[SOLVED] Adding Printer Problem On Linux Mint 21.2

I may need to update first, as part of my solution, if I try it, and the solution doesn't work. I'm going to try and settle into a new schedule, when I can (routines in general are hard for me), of updating every 1st Tuesday of the month, if there's no reason not to, as that's pretty much when a good schedule is for Microsoft updates that I may have to do manually. I'm a creature of habbit, and want to not change what pretty much works.

My pattern for that, will be, first, I apply to my home, then, I apply to my office, then I apply to my work places. I may have seperate "network updates", at any of these. My office is my work too, but more informally for now. OK. Enough about updates, just wanted to make sure you understood I may need to apply them.

Now, I'm having trouble adding a printer in Linux Mint 21.2, to my office computer. The printer, is technically, my Mom's personal printer right now. It's often OK to use it sometimes. Adding it doesn't mean I HAVE to use it. We have an understanding of when to use it, and when not to.

I believe, somehow, my laptop, but it might have been an older version then, just detected it just fine. This machine is not. I eventually had to make changes to it when it autodetected on my laptop, to keep it working. They are now the same OS, but I just updated my laptop, whereas on my office machine, it was installed as 21.2 from scratch. Some updates have been applied so far.

On my laptop, the URI begins with

socket://

I do NOT have the IP with me, that it points to. Everything works fine on my laptop without changing anything. For this machine, even when I entered the URI directly, it asked for a username and password.

My first problem, is I don't know which username and password it's asking for, so I'm in the dark which one to provide.

My second problem, is I know I forgot the username and password, whichever one it wants. I'm sure, I can try a few more guesses, but they're just guesses. The printer on the Windows system, my Mom's home computer, is currently working fine.

I do NOT Know or know how to get at the printer's IP address right now, but I should be able to figure out a way to get at it. It might be dynamic or static. I don't know right now.

My Mom has Spectrum Internet with a default provided router, with a box, which I could figure out, but don't remember the setup on, but it's essentially a wireless bridge, which connects my equipment. I have some basic smarthome lights for my purposes on my end. Some are connected directly to her wi-fi, some are possibly connected through me.

I have two wired devices on my wireless bridge, which are my two computers for the office. One laptop docking station and one desktop computer, which is the office computer. That's her network, in a nutshell.

Her Windows computer (Windows 10), is a computer that used to be used for her business. I did most of her setup. Because when we brought it to her house, we just wanted it to work properly, I left most of the setup, because it would quit working if we changed some things, so it was best to just leave it. Some business files still remain. If she didn't want business files, I could have majorly changed it. It hasn't changed a lot from being at the business, and is working great for her, which is what matters.

It's not my responsibillity to do everything on it for her, as it's not a job of any kind. But as a son, and caring one, I agree right now, while I can, to do some minimal work to just make sure she can use it. I implicitly agree to not be malicious in any way, and that's just on her system. No problem for me, I don't even know how to be malicious, only do good on computers. I never wanted security to be my focus, so I didn't even learn how to be destructive. I could study up, but only doing good interests me at all. I could think of ways to be destructive, if I had any interest, but I may not be good at it. Not that I don't know about ANY security risks or anything. I DO know if that was what I desired, how to fully become an administrator of Windows 10, if I have physical access, and want to leave traces of my activity. In other words, if I need to, I can reset her administrative password, on the machine, with my Linux tools, or get into BIOS/UEFI, by basic hardware trick. I could NOT do it without being known anyway.

What I'm wondering, is if that's what is neccessary to fix my issue. For the good of us, I AM allowed to do it, if I do it at the right time. We both just want our stuff to work for us to do our work. But BEFORE I did that, I wanted to make sure that was what I needed to do. I'm not worried about the traces I would leave or anything, I don't WANT to be maliciious, I have NO INTEREST in that. But I want to be careful not to cause myself or my Mom to not have working PCs, even if I CAN fix it, and if I do that, I will probably be the one who has to.

Her windows machine is being automatically logged into and started every day, and automatically shut down at night. I don't remember the times, I don't remember how it's being logged onto automatically. I want to keep these things, at the end of what I have to do.

I really want to finish all my switches to Linux, and use Windows only when I have to for home. When there is no other choice. I want to carry this on, to any business, I may start. Right now, Linux Mint is what I chose. However, I cannot force this upon others, and have to keep up with Windows, well enough to do what I need to. I'm bored when using it, but I need to still know about it. I am NOT and don't choose to know or need to know anything about
Windows 11. Windows 12, when it comes out, I may need to know about. That's why Windows is running on her machine. I can get samba working on my office machine, if needed, but I haven't so far. There are no domain controllers here at her house. My laptop has a program of my creation, which I might share later, on github, which makes it be able to go back and forth between my domain at home, and a domainless enviroment anywhere else, and the Internet still works saemlessly, even when the home resolv.conf quits working while I'm out. I do have to wait for it, but it works wonderfully.

