[SOLVED] How to connect to wireless HP printer

[Dennola4]

Hi guys,

I have no experience with printing from my personal laptop, but my new job requires it. I'm running Salix XFCE 13.1 on a Dell Inspiron 6000, the printer I would like to connect to is an HP Photosmart C3485 All-in-One. In my attempts to connect, I first went to Settings>XFCE 4 Printing System Settings and chose CUPS (vs: none or BSD-LPR). I then went to System>Manage Printing>Find New Printers and saw none. I then tried to change a server setting, enter user name instead of root, and now I seem to be permanently locked out of admin.

I give up. Please tell me what to do so as to connect to this network printer and print from it. I have Googled but come up with nothing concrete and I don't want to screw up my system. Thanks.

[aurlaent]

For my HP printer I used

Code: Select all

hp-setup -i

and followed the prompts.

[knome]

If CUPS locks you out of admin due to incorrect user/password just close your browser and restart System > Manage Printing. You may also have to delete any lingering CUPS browser cookies.

[Dennola4]

Okay, I tried what you suggested, and this was the result:

dennis[~]$ hp-setup -i

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HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.10.2)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 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.)


--------------------------------
| SELECT CONNECTION (I/O) TYPE |
--------------------------------

  Num       Connection  Description                                               
            Type                                                                  
  --------  ----------  ----------------------------------------------------------
  0*        usb         Universal Serial Bus (USB)                                
  1         net         Network/Ethernet/Wireless (direct connection or JetDirect)

Enter number 0...1 for connection type (q=quit, enter=usb*) ? 1

Using connection type: net

error: No device selected/specified or that supports this functionality.

....and yes, the wireless is up on the device.

[aurlaent]

Ah,I did forget one thing.
My printer is already connected to the network.
I set that up on a windows machine.

If your printer is not connected to the network, try having a look here.
Some printers also have the fancy WPS button, but mine doesn't and the wireless access point would have to support it too.

[Dennola4]

Okay. I am back at work and trying the posted suggestions. Per aurlaent's posted link, I ran hp-setup and walked through all of the steps in the Wizard. Here is the result:

Code: Select all

dennis[~]$ hp-setup

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.10.2)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 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.

Searching on USB bus...
 
HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.10.2)
System Tray Status Service ver. 2.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 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.

/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py:127: RuntimeWarning: PyOS_InputHook is not available for interactive use of PyGTK
  set_interactive(1)
Searching... (bus=net, timeout=5, ttl=4, search=(None) desc=0, method=mdns)
error: No devices found on bus: net
Searching on USB bus...
error: GetHostname returned an error: executionfailed
Searching... (bus=net, timeout=5, ttl=4, search=(None) desc=0, method=mdns)
error: No devices found on bus: net

What do I do? I REALLY need to print from my laptop. Using a Windows machine isn't an option, and listening to my employer talk about how his Mac "just does it" is starting to annoy me. As a Linux user I do not mind the extra work and the tinkering, but I am in the dark here and need a working solution. Any help to this end will be greatly appreciated.

[aurlaent]

OK, I am unclear about what stage you have got to.

Is your printer already connected to your network? If so, can you connect to it by IP address?

If you plug the printer in by USB, can you set it up with either CUPS or hp-setup?

[Dennola4]

OK, I am unclear about what stage you have got to.
Is your printer already connected to your network?

Yes. I printed the HP Network Configuration Status directly from the printer's control panel and it confirms connection and lists specific information about the network.

If so, can you connect to it by IP address?

I haven't tried because I do not know how to do that.

If you plug the printer in by USB, can you set it up with either CUPS or hp-setup?

My previous attempts have not been successful, although I am not sure that the steps I have taken are correct. Again, this is the first time since first using Slackware in the 90's that I am attempting to connect a linux box to a printer. I have no familiarity with the printer/computer relationship, hence the post.

Thanks.

[aurlaent]

Yes. I printed the HP Network Configuration Status directly from the printer's control panel and it confirms connection and lists specific information about the network.

Excellent.

I haven't tried because I do not know how to do that.

The first thing to do is try pinging it, then typing the printer's IP address into your web browser. I get a "web scan console".
This will verify that your laptop can actually see the printer on the network.

Then try

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hp-setup -i <printer's IP address>

If all of this is still failing, you can try plugging the printer in by USB and running hp-setup.

[Dennola4]

Hi there. Not sure why my last response didn't go through.... but here it is again:

I was able to ping, was able to see the device on the browser, so I ran HP set up and got the following:

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dennis[~]$ hp-setup -i 192.168.0.6

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.10.2)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 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.)


Setting up device: hp:/net/Photosmart_C4380_series?ip=192.168.0.6



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


Please enter a name for this print queue (m=use model name:'Photosmart_C4380'*, q=quit) ?m
Using queue name: Photosmart_C4380
Locating PPD file... Please wait.
error: No PPD found for model photosmart_c4380 using new algorithm. Trying old algorithm...

Found PPD file: drv:///hp/hpcups.drv/hp-photosmart_c4380_series.ppd
Enter a location description for this printer (q=quit) ?work
Enter additonal information or notes for this printer (q=quit) ?

Adding print queue to CUPS:
Device URI: hp:/net/Photosmart_C4380_series?ip=192.168.0.6
Queue name: Photosmart_C4380
PPD file: drv:///hp/hpcups.drv/hp-photosmart_c4380_series.ppd
Location: work
Information: 
error: Printer queue setup failed. Please restart CUPS and try again.
dennis[~]$