Some notes on the HP Photosmart C4280 (or CUPS vs. hplip)

[thundersteele]

Hi,

bought that all-in-one printer yesterday, finally printed the first page some minutes ago (most time was consumed by system upgrades (X server, pam))

So I installed the newest hplip (2.7.9, ~x86 masked), worked through all the accompanying upgrades and problems.
Started hp-setup, printer was found and configured (C4200 driver), hp-toolbox gives me the amount of ink, and also scanning was working. However, as soon as I tried to print the test page, Cups told me that "open device failed; will retry in 30 seconds...". I also noticed that I had no "/dev/usb/lp*", somehow the printer got disconnected (still I could scan).
Retried several times, rebooting, reemerging stuff, nothing changed.

Finally I removed all printers from cups, did a reboot, opened cups/administration (NOT hp-setup). There was a button saying new printer detected, HP Photosmart C4200, would you like to install? Pressed button, installed printer, and its printing. ALready survived a reboot without failing.

Both printer setups are using the same driver, hpijs, but the setup is slightly different. For you to compare:

This is working: (setup 1 by Cups)

Code: Select all

HP_Photosmart_C4200_series_USB_1 (Default Printer)  	
Description: HP Photosmart C4200 series
Location: Local Printer
Make and Model: HP PhotoSmart C4200 Foomatic/hpijs (recommended)
Printer State: idle, accepting jobs, published. 
Device URI: usb://HP/Photosmart%20C4200%20series?serial=MY77NJP1Y704VP

This is not working: (setup 2 using hp-setup)

Code: Select all

Photosmart_C4200 "open device failed; will retry in 30 seconds..." 	
Description: 
Location: 
Make and Model: HP PhotoSmart C4200 Foomatic/hpijs (recommended)
Printer State: processing, accepting jobs, published. 
Device URI: hp:/usb/Photosmart_C4200_series?serial=MY77NJP1Y704VP

Note that the first printer does not show up in hp-toolbox. There it says something like "only printers setup with the hp-cups-backend will show up in hp-toolbox."

The only clear difference is the device URI, so I think that is causing the problems in the second case.


EDIT: It is even worse. Once I setup the second configuration with hp-setup and try to print a document, the following happens:

Code: Select all

dmesg:
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: removed

none working now anymore.
Solution now is to disconnect the printer manually, remove all jobs from the second setup (or better: delete the whole setup), then reconnect and restart the printer (setup 1), now it is printing again.


So something is wrong (at least on my machine) with the way hp-setup sets the printer devices. I've seen people with similar problems here, so probably this is of use for someone. But probably its just my improperly updated machine that is behaving so funny.

[hielvc]

Thanks to your post I setup my c42000. I'm not having any probs with cups or hplip-2.7.9-r1. What I did was read your post
1 Startup cups and add to default level.
2 Ran hp-setup and set it up. Printed test page.
3 Went into cups and went to manage printers. The only printer I have and that was shown was the c4200. and printed the test page.
Heres my hp-setup session.

sudo hp-setup

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 2.7.9)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 7.0

Copyright (c) 2001-7 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

warning: No display found. Reverting to interactive mode.

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 2.7.9)
Services and Status Daemon ver. 9.2

Copyright (c) 2001-7 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

(Note: Defaults for each question are maked with a '*'. Press <enter> to accept the default.)


--------------------------
| CHOOSE CONNECTION TYPE |
--------------------------

Num. Connection Connection Type Description
Type
----------- ----------- ----------------------------------------
0* usb Universal Serial Bus (USB)
1 net Network/Ethernet/Wireless (direct
connection or JetDirect)
2 par Parallel Port (LPT:)

Enter number 0...2 for connection type (q=quit, enter=usb*) ? 0

Using connection type: usb

--------------------
| DEVICE DISCOVERY |
--------------------

Using device: hp:/usb/Photosmart_C4200_series?serial=MY721CP0RX04VP

Setting up device: hp:/usb/Photosmart_C4200_series?serial=MY721CP0RX04VP


|
---------------------
| PRINT QUEUE SETUP |
---------------------


Please enter a name for this print queue (m=use model name:'Photosmart_C4200'*, q=quit) ?m
Using queue name: Photosmart_C4200

Found a possible PPD file: /usr/share/cups/model/foomatic-ppds/HP/HP-PhotoSmart_C4200-hpijs.ppd.gz
Desc: HP PhotoSmart C4200 Foomatic/hpijs

Note: The model number may vary slightly from the actual model number on the device.

Does this PPD file appear to be the correct one (y=yes*, n=no, q=quit) ? y
Enter a location description for this printer (q=quit) ?desk
Enter additonal information or notes for this printer (q=quit) ?<I just hit ENTER here>

Adding print queue to CUPS:
Device URI: hp:/usb/Photosmart_C4200_series?serial=MY721CP0RX04VP
Queue name: Photosmart_C4200
PPD file: /usr/share/cups/model/foomatic-ppds/HP/HP-PhotoSmart_C4200-hpijs.ppd.gz
Location: desk
Information:


---------------------
| PRINTER TEST PAGE |
---------------------


Would you like to print a test page (y=yes*, n=no, q=quit) ? y

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 2.7.9)
Testpage Print Utility ver. 5.0

Copyright (c) 2001-7 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.


Printing test page to printer Photosmart_C4200...
Test page has been sent to printer.

note: If an error occured, or the test page failed to print, refer to the HPLIP website
note: at: http://hplip.sourceforge.net for troubleshooting and support.

Done.
Done.

Heres what Cups says

Description:
Location: desk
Make and Model: HP PhotoSmart C4200 Foomatic/hpijs (recommended)
Printer State: idle, accepting jobs, published.
Device URI: hp:/usb/Photosmart_C4200_series?serial=MY721CP0RX04VP

I do have foomatic-db-ppds, foomatic-filters and foomatic-filters-ppds installed. I run ~x86 and am pretty current.

EDIT I checked and my PPD file was installed by hplip.

[thundersteele]

thnx for your answer.

I'll try it again later. My system is quite outdated, I think I'll be working on that in the next days.