I want to get the printer working on my office machine, now you know the details, please help. I can document the fix, after I'm sure I have it, including if passwords need to be changed. Hopefully later we can break into the printer's website, we don't have access to it anymore right now. These losing the information, is because the store hasn't been open for awhile, and I haven't done the work on that machine in awhile. And holes in my documentation, because other people worked on the store pc too.

About all I got from your post was:
Running Mint 21.2
Networked connected printer?

What is the make/model of your printer?
How are you trying to add the printer? Via cups web interface or using Mint's Printers app?
Look at the output of the command:

/usr/sbin/lpinfo -v

Does it detect the printer and if so post that particular line.

Sorry. Wirelessly connected printer. Networked. I'm trying to use the printer app in settings from mint. Need to go back to there before I can run that command. I think I'll have to install it first too. I don't need help doing that, but I'd like to know what the command does as well. On my laptop, it's not installed, so it's probably not on my office machine either.

Can't tell you the model of computer. I don't know how to find that out. But I may be able to get you detailed hardware information, if that would help. Just need to be back there first. Maybe Saturday???

90+% of the time the make and model number is found somewhere on the top or front facing side of home printers.

lpinfo is a cups utility which should be installed by default that displays devices found. It usually is located in /usr/sbin. Technically it is depreciated but I don't think it will be removed until cups version 3 is released. You also need cups-browsed and avahi running.

A socket:// uri would indicate the printer is using port 9100 to communicate. If using a really restricted firewall it might block traffic.

Oh! The make and model of the printer! The printer in question, is HP Envy 4500. It's a printer/copier/scanner and possibly fax. What I don't know is the model of the computers in question. But I think I can get those, with a program, but I forgot right now, which one. My laptop has the model written on the back in small print, but for now, I'm not going to turn it over and read it. I don't know if the model of the computer (office desktop computer), is written anywhere. When I can, I can get back there, and see.

Yes, it's installed. I mistyped the name, when I ran the command. I think I have to run it from there, as it's output doesn't make sense, for there, but makes sense for here. On my machines, I should right now, have no firewall, but I can't confirm that right now. If we think that's an issue, we can check when we have reason to believe that. Thanks!

Sorry I meant printer.

The Envy 4500 is supported by hplip min version 3.13.6. I don't know what version of hplip is installed on Mint 21. Running hplip-setup should setup the printer.

It could be supported by IPP everywhere but it isn't listed on their website. If it is then a printer queue should be automatically created.

I'll try that.

I'm usually there on Wednesdays, but I think today, I'm going to first do some more cleaning. Then, I can look into going tommorrow.

I'm here now, attempting to try things.

lpinfo -v

network ipp
network http
network ipps
network https
direct hp
network beh
network lpd
file cups-brf:/
network socket
serial serial:/dev/ttyS0?baud=115200
serial serial:/dev/ttyS4?baud=115200
network smb
direct hpfax

It does not appear to be automatically detected. Is it on or in deep sleep?

Is it on the same subnet as the Mint computer?

hplip-setup is not found. I checked and the hplip package is installed, it is labeled in the store as a system package. I installed hplip-gui, and that command is not found either.

On the other machine, it was upgraded from mint 20.??, I think. This machine which has issues was installed from 21.1 or 21.2. I think one of those.

I remember that when I upgraded my machine, the laptop, I had to manually do something to fix my issue with the printer. I will try to print a test page.

I can't get past the username and password page. To be fair, I don't think I know if I'm entering what it expects.

We reset the other machine (Windows 10), the printer was on, it's Microsoft Account password. I won't post the password here, but I entered the domain (Workgroup) MAIN, or main.htmain, two backslashes (\\), and the microsoft account username, most recently, and it's correct password.

Even if I enter the same URI, as the other machine, I can't get past that part of the step. I'm still trying to use the provided Mint GUI, since that's all I know, for modern printing on Mint, other than what you told me.

To make sure you know, whereis or locate does not return hplip-setup or hplip-gui. There is only one update left to be completely updated, a flatpak, base package.

The hplip package, looks like the version requirements are fine.

Just saw your response. I'll check if it's on the same subnet or not.

What exactly are you doing that asks for a password? Since Mint like Ubuntu disables root it is most likely your administrator password i.e. the user created when mint was installed.