateful for, but why is it that despite all my knowledge of the kernel and everything the same commands sometimes work and sometimes dont?

linux still wipes the floor with windows but i wish this kind of randomness could be resolved.

thanks


EDIT -- this has gotten even more confusing!! it has now created /dev/usb/lp0 (but sometimes doesnt) and cups reckons the printer isnt connected (it doesnt complain about /dev/usb/lp0, ie its either connected and working now or not connected at all). i am past aggression and am now laughing ... this pc actually has a life of its own.

Review the following thread for the solution:

http://mialug.org/index.php?option=c...1347&catid=103

thats not really the problem tho - its gotten much worse since then. i had no worries about occassionally restarting it, but now its not working at all. any advice would be appreciated

hmm i managed to get it working for the first time for a while today! I killed cups, restarted the printer, removed the /dev/usb file, loaded usblp, ran cupsd as a daemon and then turned the printer back on!! lol

its very very temperamental atm which is annoying but its the best i can get

have you tried not using cups but lpd?

isnt cups far more developed and used than lpd?